Heather Wright/The Independent

LCCVI music students are more than ‘a little bit happy’ after being recognized in a national high school music competition.

This is the second year Music Department Head Jessica McKay has entered her students work in the CBC Music Class Challenge. The competition asks both elementary and secondary music classes to remix one of 25 Canadian songs and create a music video.

At the Petrolia high school, students do everything from arranging the music, choosing the video concept, filming it, working on sound and of course, playing the music for their submission.

Earlier this year, the LCCVI music class version of “Everything is Boring” by The Beaches was in the top 10 of the Non-Live-Off-the-Floor category.

This semester, two Grade 10/11/12 music classes submitted entries, their covers and music videos of ‘A Little Bit Happy’ by Talk and ‘Reggae Party’ by Kirk Diamond. Both placed in the Top 10. This week, the McKay learned the class which produced ‘A Little Bit Happy’ came second in its category.

Grade 12 student Ashley Sanderson worked on the arrangement of the music. “A lot of these songs are actually made with only a few instruments, and we have so many people. And another big thing is we have so many different skill levels – some people are just starting out and others have been on their instruments for years. So a big part of arranging was we needed to find a way to have everyone play something that they were comfortable playing in, like a certain range of notes, and also make it all inclusive and make it all sound like the song,” she said.

Once the arranging was complete, the class listened to the results. Maxine Marples liked the finished product, except for one thing; “I play the drums and there wasn’t a drum part, so I had to make it up myself. When they first showed it to us, I was really excited but I had to figure out how to make it flow.”

The entire class came up with the concept for the video, says Trudy Klassen. “It was dark and moody, and that’s why we wanted to do in the parking lot, because it was also dark and moody. So it was a lot of negotiating and a lot of teamwork –  picking ideas from everyone so everyone was included in making it what we thought it should be.”

One thing they all agreed on was to include the students from the Alternative Living and Learning Program or ALLP. “The message of the song is all about being a little bit happy. So our story is at the end, how we can show like that no matter what is going on in the world around you you can be happy?” says Jullianna Grant.

“When we were brainstorming, we were like, ‘well, who is kind of like the embodiment of happiness?’ And that class in our school…I think they light up the school, and they’re always so happy. They’re always trying to help people, and they’re just so kind to everyone.”

The class invited them to create inspirational posters about happiness and to appear in the video, holding the signs and creating chalk art on the school wall.

After months of work, the video was complete and submitted to the national competition. In early June the class learned it was in the Top 10 in their category and last week, they found out their video placed second in their category.

They’re they’re more than just a little bit happy about the win.

“We spent a long time on this and we put in a lot of a lot of effort so it’s really cool to see all of this paying off,” says Sanderson.

“When we were making it, it was really easy to get caught up in all of the things that we couldn’t fix or say, ‘oh, that part wasn’t that good,'” says Marples . “But then when you step back and think of it as a whole – when someone else says ‘good job, you won second,’ you’re like, ‘Hey, that was actually pretty good.'”

And while the students liked being recognized by CBC Music for their song, they were also excited to collaborate with the ALLP students and each other. Sanderson says the contest and their daily music classes create a special bond.

“Collaborating together – making music together – is such a different kind of connection that you have with these people, especially if you do early morning band. Every morning with these people, it’s like you really get to know them,” she said.

“Some times it’s really, really frustrating because you see people so much, but it’s kind of like you have that trust to be “Okay, this person’s got me, if I stop playing this person can keep going’…It is kind of like a team sport… there’s a lot of commitment. You’re always relying on other people and making sure that you’re also trying the hardest …it’s all about commitment.”