The author has first-hand knowledge of innovative ways in addressing creativity that is a base concept in the delivery of all music lessons. Because of the attitude, very often encountered, that music is a "frills" subject, the author has pursued applications that instill higher order thinking skills in several core subject areas. The experience that this tactic has provided contributed to the process in which the topic of this paper was researched.
Music education contributes to the development of reading skills. Reading is the interpretation of certain symbols to convey meaning. In America, children are taught to write from left to right. In music, writing a musical phrase with special symbols, called notes, is referred to as writing a musical sentence. Students make this association easily. It is one more way that the training of the left to right eye movement is developed for reading classes.
Music education can also be applied to mathematics. The notes used in music have specific lengths of duration represented by the shape of their symbol. The study of notation in music is easily transferred to the study of fractions, addition, multiplication and division.
Other areas affected by the application of musical concepts are writing classes, social studies because of the many folks songs learned from around the world, science, because of the ecology songs learned, as well as, geography, and history. Creative lessons, using technology, have fanned the flames for a new love of the author's music classes. Therefore, the author chose to research areas in which creativity development was presented. These resources were primarily found in education journals, however, several books, which are referenced at the end of this article, were particularly helpful in spurring new ideas for research about this topic. The use of software geared toward learning styles if one such example of how the research unveiled new ideas.
