Grades 9–12 · Full year · 36 weeks
Write. Produce. Release.
A full-year music production and songwriting course. Students write, produce, and release their own music in a real browser studio — and every week the theory arrives inside something they're making, never as a worksheet. By June, every student has a released EP and can explain every choice on it.
Unit 1 · Weeks 1–6
Make something real before you learn what it's called
Unit 2 · Weeks 7–12
Rhythm is a language — learn six dialects
Unit 3 · Weeks 13–18
Why chords make people feel things
Unit 4 · Weeks 19–24
Now say something
Unit 5 · Weeks 25–30
The distance between a song and a record
Unit 6 · Weeks 31–36
You're not a student with assignments. You're an artist with a release.
The outcome: Every student finishes the year with a released 3-track EP, a portfolio of 10+ finished pieces, and the vocabulary to defend every musical choice they made.
Unit 1 · Weeks 1–6
Make something real before you learn what it's called
Every student finishes with
A finished, produced first track — made, named, and shared in week six.
MU:Cr1.1 · MU:Cr2.1 · MU:Cn10.0
You make a track today — before any vocabulary, any staff paper, any rules.
Studio · Describe a song in plain words and build it with Conductor; keep your favorite take.
Theory · Music is decisions. Every sound you kept was a choice — that's the whole course.
Why music lines up: bars, beats, and the grid every genre lives on.
Studio · Rebuild last week's track at three tempos; move notes on and off the grid and hear the difference.
Theory · Tempo, meter, bars and beats — the timeline every DAW and every band agrees on.
Modern tracks are built from loops that stack: drums under bass under chords under melody.
Studio · Build an 8-bar loop with four layers, then mute layers live to hear what each one carries.
Theory · Texture and roles — rhythm section vs. lead, and why removing a layer changes the feel.
Velocity and dynamics are the difference between a demo and a record.
Studio · Take a flat loop and shape it: accents, ghost notes, a build into bar five.
Theory · Dynamics, accents, and velocity — how loudness patterns create motion.
Finishing is a skill. Take your best loop and give it a beginning and an ending.
Studio · Extend your loop to a 16-bar piece with an intro and an outro; bounce it to audio.
Theory · Intro and outro jobs: set the scene, then land the plane — never just stop.
Your first track ships. Name it, present it, and say one choice you made on purpose.
Studio · Final polish, export, and a class listening session — every track gets played.
Theory · Critique that helps: describe what you hear before you judge it.
Unit 2 · Weeks 7–12
Rhythm is a language — learn six dialects
Every student finishes with
A three-beat tape spanning three genres, with liner notes on each groove.
MU:Cr1.1 · MU:Cr2.1 · MU:Pr4.2 · MU:Cn11.0
Kick, snare, and hats each have a job. Every genre is a different contract between them.
Studio · Build the same bar as boom-bap, trap, and house; A/B them and name what moved.
Theory · Backbeat, subdivision, and where each drum lives in the bar.
Groove lives BETWEEN the beats — the and-counts, the pushes, the notes that land early.
Studio · Take a straight drum pattern and syncopate it until it grooves; find the line where it falls apart.
Theory · On-beats vs. off-beats, anticipation, and why displacement creates momentum.
Two tracks with identical notes can feel completely different. That difference has names.
Studio · Record a part live, hear your natural timing, then quantize it — and decide how much to keep.
Theory · Swing percentages, humanization, quantize strength — feel as a measurable thing.
Bass is rhythm you can sing. The bassline is where drums and harmony shake hands.
Studio · Write three basslines over one drum groove: root-note, walking, and syncopated 808.
Theory · Root motion, the octave, and locking bass to the kick pattern.
Sample the DNA of a genre you love: what exactly makes reggae reggae and drill drill?
Studio · Pick a genre, reverse-engineer its groove in the studio, and document the rules you found.
Theory · Genre as a ruleset — instrumentation, subdivision, tempo range, signature patterns.
Ship three beats in three genres. Prove you can speak more than one rhythmic language.
Studio · Finish, sequence, and export your tape; write one liner note per beat naming its groove DNA.
Theory · Contrast as a portfolio skill — showing range on purpose.
Unit 3 · Weeks 13–18
Why chords make people feel things
Every student finishes with
An original instrumental with a verse and a chorus a listener can tell apart blindfolded.
MU:Cr1.1 · MU:Cr2.1 · MU:Cr3.1 · MU:Re8.1
Most of the songs you love run on three or four chords. Meet I, IV, V and vi.
Studio · Build I–V–vi–IV in your key, then hear Conductor render it in six genres.
Theory · Roman numerals, the tonic's gravity, and why these four chords carry pop.
Key and mode are the emotional thermostat of a track.
Studio · Flip one of your Unit 1–2 pieces from major to minor; document everything that changes.
Theory · Major vs. minor construction, relative keys, and mode as mood.
Music is a promise machine: chords create expectations, then keep or break them.
Studio · Write two endings for one progression — one that resolves, one that refuses — and use both.
Theory · Cadences, the V–I pull, and deceptive resolution.
A hook is the shortest idea a stranger can sing back. Write ten; keep one.
Studio · Rapid-fire hook sprints over your progression; the class votes blind on the keepers.
Theory · Repetition, contour, and range — what makes a melody memorable instead of clever.
Sections are jobs, not labels: the verse tells, the chorus lands.
