Hello TPS!
We, the clay Senior Editors, are so excited to announce the third annual GP7 Music Competition!
Two years ago, the Senior Editors introduced this competition to spare our ears from the “amazing” single, repetitive pre-class song. Since then, we have continued the tradition by introducing new songs written or played by our very own TPS classmates and friends and voted on by the TPS student body to GP7. We’ve been truly amazed by talent and creativity TPS musicians have shown in past competitions.
While we have become quite fond of GP7’s current selection of songs, we’re eager to find fresh songs to enhance the GP7 pre-class play list and fill our ears for the rest of the year! The GP7 Music Competition gives a voice to the incredible musicians of TPS, so we want to hear from the many talented TPSers once again this year. Submit your best musical work and you may win a chance to be featured in GP7!
How does all of this work? For this competition, we will accept submissions of original pieces, classical pieces, and other arrangements or songs within the public domain. The winning songs will by played on rotation in GP7 for the rest of the school year. All interested students must first submit their songs to newGP6music@gmail.com by February 22nd. After careful review, 8-10 top picks will be selected and published on clay in early March, so that the TPS community can vote for their favorites. Once the public vote concludes, the resulting four most popular songs will play on rotation as GP7 room music for the rest of the year. This process should ensure that the classroom soundtrack has enough variety to give everyone a chance to listen to something they can enjoy.
If you or someone you know is interested in entering the contest, please review the guidelines listed below:
- You must be a current TPS student to submit music.
- All submissions must be sent to newGP6music@gmail.com by February 22nd. Late entries will not be considered.
- We cannot use music that may be offensive or questionable to some TPS students. As a result, we cannot consider rap, rock, romance music, political or protest music, etc. Instrumentals are best. Music with soft vocals and digital (techno) music are also acceptable.
- Any submissions must be completely original to the contestant: composed, performed, and recorded by TPSers. One exception is music clearly in the public domain (all works published in 1924 or earlier), although the performance and recording should still be the contestant’s own.
- Submissions may be in any popular, accessible format (e.g. MP3) or may be links to an audio site. The file that is provided for use in GP7 will need to be originally recorded as an uncompressed WAV file of a high sample rate (please do NOT convert an MP3 file to an uncompressed WAV, as the file will become unusable in GP7).
- Please attach your song file to an email that includes your name/composer’s name, the song title, and the year of composition along with any other information you believe is relevant.
- We will only allow ONE submission per person.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment below. Given the amazing entries we’ve heard over the past two years, we’re so excited to see your creativity and talent once again! Please share your music with us and don’t forget to come back to vote in March!
Happy composing!
Jenna Koo and Madison Asher
clay 2020-2021 Senior Editors
EDIT: THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED. KEEP ON THE LOOKOUT TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE SONGS!
Photo Credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/studio-songwriting-music-sound-2677975/
Lol the amount of pianos/keyboards in that picture is insane XD
from miles
Yay, it’s out! Good luck to y’all who will be submitting songs! Can’t wait!
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ooo looking forward to hearing the tracks!!
yayy!! looking forward to seeing the submissions!!
Howdy! Just wondering: If I’ve got an original composition that includes non-TPS friends singing/playing instruments, is that ok? It would be completely orchestrated by me, but I don’t play strings, and the piece I’m considering was sung by a relative of mine when I recorded it last month. The piece would be showcasing my compositional / recording/ producing skills rather than my instrumental performance skills:)
Hi Isabelle, unfortunately, while we want to showcase your compositional skills, we’d like original pieces to be performed by the composer as well–we allow other performers so long as you’re one of those performers. Thank you!
What about if one TPSer composes the song but another TPSer performs it?
So long as you’re both current TPSers! Just put both of your names in the email;)
Okay, sorry for the comment duplicating so many times!! It wasn’t showing up so I thought it hadn’t posted!
What if one TPSer composes the song but another TPSer performs it?
What if one TSPer composes the song but another TPSer performs it?
