Students learn life skills through music

BRONAUGH, Mo. --

Arthur Lee Land, of Fairfield, Iowa, brought his engaging brand of educational entertainment to the Bronaugh gym on Wednesday. Sept. 9, when he presented his Musical Life Skills Assembly program to the student body, staff and faculty.

Bringing Land to the school "was awesome," said Character Education Coordinator Julie Forkner. He used his unique approach as a way of "teaching kids things through music that have to do with Life," she said.

And Land's methods are unique; he uses what he has termed live looping, a form of live recording, to help kids learn about active listening and harmony. During his show, which he performs barefoot, he introduces the children to many different instruments and sounds. Using state of the art technology he "looped" together 15 different sounds and had the students try to count them as he created music with them.

He kept his show fun by using words and phrases students were familiar with. He kept them actively engaged by asking them questions. He used the looped music to illustrate how all of the sounds working together created harmony and was like a classroom with everyone working together.

Land kept the student interest by bringing a number of them on stage to create a loop using several different instruments played randomly and sometimes downright poorly. He made the point that the horrible racket it produced was just like a classroom with every one making "lame choices." He also said lame choices like using drugs or smoking or drinking would create the same kind of horrible racket in their life.

Land had a very entertaining style using his knowledge of instruments and music to keep the students interested and actively involved in the show. He had a number of students bring a variety of household items to his makeshift stage and they looped together the sound of a trash can drum, banging crocs, ripping paper, jangling keys, rattling peas and other noisy things with a few guitar chords, also played by a student, and right before their eyes and ears they created a harmonious piece of music.

Kids were laughing and clapping and high fiving and having fun while learning that they can all contribute, and if it is done in the proper way the end result is harmony. It was very entertaining and everyone went away smiling. In closing, Land told the students "You are all here to do something special and only you know what it is." He spoke briefly with a few students, posed for a couple of photos, and every one had someplace else to be, so the gym emptied out in a hurry.