Studio · Build a verse and chorus from the same materials — same key, different energy — and prove the contrast.
Theory · Form contrast: density, register, and harmonic rhythm as section identity.
Assemble the term's work into a full instrumental with real structure.
Studio · Verse–chorus–verse–chorus form, produced and bounced; peers must identify the sections by ear.
Theory · Song maps: reading and writing form charts (AABA, verse-chorus, 12-bar).
Unit 4 · Weeks 19–24
Now say something
Every student finishes with
A complete original song — written, arranged, and produced start to finish.
MU:Cr1.1 · MU:Cr2.1 · MU:Cr3.2 · MU:Cn10.0
Great melodies move like a voice: they breathe, they arc, they land.
Studio · Sing or play a phrase into the studio; refine its shape with Conductor until it arcs.
Theory · Phrase structure, contour, the single apex, and where melodies breathe.
The oldest craft in music: a melody that knows what chord it's standing on.
Studio · Write two melodies over your Unit 3 progression — one chord-tone-anchored, one deliberately outside.
Theory · Chord tones vs. passing tones, and how tension notes resolve.
Lyrics are rhythm first: syllables are notes. (Instrumental writers craft a lead 'vocal' line instead.)
Studio · Set one verse of your own words — or a topline — to your melody; fight for every stress.
Theory · Prosody: syllable stress vs. beat stress, rhyme placement, and singability.
Every song needs one moment of somewhere-else. Build the section that isn't home.
Studio · Add a bridge to your song: new chord, new register, or new texture — then return.
Theory · Contrast and return; borrowed chords as a passport out and back.
Zoom out: does the whole song earn its length?
Studio · Full-song assembly — intro through outro — with an energy map drawn before you build.
Theory · Energy curves across a full song; where listeners quit and why.
Finish the record. Present it. Answer one question: what is this song doing on purpose?
Studio · Final production pass, export, listening session with structured peer feedback.
Theory · Artistic intent — connecting choices to effect, out loud, in your own words.
Unit 5 · Weeks 25–30
The distance between a song and a record
Every student finishes with
A re-produced, polished version of your Unit 4 song — the before/after is the grade.
MU:Cr3.1 · MU:Pr4.2 · MU:Re7.1 · MU:Re9.1
The same notes on different instruments are different music. Casting is production.
Studio · Re-voice your song three ways from the sound library; defend the final casting.
Theory · Timbre, register overlap, and orchestration as decision-making.
Records breathe. What you remove is as loud as what you add.
Studio · Strip your densest section to essentials, then rebuild — keep only what earns its place.
Theory · Arrangement density, frequency ranges as real estate, the power of rests.
Sections don't just end — they hand off. Fills, risers, drops, and silence are the glue.
Studio · Build three different transitions into your chorus; test which lands hardest.
Theory · Fills, pickups, dropouts, and the bar-before-the-chorus problem.
Volume tells the story arc: verses sit, choruses lift, bridges turn the lights down.
Studio · Shape section-level dynamics across the whole song; automate the energy map from week 23.
Theory · Macro-dynamics, crescendo as structure, loud-quiet-loud as a form.
Producers hear in before/after. Train the ear that catches what's wrong.
Studio · Blind A/B clinics: diagnose classmates' rough mixes and prescribe one fix each.
Theory · Ear training for production: balance, mud, masking, and harshness by name.
Ship the re-production. Play the before and the after back to back.
Studio · Final polish and export; present the A/B with a change-log of every production decision.
Theory · Revision as craft — the difference between changing things and improving them.
Unit 6 · Weeks 31–36
You're not a student with assignments. You're an artist with a release.
Every student finishes with
A released 3-track EP with cover art, credits, and a listening-event premiere.
MU:Cr3.2 · MU:Pr6.1 · MU:Re9.1 · MU:Cn11.0
Curate like a label: what three tracks belong together, and what's the thread?
Studio · Audit the year's portfolio; pick two existing tracks to elevate and pitch one new one.
Theory · Cohesion: key relationships, tempo families, and sonic identity across a release.
Write the EP's missing piece — the track that makes the other two make sense.
Studio · Produce the new track start to finish, using the whole year's toolkit on a deadline.
Theory · Working to a brief — creative constraints as fuel, not friction.
Who owns a track you made with an AI in the room? You do — if you wrote the notes. Prove it.
Studio · Produce the provenance view of each track: what you wrote vs. what Conductor added, on screen.
Theory · Authorship, copyright basics, sampling vs. theft, and AI disclosure — the questions your generation actually faces.
Finalize the audio and dress the release: titles, order, art, credits.
Studio · Final bounces at matched loudness; sequence the EP; build the cover and credit sheet.
Theory · Track order as storytelling; what mastering is (and isn't) at this level.
Releases are events. Plan the premiere like it matters — because it does.
Studio · Write the one-paragraph artist statement; produce the listening-event runsheet and invites.
Theory · Presenting creative work: artist statements, liner notes, and talking about your own music.
The listening event. Every EP premieres, every artist speaks, everyone leaves with a body of work.
Studio · Premiere, peer awards, and the year-end portfolio review against week 1's first track.
Theory · Reflection: play your week-1 track, then your EP. Name what changed. That's the transcript.
Built and taught by a 20-year music educator. The studio, the lessons, the quizzes, the gradebook, and the provenance of every note a student writes — in one place, on the devices your school already owns.