The Hyperscore Challenge
It’s been a while since my last post. It’s been a very busy couple of weeks. During that time I received an email from June Kinoshita, Executive Director of New Harmony Line, creators of one of my favorite musical creativity software programs, Hyperscore. Hyperscore is an innovative, game-like music composition tool originally developed at the MIT Media Lab, recently updated as a completely web-based application. Hyperscore has an engaging visual graphic interface that allows students of all ages and all musical skill levels to compose music freely with intuition and creativity. MusicFirst is a very proud reseller of Hyperscore. June wrote to me to tell me about the Hyperscore Challenge. The challenge is to use Hyperscore to complete a musical composition and share it online or at an in-person performance on June 21, 2024, which is Make Music Day, a global celebration of music-making. Whether you currently use Hyperscore with your students or this is the first time you’ve ever heard of the program, New Harmony Line is offering FREE access to students and teachers when you register for the event. Here is how it works:
Everyone participating in the challenge will receive a free Hyperscore account for the duration of the challenge. If you want to lead a team, fill out the form below. A team can be just you, or you plus others. Only the leader should submit the form. We will send you an email with instructions to set up your Hyperscore account and join the Hyperscore Composing challenge. Once you have your group leader account, you can invite your team members through the Hyperscore team dashboard.
Children age 13 and younger will receive instructions to get their parent/guardian’s consent at the time they create their account.
If you do not have a Hyperscore account through MusicFirst Classroom, and are signing up independently, please visit this page and complete the embedded form..
If you already have a Hyperscore account through MusicFirst Classroom, and want to sign up through your school’s account, please fill out the form linked here.
Prompt reveal
Every week, we will release new video prompts here. They include classic silent movies, animations, and video game clips. Many people find a prompt to be helpful. But using the prompt is not required. We don’t want to get in the way of your creativity!
Get practice and advice
Attend our free monthly Office Hours to learn Hyperscore tricks and get answers to your questions. It meets over Zoom on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. ET (adjust for your time zone). Sign up here to get the link and monthly alerts.
You can exercise your musical imagination at our Second Saturday composing workshops, a zero-pressure, safe and fun Zoom meeting where we collaborate on composing a new piece in just one hour. It meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m. ET. Sign up here for the link and monthly alerts.
Hear your piece performed live!
It’s amazing to hear musicians perform music you created. Here’s what you need to do:
Music composed with Hyperscore can be downloaded as an audio (mp3) or MIDI file.
The MIDI file can be uploaded to software that takes MIDI input (such as GarageBand, Sibelius, SoundTrap, Soundation, NoteFlight, Ableton Live) and converts it into standard notation.
You will need to arrange the score for the ensemble that will be performing it. If you don’t know how to do this, you could ask a music teacher for help.
OR, you can download an MP3 audio file and play it as a digital soundtrack.
We encourage you to find collaborators in your area. It could be a music teacher, a friend who plays in a band, college students majoring in music… If you can’t find a way to have your piece played by musicians, you can share the digital version. We will post your composition on the Hyperscore YouTube and Soundcloud channels. Details will be announced as we get closer to June 20, 2024.
What a wonderful opportunity for you and your students! I applaud the folks at New Harmony Line for making this incredible tool accessible to students to help them explore their musical creativity and participate in an innovative event - at no cost. I hope that you will consider signing you and your students up today!