Appendix 2: Making Music with Apps, Websites, and Software

Being creative and exploring the intersection of the Bible and music are things you should participate in and not merely learn about on a theoretical level. A great many websites, apps, and software programs can assist you in that process in whatever form you care to engage in it.

For online music-making using websites where you don’t need to download and install anything, you might try Chrome Music Lab, Sampulator, Patternsketch, Beatmaker, BeepBox, and Drumbit. These vary as to whether they let you use a range of instruments or focus on melody, chords, or rhythm. Also fascinating as a highly unusual way of making music is Typatone. Websites come and go, so if you find that any listed here have disappeared or come across new ones that you find are good but not mentioned here, please share that with the author! There are apps that do some of these things, such as Autochords. Many apps require that you pay or continually prompt you to upgrade, but some free ones are impressively good, and many that are free but with limitations on their functionality unless you upgrade are still very useful in their free version. For instance, the iOS app Auxy has enough free sounds and functionality built in to make it useful without a purchase being required.

There are apps that can help you learn an instrument and YouTube videos that can help you learn to sing. In any of those cases, you’ll probably use your phone’s video app to record yourself so you can listen. You might also use a desktop computer program like Audacity or an iOS app like GarageBand and then experiment with adding reverb to your voice.

For writing music and creating a score, there are free programs like MuseScore. You may want to experiment with a free Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). LMMS is a good example of one that is open source and has an impressive range of functionality. GarageBand is great for this as well. Search for “DAW” in the app store and try others. You can find tutorials on how to use these on their websites as well as on YouTube and elsewhere.

Search and explore. Many tools are available today for free that a few decades ago music creators could only dream of and would certainly have paid money for if they existed!