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Compose classical music on your PC

James Thornton

James Thornton

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If it wasn’t for Pavorotti singing the catchy 1990 World Cup theme, Nessun Dorma, I don’t think I would have ever become interested in classical music. So, after hearing the sad news about the great tenor’s passing, my enthusiasm for the genre has been revived. As a tribute to the big fella I thought I’d compose him a little ditty, and noticed that there’s plenty of software around that can help you compose classical ensembles.

Unfortunately I can’t sing for toffee and my goldfish has more of an ear for music than me. No matter though, because with Sight Singer you can train your voice to become as good as the bearded crooner himself. The program has voice pitch recognition capability and gives you the opportunity to look at a piece of music written down and hear it in your mind. Clever stuff. Once you’ve got this licked, then try Note Attack – a fun game that sees you blasting notes to help you learn to read sheet music.

After learning how to read music, you’re ready to start working on your ode to Pav. I found that Finale is a particularly useful application for creating musical scores. It includes revolutionary features for teaching students how to create, evaluate and shape ideas into songs, arrangements and compositions. Melody Assistant is a slightly more simple composing solution, which boasts its own embedded synthesizer featuring hundreds of different instruments.

Once your composition is complete you might want to have a crack at playing the thing. There are lots of tools you can install to help you learn various instruments, including Piano Hero, Guitar Pro, and the remarkable Bendometer Playing System, which teaches you how to master the harmonica. Now simply gather your instruments together, run Fast&Soft Metronome to keep you in time and give it up for the greatest tenor in history…

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James Thornton

James Thornton

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