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Music Technology
Week 1: Loops & Layering
Day 2: Soundtrap Loop Scavenger Hunt

Day 2: Soundtrap Loop Scavenger Hunt

Tuesday, August 4th, 2026

Objectives

  • I can navigate the Soundtrap Sound library and filter loops by instrument, genre, and type.
  • I can identify loops by their musical role — drums, bass, harmony, melody, and FX.
  • I can build five separate Soundtrap projects that each hold four loops that sound good together.
  • I can give every project a short, school-appropriate name and write it on my worksheet.
  • I can describe a loop using music vocabulary instead of saying “it sounds cool.”

Warmup: What Is a Loop?

Listen to the two-bar drum pattern Mr. Willingham plays on repeat. Then be ready to answer out loud:

  1. What is a loop?
  2. Why would a producer build an entire song out of something that repeats?

Checkpoint: Warmup

  • I listened to the loop and can explain what a loop is.
  • I can give one reason a producer would build a song out of a repeating part.

Work Session: Using the Sound Library

Watch the demo, then do it yourself. Open the Sound library by clicking the music-note icon on the right side of the screen.

Set your key and tempo at the top of the editor before you start adding loops. A loop stretched too far from its original tempo will sound warped — that is not the software breaking, that is you asking it to do too much.

Key Vocabulary

Loop
A short section of audio, usually one to four bars, designed to repeat seamlessly.
Tempo (BPM)
How fast the music moves, measured in beats per minute.
Sound Library
Soundtrap’s built-in collection of loops, opened with the music-note icon.
Preview
Listening to a loop before adding it to your project.
Scale Type
Whether a pitched loop is Major or Minor. Pitched loops (bass, synth, piano, guitar, strings, vocal) sound best when they share the same scale type. Drums and percussion work with any scale.

Checkpoint: Work Session

  • I opened the Sound library and filtered by instrument, genre, and type.
  • I previewed a loop before adding it.
  • I set my project’s key and tempo before adding loops.

Work Session: The Scavenger Hunt

Mr. Willingham will hand you a printed Loop Scavenger Hunt worksheet. Read it all the way through before you start.

You are building five separate Soundtrap projects, with four loops in each — 20 loops total. Each set is its own mini song, so each set goes in its own project. Do not pile all 20 loops onto one timeline.

For every set, pick four loops that genuinely sound good together, stack them on the timeline, and write their names on your worksheet.

SetWhat to collect
1One loop each from Drums, Bass, Synth, and Piano.
2Open the Genres menu, pick one genre, and take all four loops from it.
3One loop each from Percussion, Strings, Vocal, and Guitar.
4Four loops whose names start with the letters C, J, L, and S.
5Your choice — any four loops you want.

Naming Your Projects

Every project needs a short, school-appropriate name, written on your worksheet so Mr. Willingham can find it. Stuck? Pick one theme and use it for all five:

  • Colors: Red / Blue / Green / Cyan / Silver
  • Animals: Falcon / Otter / Cobra / Bison / Heron
  • Cars: Coupe / Sedan / Wagon / Roadster / Truck
  • Sports: Soccer / Tennis / Track / Rowing / Fencing
All five sets are the full assignment, not today’s target. Most people will finish Sets 1–3 today and finish the rest tomorrow. Work carefully instead of racing.
Check your headphone volume before you start listening. The AudioBox gets much louder than you expect.

Checkpoint: Work Session

  • I created a new, separate project for each set I started.
  • Each project I finished has four loops on the timeline that sound good together.
  • Every project I created has a school-appropriate name.
  • I wrote each loop name and each project name on my worksheet as I went.

Closing: Pair-Share

Turn to a neighbor and play each other one set you built. For each one, say why those four loops belong together — use the category names from your worksheet (drums, bass, harmony, melody, FX), not “it sounds cool.”

Before you log off:

  1. Save every project.
  2. Mark on your worksheet which sets are finished.
  3. Log off using the procedure from yesterday.
Tomorrow is a shortened period because of an administrative session, and it is the day the scavenger hunt is due. Anything you finish today is time you will not be scrambling for tomorrow.

Standards

  • MSMTC8.CR.2 — Select and develop musical ideas for defined purposes and contexts (choosing four loops per project that work together as a mini song).
  • MSMTC8.RE.1 — Choose music appropriate for a specific purpose or situation (explaining in the pair-share why a particular set of four loops belongs together, using loop-category vocabulary).
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Day 1: Welcome to Music TechnologyDay 3: Finish the Scavenger Hunt