A.5. Tempo

The tempo , the final element of the New Project dialog box, is a measurement of how fast the music plays back. Actually, to be more precise, it's the number of beats per minute that go by during playback.

As you now know, those beats usually represent quarter notes. If GarageBand's tempo control says 60 bpm, that's 60 beats per minute, or one foot tap per second. Clock it with your watch right now. Try singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" with one syllable per second. That's dog slow.

Now try 120 beats per minute, which is what GarageBand proposes for a new song. That's two syllables per second for "Twinkle, Twinkle" ”and just about right, as you'll hear.