Which comes first: chords or meloody? That's the chicken and egg question facing any music maker staring at a blank DAW screen, and there's no right answer as to which you need to nail first. And ...

Colour-coded interface lets you play it safe or make bolder choices When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Having previously sorted out ...

There are a lot of MIDI plugins that aim to do everything for you, but it's refreshing to see one that keeps its remit simple. Trackbout's Ripchord is a free plugin that lets you play a sequence of ...

Editor's note: This segment was rebroadcast on Dec. 25, 2025. Find that audio here. Among the most cherished elements of the holiday season is Christmas music. It’s perhaps the only holiday that comes ...

Johnny Cash's Hurt hits way different in A Major, as much so as Ring of Fire in G Minor. The dissonance in tone between the chords is, ahem, a minor one: simply the third note lowered to a flat. But ...