If I recorded a song that has been composed in the 2000’s, it would not make the competition, right? Would there even be a small chance if it is good enough?
We don’t mind when you composed it, so long as you wrote it and recorded it!
Regarding your second question, we will take each composition into equal consideration;)
OOh I’m sooooo excited for this!!!
Hey! is there a time limit for the piece I submit? For example, If I submit a violin sonata with one of my TPS friends as the accompanist which is 8+ minutes, would that work? Also, can I submit a song with a pre-recorded backing track(as long as I am playing the main melody)? Thanks!
Generally, we’d like songs to be at the most five minutes long. Shorter is preferable. Unfortunately, we cannot accept songs with pre-recorded backing tracks unless they were made and written by you.
Would ‘Be Thou My Vision’ work? Because I would like to do it on guitar.
“Be thou My Vision” is absolutely alright to play, so long as you’re playing your own arrangement;)
I’m excited for this! Won’t be entering, but good luck to those who are!
Can’t wait! i can’t compose either…… sigh.
Could you compose your own made up piece without using any real instruments but maybe using garage band? It is a app or program that has a lot of instruments and to play it you only have to hit a couple buttons: potential ; ) ????
Unfortunately, we’d like songs to be performed by you. Not only will you be able to get better sound, but you could stylize things a bit more! There’s more freedom;)
Hi Senior Editors! I was wondering if a collab song with alumni’s would count as not tpsers. Would that work?
We’d like songs to be performed and original songs to be written by current TPSers. Thank you!
Is there a time limit to how long the entry can be?
*tries to figure out which Nat this is*
We do not have a time limit. However, we prefer entries to be no longer than five minutes in length
Ok thank you!
@Casidyy Haha idk
Maybe you could make it ten minutes long……………………(ten minutes later…) There would be not time for other songs.
Was waiting for this announcement! Can’t wait for the new music selection!
photographer: how many pianos do you want in this picture
musician: yes
????????????
*photographer: how much you wanna flex
musician: hi have we met
thats a recording studio i can only dream of ToT
can I submit multiple songs?
We only accept One submission per person. Thank you!
ok, thanks for the quick reply! will songs with lyrics be considered?
they will be considered on a case to case basis depending on whether they’re appropriate and do not contain questionable content.
what qualifies as questionable content, and since questionable is subjective will i be able to resubmit if yall decide the song i submit has questionable content?
Questionable content includes lyrics with explicit language, excessive/unnecessary romance/violence, etc. Please feel free to contact us at clayEditor@pottersschool.org if you have any questions you would like us to answer in greater detail.
Very interesting! Can’t wait for the results in March, although I don’t have any musical talent I do enjoy the music the TPS community produces. I find it sad though that only 4 songs are able to make it, I preferred the 8(?) songs that played in GP6.
Cool! This sounds like a lot of fun! I’m excited to hear the songs and vote! I didn’t know that’s where the GP7 songs came from.
cant wait to vote
i bet its going to be as hard as last years to vote
ikr last years was really hard
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what in the world is ^ supposed to mean
its a pointer to the comment above. ^
So excited to hear the new songs by our TPS musicians! This is my second year in TPS and I loved almost my every moment in here! See you guys at March!
Hi, just one or two questions.
1. A worship song would work, would it?
2. Would GarageBand work?
If you wrote the worship song or if it was written prior to 1924, it is perfectly ok!
And you’re more than welcome to use any recording software you’d like
*rubs hands and sits back to watch* I won’t be submitting anything this time but good luck everyone!
nuuuuuuuuu???? I may be one of the few, but I really enjoyed listening to your song this year???? It got me hyped for class lol
XD thx Kimmie! And hehe yeah I think it woke everyone up when they had early classes lol.
lolz ofc, ofc???? bahahahahahha exactlllyyy!!! Thats why we need another song like that oooone!!! My photoshop teacher said that she really likes it and when i said i knew who created it she told me to tell you that she really enjoys it???? like if she comes in class and your song is playing, she’ll let it play the rest of the way thru THENNNN start class????
