Welcome! We invite you to write music using Hyperscore. This web application allows you to compose music by drawing dots and lines on the screen. With Hyperscore, you can create music in any style, as simple or complicated as you want. The challenge is to complete your piece 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.
Below is our timeline of announcements, but you can start at any time. Just be sure to plan well ahead if you want to involve others to help arrange and perform your piece on June 21.
Get started
Recruit students to join the Challenge team! Use these:
- Team leader recruitment flyer (for K-6)
- In-school team recruitment flyer (for K-6)
- Team leader recruitment flyer (for middle & high school)
- In-school team recruitment flyer (for middle & high school)
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.
Prompt reveal
This year, we are selecting short silent films and clips from video games for the composing challenge. Keep an eye out for the prompt reveal in the first week of November. 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.
Support us!
We are a nonprofit organization. Your generosity makes the Hyperscore Challenge possible and enriches lives by enabling individuals of all ages and backgrounds to engage with music as active listeners, learners, creators, and connectors.