The fifth- and sixth-graders in teacher Shawn Tolley's after-school music club learn more than how to play half-notes on their sheet music.
Through the Electronic Music Club at Stevens Elementary in Spokane, Wash., Tolley blends his love of music with computer mastery to give kids real-world skills, according to a story in The Spokesman-Review.
Not only is the instruction a chance for students to mix audio tracks, but it also gives the young participants an opportunity to blend their right-brain and left-brain capabilities.
According to recent study published in the Harvard Gazette, doctors and scientists use music games to help patients overcome challenges to motor functions and afflictions like dyslexia. Music, which scientists say is motor and auditory in nature, helps the brain process information more rapidly and thoroughly, according to studies.
The Electronic Music Club is the first of its kind in the Spokane Public School system. It is an interactive curriculum that enables students to learn how the application of science, technology, engineering and math works in the recording industry.
But for the young participants, that doesn't matter. They say it's fun.
"I've been interested in how music can work in electronics," 10-year-old student Faith White told The Spokesman-Review. "I want to make music for a video game when I get older and it shows me how to do that stuff."
Tolley has 24 students in his club, and among them are budding audio engineers, disc jockeys and sound technicians.
The students will perform a concert in May with the help of the school choir.
