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OUR MONTHLY ROUND-UP OF THE WEB’S MOST ILLUMINATING, USEFUL OR JUST-PLAIN-COOL WEBSITES.

Chrome Music Lab

A VERITABLE BALL-PIT OF MUSICAL DISCOVERY. musiclab.chromeexperiments.com While Google is constantly developing experiments in the form web applications for its Chrome browser (typically involving some degree of AI input), the Chrome Music Lab aims to make music theory fun. A series of interactive experiments are available to be mucked around with — ranging from a simple chord map on a piano reel to a full-on song maker — and they all have a similarly simplistic and colourful aesthetic. While this makes for an excellent tool for music teachers and tutors, this musically-inclined, grown-up reviewer found several of the interactive web apps to be truly captivating and, at times, a handy tool for sketching out song ideas without the threat of getting bogged down in complications. The latest addition, Song Maker, allows you to save your finished product in a brief link in order to share it or keep it for later — here’s the groove pictured in the screenshot: While the site is full of handy utilities such as auto-detecting melodies sung with your microphone, the ultimate goal is to provide a fun environment to explore various musical properties, and this it does well.