Music Theory
Music theory.net: Generic Intervals
A thorough description of generic intervals with a printable chart at the end of the lesson. MusicTheory.net provides illustrated examples, and highlighted vocabulary terms. (You may need to download Flash Player to view this site.)
PBS
Pbs: Elements of Music: Exploring the Composer's Tools
This online lesson plan will help students understand how composers write music by engaging in a project which culminates in their own compositions.
OpenStax
Open Stax: Catherine Schmidt Jones: Scoring Music: Write for Specific Instruments
If you are interested in arranging your own music, you should check out the tips offered at this website. Including a history of how music was arranged, this site also gives several good ideas of how to make your arrangements interesting.
PBS
Pbs Kids Go: Chuck Vanderchuck "Something Something" Explosion!
Interactive site that teaches kids about jazz, jazz instruments, and writing jazz music. Includes games,videos, and lots of great sounds.
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
Alan Belkin Music: On Learning Musical Craft
Alan Belkin provides four of his pedagogical booklets about composing music. They discuss fundamental principles of musical composition, counterpoint, orchestration, and harmony. and provide guidance to student composers.
McMaster University
Mc Master University: Music Composition for Beginners
A brief site on the advent of technology changing how music is written (and by whom) forever. One bad point is that for most of the links to work, you have to figure out for yourself where they go and type it in.
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...
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.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Arts Edge: Composing With Solfege
Through solfege, students will create their own musical compositions as Maria did in the musical The Sound of Music.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: I Could Be the Next Beethoven
In this lesson, students write the words and compose a melody for a school alma mater.
Other
Virtual Composer
Compose music with this interesting online tool. To compose, you click small boxes on a grid. The grid is continuously scanned with a line that passes over your clicked boxes which in turn plays their sounds. You can listen to other...
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.
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
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
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
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
The Official George Crumb Home Page
The official site, with sections devoted to his life, compositions, recordings, writings, and news. The news section has internet links, and the site has a search function!
San Diego State University
Four Part Rummy
A fun card game that you can create for your music class. Students should first be given instruction on the various instruments and their ranges. Then students will be given the card game to help them remember and reinforce the concept...
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Learning Through the Duke
Describe the life of Duke Ellington and his contributions to the field of jazz, write an original poem using a variety of popular vocabulary from the 1920's and respond to Ellington's composition "Mood Indigo" by creating a painting.
PBS
Pbs: The Blues as Poetry
Discover what the relationship is between poetry and the blues. This site features lesson plans and online resources.
PBS
Pbs: Caillou's Magic Keyboard
This site allows young children to explore composition using elements supplied by the program, to create short, original musical pieces. The instructions are read aloud.
Other
Writingsongs
Provides information about composing music and songwriting. Of interest is the Tips & Information section where there are several articles of advice about songwriting.