I’ve got rhythm (and more)

It never fails to amaze me to think about how primitive we were in the good ol’ days.  We needed a program for everything to be the most productive.  Huge hard drives and a large inventory of programs were needed to get the most from that digital thingy in front of you.

These days so much has changed and you can do so much in your browser – provided you and your browser know where on the internet to go.  Today, I’m talking about music.  How many can remember the days of needing a separate Soundblaster card and decent external speakers to have your computer generate anything but some tinny sounds from the internal computer speaker?

Now that most everything can be miniaturized and built into the internals of your computer, we just take these things for granted.  That’s what we expect from a computer.  But, I’ll admit to continuing to use my Bose external speakers when I’m docked here to get the best of sound.

And, coding has become so sophisticated with the browser and web combination paying off big time for us.  Technology like the Chrome browser, Web Audio, WebGL, TONE.JS, and PIXI.JS are used to provide the experiences that you can interact with at the Chrome Music Lab.

What strikes me as so helpful for the music learner is how easily the end result works. The first activity deals with rhythm.

Within moments, you’re playing with and exploring rhythm with this very kid-friendly interface.

We’ve come a long way from tapping in rhythm on our desks as the teacher plays piano at the front of the room.  Heck, interfaces have become either so intuitive or we’ve become so accustomed to clicking around that instructions aren’t necessary.

There are 12 music activities at this experiment.  But, I wouldn’t just limit them to music; music happens because of the science involved.

This resource may be just what you’re looking for.