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A couple years ago, I realized how important music was to cross-disciplinary studies. This means that music can help students learn things like math, science and language arts.
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One year at Community Math Academy, I had a young man who seemed to be disinterested in our activities. Nothing really captured his interest, until I brought my lap steel slide guitar (pictured left). After playing some Hawaiian music, blues and come country to demonstrate the many uses of the lap steel, I discovered that I had sparked an interest.
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He asked to play the special guitar, to which I responded, "If you start to participate, I might let you play it."
After a couple days, I noticed quite a difference. So, I got him from his class five minutes early to let him try his hand at playing a slide guitar.
Seeing awe and amazement in his eyes, I immediately knew that he was having fun and I asked, “How do you like your class?”
After a pretty generic answer I responded, “Do you understand everything that you’re learning?”
On the surface, his answer was, “Yes,” but upon closer inspection I found that he was having trouble understanding division. While sliding up and down the neck of the guitar, we discussed a multiplication fact. Then, recited the same fact backwards using division. A light bulb went off, and he realized how the whole concept of multiplication and division worked.
Music made that connection possible. The opportunity for learning offers a different perspective to students in a musical or creative setting.
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