Drag it right and everything plays faster. Slow feels heavy, fast feels busy. Nothing breaks either way.
This is your song from start to finish. Each block is one bar, and the little coloured lines inside show what is playing in it — drums on top, then bass, chords and melody. The block lights up as it plays.
Left to right is time. Each row is one sound.
Each row is one drum sound. The sixteen squares across are sixteen moments, played in order from left to right, then it loops. Switch a square on and that sound happens at that moment.
Higher up the grid is a higher sound.
The same grid, but these make a tune rather than a beat. One note at a time in each lane, which keeps the layers clear instead of muddy.
Swaps which notes exist. Your pattern stays; the feeling changes.
Music gets its feeling from which notes are allowed. Sad uses a minor scale, Happy a major one. You are not learning names yet — you are hearing the difference that makes.
How loud each layer sits against the others.
Balance is most of what a producer does. If everything is at full volume nothing stands out. Try pulling a layer down rather than pushing another up.
Nudges every second square late, so it stops sounding like a machine.
This is called swing. Straight is exact and mechanical; swung is how most blues, jazz, hip hop and house actually feel. Real drummers do it without thinking.
Swap “low 1, mid 2” for what musicians actually call them.
Every note has a letter name from A to G, and a small ♭ means slightly lower. The same seven letters repeat as you climb, which is why C shows up twice on the grid — the higher one is the same note, an octave up.
Ask about music, or about anything on this screen. It can see what you have made, so “why does mine sound empty” gets an answer about your song and not a general one.
Asking questions needs a connection. Everything else here works without one.
These tick themselves off as you make music. There is nothing to collect and no reason to rush — the ones still empty are ideas worth trying, not homework.
Anything at all. Even if it sounds impossible.
Only what is written in the box below gets sent, and only when you press a button. It is all plain text so you can read every word of it first. Your name is not in it, and nothing is sent anywhere by itself.
What did you like? What was confusing? Anything you wish it did?
Songs are kept in this browser only. Copy the line of text to move one anywhere else.
Let’s make a piece of music together.
You don’t need to know anything about music. A couple of minutes.