LOL ehehe maybe I hope someone else submits a similar tune XD. AH REALLY? Thats so nice! Tell her Conger gives many thanks XDDD.
bahaha honestly same tho???? Yessssss hahaha I totally will today rofl
Hi! If my keyboard has the option to switch to violin audio, is it permissible to create an original track that I play myself on the piano, occasionally switching between the violin keyboard option and the piano keyboard sound for my recording? As long as it’s an original piece that I’ve written and play myself, without any technological help from apps or music synthesizers, does it matter what option I play on the keyboard settings? Thank you 🙂
Playing on a keyboard is absolutely alright!
Yay! Super excited to see the entries.
hi me again srry lol i think i may be entering an instrumental instead. yall said no rock, but is it okay if i put some distortion on the solo guitar? its not going to be power chords and stuff, just to meat up the melody a big
No worries! That would be totally fine, the genre guidelines are more intended to prevent extremes/inappropriate lyrical content.
Ok thanks for your help!
What does recording entail? It says recording needs to be done by TPSers, but I can’t be pushing buttons while I play a piece. Can my parents help me figure out format and submission technicalities?
Thanks for your question! As long as you’re directly involved in the recording process, it’s ok to ask for outside help if you really need it (in the case of starting a recording while you play, etc.)
Thanks for replying. I didn’t see the response until a couple days ago. I appreciate your time!
dudes this is so coooool! i’m so excited to see y’alls entries????
yay, im sooo excited! *yeets around*
Who will be the judges in this competition?
Hi Sarah,
The judges will be Christine Niu, our Head Forums Moderator, along with clay’s Senior Editors.
It says in the rules that digital music is allowed, but in a comment you said that you’d prefer that we don’t use programs (e.g. GarageBand, Mixcraft, etc.), does this mean that we can or can’t use digital music software? Thanks ????
Digital music is allowed (and you’re more than welcome to use any music mixing program to record your songs); however, you’re more likely to get better sound quality from live instruments. Hope this clears some confusion!
Ok, thanks!
Yay! So excited to hear y’all’s music! Good luck!
So when I submit I can submit an MP3 file so that it doesnt take forever to upload to my email, but If it gets picked I send you all WAV file?
pardon my lazy grammar im half asleep
Yes, that would be totally fine.
What if one TPSer composes the song but another TPSer performs it?
That would be fine as long as the students were willing to submit a single joint entry (in other words, they should not submit any additional songs individually). If they choose to enter one piece together, they should specify who composed and who performed in their submission email. Otherwise, totally ok!
So i have a Q: Can i play a song that i didn’t write, but all the recording and everything is me playing it & recording it? Because i’m kindof confused someone said they were playing “Be Thou My Vision”? idk if i got this all wrong sorry! Thanks
im just a student, but i think i know the answer. I think the music has to be arranged and played if its in the public domain. as i think “be thou my Vision” is in the public domain. (: they are probably doing an arrangement. (: so, i think u would also have to arrange it yourself to play. i hope im correct!!! Correct me if im wrong, clay editors! Hope that answers it!!!
-Oliver
That’s correct! The vast majority of traditional hymns and classical pieces fall in the public domain, so you’re allowed to enter either the original version of a copyright free song (Be Thou My Vision, for example) or your own arrangement. You should not enter another artist’s arrangement of a copyright free song. I hope that clears up any confusion!
Ok that makes sens! Thanks
When submitting your piece, do you have to write your whole name or can you submit anonymously or not using your full name?
We cannot allow anonymous submitting due to precautions about double submissions; however, please let us know if you would like us to use “anonymous” or first name, last initial in the event that your song is chosen;)
Okay, thank you so much!
Can we submit a song that is made by 2 tpsers and one of their friends?
That is perfectly alright so long as you wrote the song and you’re one of the performers;)
I going to try writing a song!!:)
good luck!!!
