Top tips for recording your music with no budget!
Download your free “no budget” recording guide here:
5 tips for recording your music with no budget
We also launched a series of music industry events for young people – keep an eye on our What’s On page for details of future events.
Below are a few online platforms, apps and resources that support creative composing and songwriting – let us know if you find more and we can add them!
Please note – these are almost always only suitable for young people aged 13 and over, and young people under 18 should always get parents permission before creating any online account and sharing any personal information like names and email addresses.
Created by Sound and Music specifically for under 25s, this toolkit is designed to help you find events, competitions, advice, videos and more to help develop your composing skills.
Helpful songwriting tips plus advice for unsigned and undiscovered musicians
All the different levels of BBC Bitesize Music have composition and songwriting topics
Bebot is a musical instrument that anyone can play using touch control . And it’s all built into a friendly animated robot, who performs your music while you play. Although it looks simple on the outside, inside is a powerful synth engine which lets you create and edit your own sounds and apply effects. Accessible,simple and fun, but not just for beginners. Bebot has been used both on stage and in the studio by accomplished musicians and performers including Dream Theater, How To Destroy Angels and The Flaming Lips. (Also now available for Android)
Free, age 13 and over
Online Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Create, upload, collaborate and share with other users.
Free account, pay for upgrades to access more features, age 13 and over
Online version compatible with Garageband. Create, upload, collaborate and share with other users.
For teachers / schools. Annual fee, create an account for your own pupils
Free, age 13 and over
Great app for creating beats and grooves, electronic music and DJ effects
Free and premium versions available aged 13 -17 with parent/guardian permission, or aged 18 and over
Online “Sibelius” type platform – create, transcribe and playback music scores
Schools and Associates can contact Wiltshire Music Connect to find out about our iPad loans for projects and programmes.
BBC Bitesize – writing your own music
Inspiration for getting started, and advice on experimenting with, and structuring compositions
Trinity College London – composing support video
Composer Chris Lawry looks at helpful ways to spark creativity and combat writer’s block when composing music, including:
- Starting with one of the three pillars of composition, rhythm, melody and harmony
- Choosing a word and taking the letters that are the same as notes to start a melody or bassline
- Building a rhythm through a call and response exercise
Trinity College London – advice from composers
Composers Chris Lawry and Jake Painter give tips and advice on how to get started with composing music
Cove – music making for mental health
“Cove” is a simple, free music making app developed with NHS to help support young people’s emotional health and wellbeing. Suitable for all ages, creates simple loops of mood music, choose melody and percussion instruments against a mood base, and create your own loops to match your mood. Also now being used with older people with dementia.
Freesound is a developing, huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, … released under Creative Commons licenses that allow their free reuse. You can:
- browse the sounds using keywords, including “sounds-like” browsing
- upload and download sounds to and from the database, under the same creative commons license
Young people should not interact with other users on this global database without their parent / guardian’s permission
Teaching resources:
Sound and Music Education page
Sound and Music is the national charity for new music. They have an education programme which includes resources for primary and secondary schools, young composers, summer school / workshop opportunities, professional CPD etc.
Musical Futures free downloads
We like this Musical Futures guide to supporting informal composition – free download and video guide. Check out their other free composing and songwriting resources too.
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
That’s My Music! is a collection of resources to support the teaching and learning of composing in primary schools. . As well as providing guidance around composing with children in the classroom it explores different starting points for composing such as using topics, creative use of ICT in composing, using existing repertoire as a stimulus for children’s own composing, song writing and other composing using voices.
Royal Opera House fanfare writing
What is a fanfare, resources to support writing fanfares, and advice about running a fanfare competition in your school! (Get in touch with us if you do – we’d love to hear about it!)