Day 20: Finish Your Beat

Work Session: Part 1 — Review

Open the GarageBand project you started on Thursday. You should already have two tracks recorded and quantized:

• Track 1 — Kick drum (C1): Quarter notes on every beat (1, 2, 3, 4).
• Track 2 — Snare drum (D1): On beats 2 and 4 — the “backbeat.”

Press spacebar and listen. If either track still sounds off, re-quantize using 1/4 Note before moving on.

You can also re-record notes using Musical Typing (Command + K).

We will set up the MIDI controllers in a minute. Like yesterday, you will need to take turns using musical typing and the MIDI controller.

Work Session: Part 2 — Add the Hi-Hat

What is a Hi-Hat?

The closed hi-hat is the steady pulse that sits on top of a beat — it’s the “ch-ch-ch-ch” sound you hear in almost every style of popular music. In a four-on-the-floor pattern, the hi-hat plays straight eighth notes: every half-beat, counted “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &.”

MIDI Note

The closed hi-hat is mapped to F#1. See the MIDI Mappings page if you need a reminder.

Steps

1. Add a new Software Instrument track (click the + button, choose Software Instrument).
2. Open Musical Typing (Command + K) or use the MIDI controller.
3. Shift down to octave 1 if needed (Z in Musical Typing).
4. Press record and play F#1 as a steady eighth-note pulse — “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &” — for four full measures.
5. Listen back. It should feel like a steady tick layered over the kick and snare.

Quantize the Hi-Hat

Because hi-hats are eighth notes, use a 1/8 Note grid — not 1/4. Using 1/4 would collapse your eighth notes onto the beat and erase half of them.

1. Select the hi-hat region.
2. Open the Piano Roll (E).
3. Set Time Quantize to 1/8 Note.
4. Listen back — the hi-hats should lock into an even pulse.

Work Session: Part 3 — Your Choice Sound

Now add a fourth track with any drum or cymbal you want. This is your chance to give the beat some personality.

Options

Steps

1. Add another new Software Instrument track.
2. Pick a note from the table above and decide on a simple repeating pattern — for example, a crash on beat 1 of every measure, or a ride on every quarter note.
3. Record your pattern for four measures.
4. Quantize: choose 1/4 Note or 1/8 Note depending on what you played.

Listen to the Full Beat

With all four tracks playing, listen to your complete four-on-the-floor beat. Adjust volumes if one sound is drowning out the others (drag the volume knob on each track).