Is it alright to play a piece myself, and also accompany my brother for his submission to the contest? Or would that count as two different submissions for me, and thus be not allowed?
As long as your brother handles the selection/composition and submission of his entry himself, that would be fine! To avoid confusion, ask him to specify that you accompany him when he submits his song.
Is it ok if I play a song on my violin (that’s in the public domain) with a live accompaniment of a person I know who plays piano who isn’t a tpser?
That’s fine! In your entry, please specify that you are the primary performer and credit whoever accompanies you.
So does this mean we have to write our own song or can it be a song written by someone else but sung us? Unfortunately i have no song writing skills.
If the song is copyright free and falls within the lyrical content guidelines, you may submit a song composed by someone else.
nvm i was confused XD
wow so excited! so nervous too lol
Yay! Good luck everyone!
Thanks Hannah!!!
So is it ok to use some prerecorded loops that are available for songwriting?
Like if in my DAW they have a drum loop I want to use is that ok?
Yes, that would be fine.
cool! i can’t wait to see, (????) I meant HEAR, the tracks! Quick question: Can you do singing? Cuz I love singing!
Yes! Any musical medium is allowed as long as your entry falls within the contest guidelines listed above.
do we get to hear all the music submissions or do u guys judge then put it in gp7?
8-10 entries will be selected and published on clay in early March, so that the TPS community can vote for their favorites. Once the public vote concludes, the resulting four most popular songs will play on rotation as GP7 room music for the rest of the year.
Can I just sing or do I have to play an instrument also?
most don’t sing
Of course! You’re more than welcome to use only your voice so long as the lyrics fall within the lyrical content guidelines above.
????????????????YAY! Thanks!
hey lila, i think you should do both
the email says gp6 is that a typo or is that the correct email?
That’s the correct email! Even though the platform was updated to GP7, we’re using the same email account to field contest entries.
What recording device do i have to use?
You’re welcome to use any recording device you wish:)
even an ipad?
As long as you can capture a high quality recording, using an iPad is totally fine.
Thanks!
lol i just used my phone.
Would “MY Love Has Gone Across The Sea” From Wingfeather Saga be okay? I would sing it with my sister who isn’t on tps
If My Love Has Gone Across the Sea won’t work then could I do another song from Wingfeather Saga or one from LOTR?
is it in the public domain?
Thanks for checking! Unfortunately, neither music from the Wingfeather Saga nor LOTR are copyright free, which disqualifies them from playing in GP7.
Can multiple people work together
Yes! Generally speaking, if two or more TPS students collaborate for an entry and are equally involved in the work process, it counts as a joint single entry for which the team is credited. If a TPS student is the primary composer/performer for an entry, but relies on another person for accompaniment, that submission counts as the single entry for the primary musician.
Just one more question. If you win and you get in the top 8-10, can you vote for yourself? or do you have to vote for somebody else. Or do you just not vote.
You’re welcome to vote for yourself. There’s no rule requiring final contestants to vote for someone else or abstain from voting, so if you make top 8-10, do whatever makes you comfortable.
Thanks for answering all my questions!!!
I have composed This is berk from how to train a dragon in string form and i did not copy any other music would i still be able to submit it or not
Unfortunately, although a great soundtrack, HTTYD music is not in the public domain. Any arrangements of it would fall under copyright and can’t be played in GP7. You could consider composing a new song in the same genre; direct arrangements or imitation won’t qualify.
Can i submit a piece that i composed but is based after a song from a movie
I’m wondering if it’s okay if I write the music and perform the song, but the words aren’t mine. Like if it’s a poem that I add a tune to.
If the poem falls in the public domain, that’s fine. The author of the poem should be credited in your entry. If the poem is written by a fellow student, they would be considered a lyricist and the song should be submitted as a joint entry, credited to you both. Relatively modern poems are unlikely to be copyright free, but some older poems may be acceptable.
Would a poem from LOTR be acceptable?
