Hw can I determine the pitch and tempo to be set for a song?

: I have ready with me a number of songs which I have composed, but I do not know what their musical attributes are...having received no training in music!

"ready with me" - what do you mean? Do you have sheet music, audio file, or in what way do you hve your compositions?

Whenever I open a new project in GB, I have to set the pitch and tempo for the project beforehand itself...am asked to do so.

You can start with any tempo and key signature and change it anytime later from the project settings in the LED display. Just start with the most promising settings and change them later.

The Loop browser should give you an idea what the different keys and tempo settings will sound like.

To get started, I'd create a basic rhythm track from the Loop browser and sing or hum the song to this track, to get a feeling for the right tempo and key.

be able to sing the 'rough song' in Garage band to the accompaniment of a basic rhythm. Any ideas of how this can be done will be welcome.

You may be able to find out the the tempo of your song with the aid of a click track, but to find a suitable key for the song and key changes, you need to know a lot about harmonies. And GarageBand does not support the analysis of a song, to determine the key. Melodyne lor Logic Pro X could do that - show you a notation view of your vocal Track. The usual way to find out the key of a song is to listen to it and to recognize the harmonies, but that takes a lot of training

To get you started, I'd suggest the following.

• Create a new GarageBand project and use the tempo and key settings of another of your songs, that has a similar tempo and mood.
• Create a vocal track and disable "Follow tempo and Pitch".
• Sing your song and record it.
• Now create a second vocal track.
• Play the song and listen and clap beats to the rhythm of the song.
• Record the claps to the second track.
• Adjust the tempo in the Master Tracks "Tempo" automation to to align the beats with the measures.

Then you can add rhythm loops (drum loops from the loop browser) to generate an accompaniment conforming to the tempo you found.

Thanks for all this information. I can only vaguely understand what you have outlined.

I am sorry - it is difficult for me to explain, if I cannot assume that you have a musical training.

Is the first step you have asked...'using the tempo and key settings of another of my songs' a necessary one? Can I go ahead with the rest of the steps omitting the first?

You have to set some values for tempo and song key. Finding a song, that is similar to a new song you want to create, and were you have written sheet music with the song key and tempo would give you a good first guess for the values to pick. But go ahead and use the default settings of GarageBand.

Then you can add rhythm loops (drum loops from the loop browser) to generate an accompaniment conforming to the tempo you found.

That is what I tried to describe in the second half of my post: A click track is a track similar to a metronom. You sound out the beats of your song by clicking or clapping and record this as a "click track". Adjust the Master Track "Tempo" automation curve, so that you will have four of your or claps in each measure. This way GarageBands tempo setting will follow the tempo of your song.

Now you can drag loops from the loop browser to create an accompaniment. It will follow the tempo changes. I suggested the drums or other percussion instruments, because for these instruments the song key will not matter.

How to adjust the Master Track Tempo: From the "Track" menu > Show Master Track; then set the Pop Up menu in the Track Head to "master Tempo".

You are welcome 🙂

Good luck for your heavenly music projects!