Friday lunchtime. The weekend still seems so far away. You're 22 years old, or you're 12. Whether you're at school or working in an office, chances are you'll be looking forward to 'hometime' and the chance to put on your favourite tunes. But you needn't wait that long. In fact, you could be composing your own - as long as you've got an internet connection, CD-Rom drive or games console, and a decent pair of headphones.

Very little talent is required for the majority of the free interactive music programs available on the web. Downloadable programs such as the Db7x7 mixer from ss7x7.com involve the player only in choosing tracks and 'tweaking' them, then crossfading each saved track into one another, as a DJ would mix records.

Similarly easy to master is Groove Blender, one of a number of downloads that allows players to create tracks from 'blocks' of music, all time-matched in 4-beat. It's much like LEGO, with various blocks, standing for different basslines, guitar riffs, beats and effects, built into a long layered 'wall'. Groove Blender is a great timewaster for lunchtime, with hip-hop, electronica or funk tunes to construct.

However, these applications introduce users to music-making methodology only loosely. Of course, a good PC with the relevant software and soundcard can become a music studio in itself. But for the more casual user, some fairly sophisticated programs have been available for standard PCs and PlayStation-style consoles for a long time.

Music 2000/2001 and the MTV Music Generator programs perform a similar function to Groove Blender - music as building blocks - but have far more diversity and vast libraries of samples. Want to mix a funky bassline with stomping drum 'n' bass beats? Click, can do. Thinking of adding some momentous guitar riffs? Stick 'em in! With far more flexibility over how you control your samples, including editing them down, these playful music-making tools are a good introduction to the complexity of music composition using a computer.

With programs like these, you're beginning to learn something about making music. And this is what is really crucial. With traditional instruments such as recorders on the wane in terms of their popularity, more and more young people are going to want to learn how to make music using the kinds of computerised tools they already have access to. According to the recent DfES/Becta second NGfL Pathfinders Report, 22 per cent of secondary school pupils already do use computers in music lessons.¹ There is also an NGfL emailing list (TOP Music) on the subject.

From this learning perspective, possibly the best example of an interactive music application with an explicitly educational aim is the Compose World range from Expressive Software Projects. Music is produced in these products through sequencing pictures or phrases. Users listen to the sounds associated with each image or phrase, then experiment with combinations and order to produce interesting compositions.

The same 'building blocks' model as Groove Blender and Music 2000 applies, but Compose World also highlights the importance of listening skills, and the Junior edition makes explicit links to the QCA Information Technology Key Stage 1 and 2 module, 'Manipulating Sound'. The more advanced Compose World 2 allows users to add notes using a MIDI keyboard and record in real-time or step-time, plus has the benefit of a 'phrase editor' to allow for more sophisticated manipulation of sound.

The Compose World tools are both creative and educational, requiring users to reflect on their composition decisions, their choice of 'instruments' and rhythms. But once their potential has been exhausted, where next for the aspirant electronic musician?

Already established as the leading brand for this group is the eJay range of PC products. Running through a stylish interface and with a huge library of royalty-free samples for users to choose from, products from Dance eJay to Hip Hop eJay look, feel and (most importantly) sound professional standard. Additionally, the large back catalogue is exceptionally good value, with add-on CDs featuring more samples also available.

Magix Music Maker 2003 fulfils a similar function, allowing users to also add their own live instruments and vocals to the mix. Less overtly educational, Magix and eJay products are nonetheless accessible, fun, and ideal for practising before (if the user wants) progressing on to the infinitely more complex and expensive Cubase or Logic systems.

There is another side to music available through a computer. Not only have graphics become useful interfaces for sophisticated programs, but the web has spawned a large collection of interactive music art. For a sample selection of these, it is worth checking out soundtoys.net, a site featuring graphic art attached to music or sounds, where exploration of the graphics matches exploration of the music.

Likewise, Squidsoup's altzero range of projects present music as 3D graphic spaces: depending on one's navigation around those spaces, the music adapts and morphs to reflect the mood of the images and the virtual location of the user.

And finally, a curious twist to computerised music occurs in the space between music composition and video games. Something of a cult hit on the PlayStation2, Rez is part shoot-'em-up and part composition tool. By shooting enemy 'viruses' players gradually experience more layered sounds, and vibrations through their handsets. The official website calls it 'indescribably great' and says, 'music and rhythm will be dancing around your senses with breathtaking reality'; it is indescribable, but neither great nor breathtaking.

In Frequency, another PS2 game, players 'race' around a music track, collecting bars of music, until the track, or song is complete. Like a slightly abstract Wipeout set to music by established artists, it won the BAFTA Interactive 2001 Lifestyle and Leisure award.

Muzantiks, a NESTA-funded project, also incorporates game-style graphics as an interface to a music program. Specifically designed for the Key Stage 2 curriculum, Muzantiks bridges science and music, allowing players to experiment with rhythm and composition in playful scenarios such as the Rhythm Kitchen, and is populated with bright, cheery characters as well as simple control mechanisms to enhance its appeal to youngsters.

Music played through a computer is diverse and, taking fun as one of its core principles, allows young users to explore music in ways they have not previously been able, and to experiment with sound and rhythm without the long grunt work associated with learning a traditional instrument.

Of course, computerised music has its limitations. Michael Hawley of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recalls, 'I'm the one who once tried to enter a computerised player piano in the Tchaikovsky Competition, because you could apply by a tape audition... I didn't make the cut. But you know, Bach used to say that it's not so hard to play the organ; you just have to push the right button at the right time. It's tantalizingly computable, and yet..."²

There are those who quibble over the merits of computerised music. But what do Bach and Tchaikovsky mean to the budding musicians of today? And indeed why should they care? Music composed through a computer is far from easy, and its learning curves are steep and challenging to the young creative mind. Let them 'play'.

Notes:

1. Becta. 2nd NGfL Pathfinders Report. 2002.
www.becta.org.uk/research/impact2
2. Michael Hawley. Discover. Vol 24. No 2. February 2003.
www.discover.com/issues/feb-03/features/roundtable

Links:

TOP Music email list - forum.ngfl.gov.uk/WebX/top-music
Db7x7 mixer - www.ss7x7.com
Groove Blender - www.shockwave.com/sw/content/grooveblender
Music 2000 PC demo - www.gamesdomain.com/demos/demo/1102.html
Expressive Software Projects - www.espmusic.co.uk
eJay - www.ejay-uk.com/
Magix Music Maker 2003 - usa.magix.com/index.php?id=234
Soundtoys - www.soundtoys.net/
Squidsoup/altzero - www.squidsoup.com, www.altzero.com


March 2003