Synthesize Your Inspirations
Remix the Beats. Code your Story.
Sponsored by the EarSketch Team at Georgia Tech in collaboration with Atlanta Sports and Entertainment Marketing, this competition challenges you to turn your inspirations into music—and your music into a story.
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What inspires you? A person? A place? A favorite artist? A memory? A sound?
John Fossitt—musician and keyboardist with Bruno Mars and The Hooligans—is challenging you to Synthesize Your Inspirations and remix the sounds that tell your story.
Use code + music to create your own remix. Start with exclusive samples from John Fossitt, then mix them with sounds from the EarSketch Library, your own recordings, or other sounds that inspire you.
REMIX CODE + MUSIC
Use sounds from John Fossitt and in the EarSketch library or record your own!
No music or coding experience? No problem!
Jump in, experiment, and create!
What could you win?
A synthesizer + an exclusive remix masterclass with John Fossitt!
Bring your ideas. Find your sound. Write your story.
Then remix it with code.
Submit between September 30th, 2026 and December 14th, 2026
Competition Educator Info Zoom Sessions
7pm Tuesday, October 6th
7pm Monday, October 26th
Jump to section:
Requirements
Music
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Song length must be between 30 seconds and 2 minutes
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Song must have at least five (5) unique sounds
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Song must be a remix, distinct from the original songs.
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Each song must remix John Fossitt stems with other sounds from the EarSketch library. John Fossitt’s stems must be clearly audible in the final song.
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Recommendations:
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Include more than one artist on EarSketch
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Change tempo, pitch, and/or order of beats
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Add effects and loop beats
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Make your own beat
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Recommended: To avoid potentially overlapping sounds, each sound be arranged on its own track.
Code
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Final code must run without errors in the console and play in the digital audio workstation (DAW)
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Code must include fitMedia ()to insert sound clips
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Code must include comments to describe code and the song's message
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Recommended: Code should include at least one level of complexity: loops, conditional statements, makeBeat(), custom functions
Story
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Each submission must include a short reflection explaining the story or message behind the song.
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Students should share what inspired their song—a person, place, sound, memory, experience, or moment—and how their musical choices connect to that inspiration.
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The reflection should answer:
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What inspired your song?
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What story or message are you sharing?
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How do your sounds, samples, beats, or other musical choices connect to your inspirations?
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Resources
Getting Started
Here are some resources to help you get started! Our 11-minute competition-specific How to Get Started video will help teachers new to EarSketch or perhaps not having enough time to cover longer modules. If you are new to EarSketch, we recommend checking out our Getting Started in EarSketch YouTube playlist or attending our Teacher PD on October 06, 2026. We've also created a handout for your and/or your students' reference.
FOR TEACHERS & STUDENTS
Getting Started in EarSketch Playlist
Lesson
Looking for a lesson to teach with the competition? Check out our Introduction to EarSketch Byte-Sized Beat! We've included a lesson plan, slides, and student worksheet to help make the jump to get started as easy as possible! We recommend spending 2-3 days with your class on this lesson as working on their songs in EarSketch may take some time for students.
Artist: John Fossitt
John Fossitt is an accomplished musician and keyboardist who has performed with Bruno Mars and The Hooligans for more than a decade. Fossitt’s career spans live performance, songwriting, creative direction and collaboration with leading artists across the music industry. He has toured in more than 50 countries performing with Mars and The Hooligans on some of the world’s biggest stages, including the Super Bowl and Grammy Awards.
John Fossitt's own inspirations extend beyond musical legends to the creative talent and artistry of the musicians he performs alongside.
His experience combining musicianship, creativity, and technology makes him an exciting ambassador for EarSketch’s Synthesize Your Inspirations competition, where he is challenging students to remix his original sounds and use code and music to tell their own stories.”