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MusicFirst is excited to announce the ComposeFirst Music Competition. Open to all music students in the U.S. from grades K through 12, the competition aims to encourage students to tap into their creativity and compose music using MusicFirst’s suite of online music creation and learning tools. Teachers, REGISTER HERE for a ComposeFirst Class site.

The competition is broken into the following categories:

Elementary:

  • - Grades K-2
  • - Grades 3-5

Middle School:

  • - 6-8

High School:

  • - 9-12

Prizes:

Prizes will be awarded to ONE student and ONE Teacher/School/Class in each category. Individual student submissions will have the potential to win :

  • First Place: $100 gift card
  • Second Place: $50 gift card
  • Third Place: $25 gift card

For each category, the Teacher/School or Class of the winning submission will receive:

  • First Place: A 1 year subscription to the MusicFirst Online Classroom- up to 100 seats
  • Second Place: A 6 month subscription to the MusicFirst Online Classroom- up to 100 seats
  • Third Place: One stand-alone software of choice for 100 seats for 1 year.

Teachers who register for ComposeFirst will receive login credentials for their own unique ComposeFirst Online Classroom space.

Login credentials and information about adding students will be provided.

Contest Mechanics

  • Students in grades K through 12 are invited to compose an original piece of music using the cloud-based tools offered by MusicFirst. No purchase is necessary, as free trial versions of the software are available through the contest site.
  • Compositions should be original and no longer than 5 minutes long. Students are permitted to use loops from our programs or they can create their own if they wish.
  • Collaborative group and class compositions will be accepted, but only one prize will be granted to the winning group as a whole.
  • Compositions may contain vocals and lyrics or other acoustic instruments as long as they are recorded using the MusicFirst software tools that are provided.

Judging criteria

Student compositions will be judged based on these criteria:

  • Originality and musicality
  • Creative use of MusicFirst software tools
  • Compositional structure
  • Overall musicianship and technique

Timeline 

The ComposeFirst competition opens March 1, 2017 . Student compositions must be submitted by May 1, 2017 Winners will be announced by May 15, 2017.

Permissions

All minor students (under 18 years of age) submitting compositions must have the written permission of their parent or guardian to participate in the contest. A submission form/release must be signed and submitted with their entry and can be found in Class Files and as an attachment in the Student Application and Permissions Task. Teachers should download, print and distribute these permission forms to participating students. Forms should be submitted as PDF’s through the Student Application and Permissions Task.

If for some reason you are unable to upload this document for submission or have multiple documents you’d like to submit on behalf of young participants or an entire class of students, you can email them in PDF format to info@musicfirst.com. Please be sure to include the teacher and school name in the email.

Teachers, REGISTER HERE for a ComposeFirst Class site.