Electronic Music Elements (Elements) is a non-performance-based music production curriculum for late elementary, middle, and high school students. Musical concepts are introduced alongside technical ones, creating a seamless integration of a traditional understanding of rhythm, harmony, and melody with their application in a DAW (digital audio workstation). Students learn to create and arrange drum patterns, chord parts, bass lines, and melodies while thinking like a DJ to achieve audience outcomes and manage energy levels over time. Core material is used to complete application projects throughout the course sequence. These projects offer authentic creative opportunities to create video game audio, product commercials, pop songs, and podcasts, promoting career readiness while generating cross-curricular opportunities with coding, visual art, creative writing, dramatic arts, and more.

Elements is designed to be administered by instructors with any level of background knowledge in music production and digital music making. There are two course pages for each lesson: the lesson page and the studio page. The lesson page is designed for both direct and flipped instruction and contains explanation and step videos. The studio page contains a window of the Soundtrap studio in addition to a sidebar with links to shorter versions of the step videos.

In direct instruction, the class completes steps 1-4 as a group. In flipped instruction, students complete steps 1 and 3 by themselves, and the class completes 2 and 4 together.

1. Top Video: This video provides an overview of the core content for the lesson, including main objectives and definitions of terms.

2. Connection Activities: After viewing the top video, the instructor conducts connection activities with students. These activities, listed in the lesson plans, vary in age appropriateness and learning modality. Their purpose is to check for understanding and connect the material to students in fun and engaging ways.

3. Lesson Page Step Videos: Each project is broken down into easy-to-accomplish steps. The lesson pages feature longer form videos that delve into the rationale and detailed breakdown of each step.

4. Group Activity: After viewing each step video, there are either activities to check for understanding or prompts for the instructor to guide the class in creating an example song together.

5. Individual Work Time: Individual work time for students is done on the Elements Studio pages. These pages open with a URL bar where students can paste project links generated by the teacher in the Soundtrap EDU homescreen or projects from the student’s homepage. Students can click on the EME button in the bottom right corner, which opens the studio toolbar. Here, they can access short-form explanations of each step, maintain focus, and sustain creative momentum. The sidebar allows access to the lesson page and interactive checklist for longer videos and project progress tracking.

6. Differentiation: Lesson plans include strategies for remediation and enrichment. Most enrichment material is located in the studio page sidebar and can be unlocked with the password 88tg88tg. Enrichment keeps all students on the same curriculum track while offering deeper understanding of lesson topics. Some enrichment activities include additional videos, extra Soundtrap templates, and complete lesson pages.

7. Project Checkpoints: The lesson plan outlines checkpoints to break down the work period into smaller chunks, allowing the instructor to check on student progress and ensure they are meeting project objectives.

8. Project Completion: Clear time deadlines are suggested for each checkpoint, varying by age and background of the class. Posting deadlines clearly in the room and reminding students of remaining time helps maintain project focus.

9. Assessment: Suggested strategies for informal and formal assessment are provided in each lesson plan. Formal assessment is not required for every lesson, but included rubrics assist in administration. It is recommended that assessment occur in person, with immediate, meaningful feedback given to students.

10. Presentation: Students should practice sharing their work with peers. Capstone activities and application projects should require individual or group presentations. Strategies to promote student work can be found in the Elements Educator Essentials course.

• Lesson 0: This lesson focuses on the mindset of the course. Students learn to listen critically to different types of music, solve technical problems to maintain their workstation, collaborate effectively, and help themselves and others with the lessons.

• Unit 1: The Big Picture: Students learn big picture ideas by thinking like a DJ to achieve objectives for specific audiences. They learn what different instruments add to a song (drums = energy, bass = power, chords = emotion, melody = identity) and how to arrange those instruments by following a recipe. Loops are used to teach compositional techniques at the macro level, providing a framework for future creations.

• Unit 2: Drums: Students learn to use the Soundtrap sequencer to create drum patterns from scratch, altering them to create different energy levels that help tell a musical story.

• Unit 3: Chords & Bass: Chords and bass are introduced using Soundtrap’s chord trigger tool, allowing students to control the harmony without needing chord theory or piano skills. Rhythmic variations for chords and bass are shown using the trigger’s “playing styles” and the piano roll, creating different energy levels for future arranging.

• Unit 4: Melody: Melodies are input using the piano roll. Students start with a copying exercise and learn features of memorable melodies. They create their own singable, catchy melodies that fit the song's harmony. Different types of melodies are introduced for future arranging.

• Unit 5: Arrangement: This unit reviews drums, chords, bass, and melody. Students can create new material or use pre-existing material for their final project. Repetition and variation are covered, showing students how to apply material at different energy levels to a genre-specific structure. Details are added to arrangements to enhance listener interest.

Application projects are provided throughout the course. The sequencing of these projects depends on the age and experience level of the student. Samples can be found in the Sample Sequencing guides on the teacher resource page. These projects offer creative opportunities around music production and provide curricular articulation points centered on various careers in the industry. Application projects work well individually, in pairs, or small groups, and more time should be allotted for them.

• Radio Commercial: Students learn about advertising, marketing, and the formula for a radio commercial: the hook, reveal, description of benefits, call to action, and catchy ending. They then choose or create a product, write a script for a 30-second ad, record voice-overs, and add background music and sound effects to bring the commercial to life.

• Video Game Composition: Students learn about different types of audio assets in a video game: action assets and timeline assets. They plan and record background music, ambient sounds, and one-shot sound effects for a video gameplay scene. The audio files are then loaded into a gameplay simulator, where students can adjust volumes and see their music come to life in a real video game.

• Verse/Chorus Top Lining: Students learn about the construction of poetry and lyrics and how to write and record them over existing musical material. Rhyme and rhythm schemes are discussed, and a scaffolded sequence of lyric writing exercises is provided. Students write lyrics to pre-existing music, record vocals, and mix the final product to produce full songs.

• Podcasting: Different types of podcasts are introduced. Students choose a type and research the topic or person for the podcast. They then record the podcast individually or in pairs, add background music and automation, and create a polished product.