![]() Hesitantly, the students to whom Mr Kachua gave the claves fell into rhythm with the bodhrán players. Struck together, they make a bright clicking noise. Claves are a pair of short, hollow wooden sticks. ![]() After a few minutes, the students could strike them in unison, and hold the note for four beats. ![]() Another defined a whole note as âfour beats.â Mr Kachua passed out a couple of small hand drums, or bodhráns. âThe circle is a whole note,â one cried out. SMARTBOARD MUSIC MATH SERIESâMeasures,â he said âare groups of notes for musicians.â They correspond to âsets,â which are what scientists call âa group a something.âĪ series of small circles on the SmartBoard represented whole notes. He began to draw a few crooked measures on the SmartBoard, and soon he was passing around instruments. âThe word âequalâ is key,â Mr Kachua said.īut Mr Kachua had not come to SHS to give a lecture. Fractions, Mr Kachua reminded the class, are not merely a parts of a whole. It took Ms Usherâs class a moment to accurately define a fraction. âMusicians work with fractions,â Mr Kachua said. In particular, notation governing rhythm forms a pattern of fractions. Musical notation is, of course, a series of patterns. âMathematicians learn to recognize patterns.â And, he said, âMusicians recognize patterns, too.â ÂA mathematical thinker always asks the question, âHow am I going to do this?ââ Mr Kachua said. The definition he arrived at serves just as well as a definition for âmusical thinkers.â âOne day,â he said, âI was sitting around with my scientist friends and we noticed that a lot of scientists are also musicians.â His question for the students was: âWhat makes someone a mathematical thinker?â Another whisper, again particular to 10-year-olds, of âawesome,â circulated through the classroom. âI started playing music when I was 5 years old,â he said. Ms Usherâs students whispered out âcool,â as only 10-year-olds can, with exaggerated vowels. I worked for years with elephants and wolves.â SMARTBOARD MUSIC MATH PROFESSIONALâIâve been a professional musician for 13 years,â he told the class, âbut before that, I was a chemistry teacher, and a zoologist. Mr Kachua had found a perfect segue into his program. âMrs Usher,â said one student, âdid you know sharks have teeth on their skin?â Ms Usherâs students were trying their best to settle into their seats when Mr Kachua arrived. ![]() In his 1976 hit, âSir Duke,â Stevie Wonder sang, âMusic is a world within itself / with a language we all understand.â But what precisely is the language of music? According to musician Mike Kachua, who recently visited Carry Usherâs fourth grade students at Sandy Hook School, musicâs language might just be math. Thereâs Math In The Music And Music In The Math ![]()
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