Google is always trying out new ideas and creating experiments. Chrome Music Lab is a collection of music creation tools that are simple, but fun. Song Maker is the latest music addition.
Some of Google’s experiments catch on, but others don’t. Chrome Music Lab has been around for some time and it is said to be popular with schools, so it is likely to stick around. It is not just for school kids and it is for everyone that would like to experiment with music creation without the expense or complexity of professional music software.
The website now contains 13 tools for experimenting with different aspects of sound, music and rhythms. Don’t worry if you don’t know the first thing about music because it is aimed at novices and not music professionals. It is a great place to begin learning how music works.
Some of the music experiments include Rhythm, Chords, Sound Waves, Arpeggios, Voice Spinner and Harmonics, and there are several more. Let’s take a look at the newest addition to the collection.
Song Maker
Song Maker is a new Chrome Music Lab experiment and it enables you to create short pieces of music simply by clicking on a grid of squares measuring 32 across by 16 down.
Each horizontal row is like a separate track in which music can appear and there are 16 from top to bottom of the screen. Clicking in a square adds a note of music and a splash of colour.
The higher up the grid the square is, the higher the note. You can build chords by clicking multiple squares in the same column, or create a melody running across the rows.
Down at the bottom are the instrument controls and clicking the left icon selects either marimba, piano, strings, woodwind or synth. Clicking in the top 14 rows of the grid fills them with colour and plays the note from the selected instrument.
The bottom two rows of he grid are for drums and the right icon selects Blocks, Kit, Conga, or Electronic. Select the instrument and click in the bottom two rows to add the percussion sounds.
Paint music with the mouse
Clicking on squares in the grid to make patterns creates music. You can click individual squares or click and drag with the mouse to paint in the grid.
The large play button in the bottom left corner enables you to play your music creation and hear what it sounds like.
Your first attempts to create music will probably be awful, but Song Maker is designed for experimentation. You can try different combinations of notes and see which works best. Just compose your music by ear and what sounds good.
Dragging the Tempo slider at the bottom speeds up or slows down the music.
Customise the music settings
Click the gear icon at the bottom and you can customise the settings. For example, the length of the music can be extended to 16 bars. The number of beats per bar ranges from two to seven and the scale can be major, pentatonic or chromatic. It can start on Middle, low or high A to G#.
By default there are two octaves of notes, but the range can be set from one to three. Maxing the bars and octaves increases the grid size and results in more scope to be creative with your music making. You can make longer and more complex music.
The Save button saves your music creation as a web link and this can be shared in Facebook and Twitter or copied to the clipboard and shared anywhere.
This is a fascinating way to spend an hour or so and it is a lot of fun creating songs that you can share with friends.
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