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If you can't quite remember which composer it was that wrote "The Planets," you could find out in a hurry at Dr. Estrella's Incredibly Abridged Dictionary of Composers. The site contains basic and accurate biographical information on hundreds of composers with a growing number of biographical essays, plus links to additional information at other sites. It also has links to books about composers and CDs of the works, as well as to sheet music. You could also find a music-history timeline, a calendar of composers' birthdays and essays on individual composers. World Wide Web: http://www.stevenestrella.com/composers

Looking to arrange some folk sing-alongs with a maritime twist? This Web site is the first port of call for information about sea shanties - or chanteys - as this Web author prefers. Shanties are the work songs of sailors sung while performing jobs involving many short movements and for others requiring long steady movements. Others were sung while resting and relaxing and when pulling into port and docking. You can see how the structure of each song fits in with the work required. World Wide Web: http://216.254.0.2/~anitra/chanteys

Fans of the ancient art of Japanese drumming, Taiko, can find out the latest on the music, groups, and venues at Kodo's page, operated by a Japanese Taiko drumming group. Another good source of news is a site sponsored by the San Francisco Taiko Dojo. Taiko history, along with tour dates and sound files are available. World Wide Web: http://www.kodo.or.jp World Wide Web: http://www.taikodojo.org/main.html

Imagine being able to convert DNA sequences into musical notes. That is what some Welsh programmers have done with ProteinMusic, a Java-based program that takes data from DNA sequences and plays music from it. The authors say they developed the first version of this downloadable, free program, written in C, on an Apple Mac together with a MIDI connection to a synthesizer in 1996. This program is a complete re-write of the original program in Java. World Wide Web: http://www.aber.ac.uk/~phiwww/pm/index.html

Piano Graphique is a clever synthesizer/keyboard application in Shockwave, that lets you play a variety of music types using the keys on your computer's keyboard. Each sound or rhythm track is accompanied by graphic animations to keep one's disco visually hopping. Wait for each piano/keyboard to load - it takes a few seconds, or minutes, depending on the speed of your connection. World Wide Web: http://www.pianographique.com

Let's not be idiots here. Mike Nesmith is no genius (well, maybe he is). But he is very, very cool. Having conquered the music industry as a Monkee in the '60s, having endured a brilliant but ignored '70s solo career, having invented the MTV concept (it was called PopClips back then), and having run one of the most important film companies of the 1980s, Pacific Arts, Nez is taking it sort of slow these days (though the biannual brainiac convention he holds on his ranch, The Council on Ideas, is the stuff of legend for people who think too much). Still, Nesmith does keep up a Web site, the Videoranch. It is just about the only place you can go to buy all of Nesmith's solo music, and the best of his films (he produced "Repo Man" and "Tapeheads") can also be acquired there. It is also a place where you can spend hours playing around with his "3D Videoranch." Think of it as Myst set somewhere in the desert of the American Southwest, where really cool music clips are hidden in the rocks and flowers. Plus, Nez's site hooks us up with KPIG, possibly the best radio station in America. You can't go wrong. (Hint: Do yourself a favor and buy the album "Magnetic South," while you're browsing about.) World Wide Web: http://www.videoranch.com

Still going strong today, with hits back in the nineties and eighties, R.E.M. goes online at MSN to chat with fans this evening. Join the chat to talk to R.E.M. about their new album, the band's travels, highs and lows, and recent revelations. The chat starts at 7pm ET/4pm PT. World Wide Web: http://chat.msn.com/rem.msnw .

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