Composing music using computer software

Composing music with computers is fast taking its place alongside the more traditional ways, such as pencil and paper or improvisation. Computer music is now finding its way into many musical genres, including pop, rock, techno, disco, jazz, and music for film. Gone are the days where computer-aided composition could only be carried out in select institutions using equipment far too expensive for any individual to own. The soundcard, now a standard component in most home computers, outperforms systems that were state-of-the-art a mere 10-15 years ago. Current processor speeds enable real-time synthesis and sound processing even on laptop computers. Consumer music software facilitates musical composition through relatively easy-to-use graphical user-interfaces that require no programming skills.

There are various ways in which students can compose their pieces for GCSE. You must try and provide as many different ways as possible. You can sequence tracks that you have composed yourself using a MIDI keyboard and MIDI sounds simply and cheaply. It is when you start adding audio (such as vocals and other music that has been recorded) and effects that the software starts to get more expensive. We have tried to provide you with software that we know offers high quality and diverse ways in which your students and compose and edit complete musicial performances.

Here are 3 different kinds of music software that will enable your students to develop music compositions that they can use for their GCSE coursework. Please remember that these are only recommendations and we are only suggesting software/hardware that we know has been used before in education and is easy to teach and learn.