Writing music?

[Worm of Despite]

I've got a lot of musical ideas; I'd love to write a symphony one day, but, um, big problem--don't know how to write or read music! Damn it! It's like wanting to write a novel but not knowing how to write! Feh. Well, if anybody knows some good internet or book resources that teach writing music, I'd be greatly obliged. Thankies!

[matrixman]

I have what I think is a decent book on learning music, entitled What Makes Music Work, written by Philip Seyer, Allan Novick & Paul Harmon, published by Seyer Associates. Thing is, once I had bought the book, I lost the willpower to read it and follow through on the instructions. It's been sitting on my shelf for several years now. I think in today's world, interactive is the way to go. Why struggle through an instruction book when you could tap into the multimedia capabilities of your PC to learn music in a much more fun way? (Geez, I sound like a Dell commercial. Intel Inside!) Surely there must be some good music learning software out there, though I've been too lazy to look.