Other
Composing Music Using Computers
Understanding MIDI, digital audio, and how to compose using both. Although this site is from 1996, much of the information remains relevant.
Other
Musical Math
This site includes 14 activities which explore how math and music are related. Great exercise opportunity for any student to sharpen their math and musical skills.
Other
The Golden Rules of Songwriting
Do you have the desire to begin writing music but don't know how to get started? This well written article provides some very good advice to help you on your way.
PBS
Pbs Kids: Sid the Science Kid: Sandbox Symphony
Make an interesting musical composition by choosing from a menu of traditional and nontraditonal instruments.
Other
Rock Instrumental Songwriting
Aimed primarily at the young guitarist, this column addresses how to begin writing your own songs. There is some good advice on how to begin to think of the structure of your song as opposed to just thinking of a few riffs.
Other
Structural Chord Progressions
When composing music, it is good to be sure you have the right set of chords surrounding your melody. This column provides a brief overview on how to begin to think of chord structures for your songs.
Other
Using Theme and Variation in Composing
A good article on how to take a musical idea and develop it further using theme and variations. Included are a few music samples in written form and mp3 form that help to explain the concept.
Other
Compositional Inspiration
Without going into specifics, this article provides general ideas on how to begin writing your own music. A few of the ideas discussed are recording yourself playing around, learn a new scale or pattern, and apply some new music theory...
Other
Guitar Nine: So You Want to Be a Songwriter?
As the title suggests, this column deals with songwriting. It does not tell you specifically how to write a song, but it does cover a lot of good information and advice and how to get started.
Other
Writing Guitar Licks
You have just written a cool guitar lick and you want to play it in your favorite song, however, it just doesn't sound good in the song. This article explains how you can break down your lick into the key components and refine it to suit...
Other
Musink: Beautiful Sheet Music, Fast
Musink Lite is a 'free' music-composition software package for Windows, that lets you write music at unprecedented speeds. Musink lets you create anything from orchestral scores to short-musical-snippets, to exercise books. Musink will...
University of California
Ucla: Popular American Music
See images and find out about the original sheet music from the early 1900's. Famous songs such as "Dapper Dan", "Down the River", and more. You can search for music by title or author.