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New Lab is Named After the ‘King of Pop’

What do coconuts and keyboards have in common? Answer: They both help make MusIQ.

Ashley Kang, a 3rd grader at Gardner Street Elementary School, tickled the ivories in the new Michael Jackson Music Education Lab. (photo by Aaron Blevins)

Gardner Street Elementary School on Monday unveiled its new music education program, MusIQ, which uses keyboards and interactive games to teach students how to read music. Available for students K-6, the program can differentiate between skill levels while guiding students toward proficiency, said Lesley Holmes, founder of the school’s parent group, Friends of Gardnerville.

“They’re going to learn the language of music,” Holmes said. “It’s a life skill that we’re giving them here.”

For beginners, MusIQ offers several different exercises that expand on previous lessons. In one exercise, students were asked to hit a high note or a low note on the keyboard depending on the size of a coconut. In another, they were simply allowed to improvise. Each student is paired with a computer, a keyboard and earphones.

“We think this will build a whole new generation of not only talented but skilled musicians,” Friends of Gardnerville member Garby Leon said.

Leon, who spent two years on UCLA’s music faculty, discovered the MusIQ program while searching for a way to expand his daughter’s musical talents. He then pitched the program to Gardnerville members, and last year, the creator of the software, Adventus chief executive officer Jim Mullen, agreed to visit Gardner Elementary while in Los Angeles.

“I said, ‘We have to have this,’” Principal Ken Urbina added.

Holmes said Friends of Gardnerville received private support to create the program. The Youth Policy Institute donated the computers, Adventus donated its software licenses for the first year and the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council and Guitar Center donated the keyboards.

Although Gardner is an arts program school, the elementary campus had been lacking in its music composition offerings, Urbina said. The inclusion of MusiQ will further ensure that students leave the school “with a well-rounded education,” he said.

“We’re laden with a wealth of art services, and this will be one more piece,” Urbina said.

Leon believes the program will fill that need nicely. He said MusIQ strays from traditional one-to-one teaching, allowing students to hone their own “interactive skills” at their own pace.

“Music is a skill,” Leon said. “It’s more than an intellectual understanding.”

He said the “beautifully engineered” program is available to students with special needs as well. It’s fun, and it provides Gardner an additional art offering in an era of district budget cuts, Leon said.

“What a ray of light this is,” he added.

Mullen, the Adventus CEO, referred to a 2006 Chinese University of Hong Kong study, which suggested that children with musical training had a better verbal memory than their counterparts. He said music composition skills would positively impact other areas of the students’ curriculum.

“It permanently increases the rate of learning,” Mullen said. “This is a real impact — not imagined.”

Leon suggested that parents lease the software for $10 per month and rent a keyboard so that their students can practice at home. He said the Friends of Gardnerville may be able to help some low-income families make arrangements.

“That’s the part of the program that is really important,” Leon said.

The lab, coined the Michael Jackson Music Education Lab, is in Room 8 of the elementary school, which is the school room where Jackson learned when he attended Gardner in sixth grade.

Holmes said Gardner is the second school in California to use MusIQ, and is the first in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She said the program will cost $17,000 per year, and the Friends of Gardnerville are seeking donations for next year.

For information, visit friendsofgardnerville.blogspot.com.

Tags | Gardner Street Elementary School, Michael Jackson, MusIQ