Google has a new addition to its Chrome Music Lab project called Song Maker, in honor of the National Association for Music Education’s Music In Our Schools Month. As with previous Music Lab experiments, there are no apps to download or software to install to get started. Users simply need to navigate to ‘g.co/songmaker’ from any browser-enabled computer or mobile device to get started – or click the button at the bottom of this article. Anybody can get in on the fun with no account creation or sign-in required. Better still, creations can be saved or shared directly through the site.
As to the experiment itself, Song Maker is effectively a grid which allows participants to click and fill squares which represent musical notes. Users are free to mess around with different ways to fill those in, from attempts to create or recreate a specific tune, to just drawing something and seeing what that drawing sounds like. Microphone, keyboard, and MIDI keyboard inputs are available, as well, for those who want to change things up a bit. For those modes, corresponding notes filled in automatically as a user presses keys, talks, or sings or hums a tune. Along the bottom of the page, there are separate lines for filling songs out further with basic drum beats. Meanwhile, both main notes and drums can be altered in tone. For primary sounds, users can choose from the marimba, piano, strings, woodwind, or synth. Drum beats can take on life as either an electronics, blocks, conga drum or a classic kit. Taking things just a bit further, users can also play with tone, octave range, and scale. Best of all, songs can be shared and collaborated on, without ever having to save anything or log in.
For those who may not already be aware, Chrome Music Lab is intended to provide interactive experiments that just inspire a love of music through visual stimulation and exploration. Perhaps more importantly, they are generally supposed to show the ways that music can be connected to other subjects like art, science, and math – with many teachers across the world using the tools, according to the company. Google has been pursuing the realm of music experimentation for quite some time now and this latest addition brings the total number of available experiments to thirteen.
Check Out Song Maker