Unfortunately, poems from Lord of the Rings are considered copyrighted. We cannot accept poems from LOTR
Can 2 people work together?
When did the competition begin?
Yes, two TPS students can work together. The competition launched January 25th. All submissions must be sent to newGP6music@gmail.com by February 22nd. There is no advantage to early submission, as long as your submission is on time.
Is it okay if I didn’t come up with the words on my own, but I added the music? Like if I turned a poem into a song?
That’s totally ok if the poem is copyright free (in the public domain). If the poem isn’t copyright free, your song as a whole won’t be either, even though the music is original to you.
The poem would be from Lord of the Rings. Would that be okay?
I’m super excited to hear people’s submissions????
I don’t sing (as my name says) but I wrote a song so I need someone to sing my song I was thinking of a girl who I know but she’s not a TPSer (and that would be akward) WHAT SHOULD I DO?
BTW DOES ANY TPSERS WANT TO SING FOR ME? I WOULD BE HAPPY TO ALLOW IT
ALSO FOR ANYTONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN SINGING FOR ME, I DON’T REALY HAVE MUSIC LIKE WRITEN DOWN (JUST IN MY HEAD) AND I’M NOT SURE HOW TO GET IT SO IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE TO HELP WITH THAT I WOULD BE HAPPY
I could help if ya want? Im sry if this is too late or if you already have someone but i sing and have a way to record, if you want me to do anything you can email me at lydglo7@gmail.com :))
If i had been reading the comments, I would’ve said yes, but it looks like you already have a volunteer
Hey! Can I do Come Thou Fount, Amazing Grace, or something like that as a violin/singing duet with my friend? (she is a current TPSer, and so am I.)
Yes! That would be totally ok.
ok, Thanks!
Hey is this SC. It’s Lyla!
*?*
@madison does it have to be a TPSer?
So long as you’re actively part of the instrumentation and recording process (you must be one of the performers), you’re allowed to collaborate with other TPSers.
Hope this clears some things! Please ask if you have any more questions!
sooooo excited to do this thing! i have one more question… can i vote for my own if it gets into the top 8-10?
Of course!
lol
hey I was just wondering whether the music has to be something we wrote or if it can just be a song. Thank you!
Entries may either be an original composition or a song that is copyright free (most classical music, old hymns, etc).
What kind of recording device should i use?
Anything that will work for you. I’ve heard good things about GarageBand!
depends on what type of music you do if you wanna get really nitpicky but i use a USB condenser mic and it works fine for my guitar as well as vocals. for a DAW as Jenna said Garageband is good enough for most stuff unless you’re thinking pro level x)
also, can I do a duet with my friend and also do my one by myself?
One of the vocalists has to be you. However, you’re more than welcome to do a duet with your friend.
Hey, i was just wondering, could i make the words to a tune such as Dance Monkey, Memories, etc. but not use their music but only their tune? Like do my own words to Dance Monkeys tune (for example) but not to their music?
Does that make sense? Thank you
Unfortunately, for original compositions, everything must be original to you unless the parts come from the public domain. So we cannot accept a song that uses their tune
ok, thanks
Hello! I have a question: when will the final 8-10 songs be announced so people can vote?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hello! Can I perhaps be informed of the exact time that submission closes please? Also, do we still retain our master and composition rights if our entry was chosen? Thank you for hosting the competition!
The deadline for entry is February 22nd at 11:59 PM EST. You retain the rights to your entry whether selected or not.
Omigosh this is so excitttinnnggg!!! Just a few more dayyyyys????
yess cant wait
Hello! May I ask when is the exact hour by which we have to submit our entry in order for it to be considered on-time? Thank you!
Oops, sorry for asking twice, my browser glitched and my previous comment disappeared xD
SHOUTOUT to TPSers!!!! Can you help me decide if I should sing “Be Thou My Vision,” “How Great Thou Art,” “Amazing Grace,” “Come Thou Fount,” or “It is Well”
Vote Now Please!