The bulletin board at Matherville Intermediate shows how the students did in each round”

Sixth grader Maxx Stracevich won “Best in school” in a music composition competition as part of an assignment in music class at Matherville Intermediate. Second place went to 5th grader Landon Clark. 

Music teacher Christina Pagett explained the process, “Kids had to use an online music production software program called Soundation. They took loops and tracks and cut and layered them into their own compositions.”

She said compositions had to be over a minute in length and have three or more layers to them. There were 3 rounds of competition. Round 1 was best in class, round 2 was best in grade, then, round 3 was best in school. 

There's an entire bulletin board in the hall at Matherville Intermediate dedicated to the kids in the competition, awards were given to the winners in each round.

To take this a step further, Paggett used a grant from Lowell Johnson to purchase new MIDI controllers and supplemental equipment to interact with a free online digital audio workstation (DAW) program. 

 “It will allow students to create the music in the loops using a keyboard and drum pad that hooks directly into their chromebook and allows them to manipulate the music they create within the program - like professionals in the hip-hop and pop industry do every day,” said Pagett.