How do I get the instruments back to where I can play them after clicking the red close button?

zacfranklin, you mean, you closed the GarageBand application window by pressing the red button in the "traffic light"? Then double click the GarageBand icon in the Dock, to open launch the application again. What you will see after launching GB will depend on the version you have. What is your version? Going by your tags, you are having them all? 😕

If your problem is, that the GarageBand icon in the Dock is missing, type "GarageBand" into the SpotLight searchfield in the upper right corner of the screen and launch GarageBand from the drop down menu. Or open the "Applications" folder from the Finder and select GarageBand to launch it. Once it is running again, ctrl-click the icon in the Dock, select "Options" and select "Keep in Dock"

Regards

Léonie