Jeffrey Young
Sep 2, 20191 min
They’ve got the beat.
At first listen you would never know that music created at a New York City school was being played by students with special needs, nor that they were using iPads as instruments.
Music teacher Adam Goldberg has successfully integrated the iPad into his class, creating an iPad band of talented musicians at P177Q, a school for special-needs students based in Queens.
“Some of the students in this school who are very low functioning, are really making music,” Goldberg tells FoxNews.com.
Most of Goldberg’s students are on the Autism Spectrum and often have difficulty communicating, socializing and concentrating. Yet, with an iPad in front of them, they have been able to play complex music compositions like "Space Circus" by Chick Corea, a famous jazz composer.
Servicing more than 500 students, each with their own special need, Principal Kathy Posa points out that each “has their own personality, so it’s up to us to find what works best for each child.”
The iPad's intuitive ease of use enables the students to get past the technical hurdles and steep learning curves of traditional instruments so they can start expressing themselves through music straight away.
“So many barriers are broken,” Goldberg says.