
Using the onscreen music keyboard
GarageBand includes an onscreen music keyboard you can use to play and record Software Instruments. When you show the onscreen music keyboard, by default it displays four octaves of keys. You can resize the onscreen keyboard up to a maximum of ten octaves.
The onscreen keyboard includes an overview that you can use to quickly change which range of notes the keys play. The overview appears as a miniature keyboard above the main keyboard, with the selected range shown in blue.
To use the onscreen music keyboard:
- To show the onscreen music keyboard, choose Window > Keyboard.
- To play the onscreen keyboard, click the notes on the keyboard. You can click when the project is playing or stopped, and record by clicking during recording. Clicking notes lower on the keys plays the notes with higher velocity, and clicking higher plays them with lower velocity.
- To move the keyboard window, place the pointer anywhere in the space above the keys, and drag.
- To change the size of the onscreen keyboard, drag the resize control In the lower-right corner of the keyboard window.
- To change the range of the onscreen keyboard, do one of the following:
As you click notes, the MIDI status light in the time display lights up.
Drag the blue rectangle in the overview over the range you want to play.
Click an area of the overview outside the blue rectangle to move it to where you clicked.
Click one of the small triangles to the left and right of the keys. Clicking the left triangle lowers the range by an octave, and clicking the right triangle raises the range by an octave.
You can also connect a USB or MIDI music keyboard to your computer to play and record Software Instruments. To learn how, see Related Topics below.
To learn about velocity, see the Glossary.
Related Topics
Connecting a music keyboard to play Software Instruments
