Well then take a look at the video below.
MUSIC MATH AND ME HOW TO
Have your student keep this guide handy when working with fractions for a quick reminder and less tears.ĭo you know how to read music? I’m just talking about the basic stuff quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes.
MUSIC MATH AND ME FREE
This one page, front and back, free printable, lists all the steps necessary to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. There are so many steps involved when adding fractions and even more when converting a mixed number into an improper fraction. So, it is possible to be both numeric and musical, but the way a musician/artist learns is different.įractions are one of the first concepts to stump a musician. In fact, by the time he was 16 years old, he enrolled in college and was hired to be a math tutor at the college! Today he is a successful engineer who plays guitar and records music in his spare time. After that, he was able to excel in math. He needed lots of visuals, explanations that made sense to him, helpful tricks and quick reminders. It did not come naturally to him like music did. I had to teach him to sort numbers in his mind like I could. When I started homeschooling our son, I noticed he was musical like his father.
I would listen to the moms describe the person who was struggling to learn math (sometimes it was mom) and then found myself asking, “Is this student a musician or possibly an artist?” And every one of them answered, “Yes.” Then I would ask them if that same student could answer 18 + 7 in just a second or two and every time they answered, “No.” This lead me to believe that there are two different types of minds those that are numerically wired and those that are musically wired. And I always got the same two answers - EVERY time! I noticed that every time I had a discussion with one of these homeschooling moms, our conversation would almost always end up with me asking the same two questions. Each story was unique, but over time I started to see a pattern a common denominator, if you will. Over the years, I have talked to, oh I don’t know, probably one thousand homeschooling moms about the problems they are having with math. They call or write to me when they are having difficulties teaching math. One of the perks of my job is that I get to talk to homeschooling moms across the country every day. So, I have developed some unique ways to help teach math to musically wired minds. They have brilliant minds, but they process numbers differently. We may not all be genius, but I do believe that almost everyone can be described as either musical (creative/artistic) or mathematical, and recognizing which one your student is can help you teach math.Īfter homeschooling my son from birth to college, writing a math curriculum, and talking to hundreds of homeschooling parents, I believe that musicians and artists require a different approach when it comes to learning math. Both referred to as geniuses, but clearly their minds were wired differently one musical, one mathematical. He was recognized as one of the most influential scientists of all time, but the only interest he had in music was the science behind it. Sir Isaac Newton, on the other hand, was a physicist and mathematician. He was a musical genius, but surprisingly he struggled with math his whole life. Ludwig van Beethoven is considered to be the greatest music composer of all time.