If you picture a music class where students are singing or playing an instrument, you’re missing a third option. 

At Milwaukee Public Schools, students can make music by composing it. 

They’re not plotting out musical notes with pencils on paper, though; the students are using a digital platform called Soundtrap to turn their vision into sonic reality. 

One of the music composition classes — known as music technology — is at Bay View Montessori School’s Upper Campus. Teacher Jeanne Marie Farinelli gives students tutorials and provides lesson videos to watch; in a unit on mixing, for instance, she might demonstrate how to correct a composition that’s too heavy on the bass, bringing all the parts into balance. 

Students spend a few days going over techniques early on in the class, and then the 7th- and 8th-graders start working on projects, with Ms. Farinelli there to help.

Soundtrap is a resource adopted by the district that is available to all MPS students in grades 3 through 12. The 3rd-grade general music curriculum has an introductory unit on Soundtrap, and several schools have music technology as a separate class in grades 6 through 12.   

“This is a very heavily student-led class,” Ms. Farinelli said of her class at Bay View Montessori. “They are actively making compositions and songs throughout the whole year. At the end of the year, they submit a portfolio with all of their songs, so it’s nice that they get to leave with a whole playlist of songs that they created.”

Students from her class and around the district will have their compositions played before the MPS Biennial Music Festival on May 6 and 7 at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, as families and guests are settling into their seats before the 6:30 p.m. concerts. The Bay View Montessori students also will have their songs played before their school’s concert on May 14.

Jack Curtiss and Mars Rohlwing from Ms. Farinelli’s class are two of the students whose songs will be featured at the Biennial.

“We’re really excited to share our songs,” Jack said. “I’m really into music, personally. This is the career path I want to go down.”

He’s shared music online previously, but, Jack said, “The Biennial is a chance for me to expand my audience a little bit. I just want to see how people react and see if people think my song is good.”

“I’m excited about the Biennial because it’s my first time sharing my songs with other people besides maybe just the 30 students in this class,” Mars said. “I’ve always wanted people to see and hear my art.”

Jack submitted two songs for the Biennial: one is called “Sterile.” “It’s one of my favorite songs I ever made,” he said. “It’s like this synthetic, bubbly sounding song.”

Jack explained that it’s in ABA format, meaning it has an opening section followed by a similar sounding but contrasting section, and ends by echoing the first section. His other song is “Feelin' Purple,” a jazzy composition.

Mars’ song for the Biennial is called “Kinda Pretty,” which she wrote around Halloween. “It starts calm and magical,” she said, opening with violins and pianos. Also written in ABA format, the song then takes a turn, she said, where she added distortion for a sinister effect.

Composing music has influenced how they listen to music and how they view it, Mars and Jack agreed. Both said being able to take the music technology class has improved their composing skills.

“Making our own songs has definitely made things a bit different listening to music,” Mars said. “Especially listening to musicals. I’m a big musical nerd.” She noted that it takes her from two to four weeks to make a song that’s from 30 seconds to 3 minutes; the typical Broadway musical is 2 ½ hours or longer

“It definitely makes you understand more the perspective of the writers who make these musicals,” she said. And generally, using the digital platform, students are using already recorded loops of sounds, although they can adjust them to their wishes, Mars said.

In musicals and professional writing, every sound is made by the writer, she noted. “It definitely gives me a lot more sympathy toward people who write music.”

Jack, who has been composing music since 2020, said, “These past two years of music composing have upped my ability a lot. I can audibly tell the difference between something I made at the start of last year and now — it’s like night and day.”

Jack’s interest is in instrumental music. “When I listen to instrumental music now, I can really pick out the instruments and the creator’s intentions, and it really elevates my experience. I love doing it, just analyzing songs. It really helps me and makes it a lot more interesting for me.”

Although students are using a digital platform that supplies sounds for them to work with, their creativity and their teachers are the foundation for their compositions.

“I recently made my first song solely with making my own tracks and loops. I didn’t use any premade ones at all. It didn’t sound great, but Ms. Farinelli definitely helped me a lot in getting to that point, and definitely helped me a lot to make them sound better and sound more pleasing than it originally was,” Mars said.

“I just love this class a ton,” Jack said. “It’s my passion, doing this music thing. It’s what I want to do when I grow up: I want to compose music. I don’t really want to become famous; I want to make my living off of it.”

Ms. Farinelli, he said, “is a good teacher; she teaches us a lot. And she’s also just a great person.”

Ms. Farinelli noted that the composition class allows all students to become involved in music. Students who take part in music gain its benefits, whether it’s purely the joy of music itself or the problem-solving and math skills they learn along the way.

“What’s nice about the music tech class is that students might not want to play an instrument, they might not really be thrilled about wanting to perform on a stage, but this still gets them involved in very active music making, even though they’re not necessarily playing an instrument, singing, or being right in the spotlight,” Ms. Farinelli said.