Traveling math road show excites Petoskey students

“I love music and math, like I love the air we breathe,” professor Bill Hart told the 130 elementary school students gathered on the highly polished floor at Central School in Petoskey.

Waving the trumpet he had played with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra 45 years ago and continues to play today with big and small bands throughout the state, Hart warmed up his young audience with “Star Wars” and other songs of their choosing.

There was “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” but best of all was “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” with all the barnyard sounds the master could send out through his trumpet.

With those sounds, controlled by three valves that he kept moving at a blinding pace, Hart made a horse whinny, a cow moo, a rooster crow and a bumblebee take flight.

The exercise brought appreciative squeals from the audience that Hart led through mathematical byways and musical signposts.

At one point Hart, who was named “Michigan Professor of the Year” in 1990, told a few “third-grade jokes,” such as when he asked a reporter:

“Did I ever tell you that my father used to own a newspaper?” (Pause) “But my mother wouldn't let him read it.”

“Math, like music, becomes more interesting as we practice, taking personal responsibility for our progress,” he enthused.

“The philosophy behind my ‘Math with Hart' programs is to show how much fun we can have with mathematical thinking, and like with music that there are great rewards for those who persist.”

Hart spent a good 10 minutes convincing the students that they will never run out of notes for songwriting.

“I remember my first piano lesson,” he recalled. “My teacher blocked off a handful of notes on the keyboard and said, ‘We only have 18 notes to create a melody based on what most people can sing.'

And then she asked me, ‘Billy, do you think we'll ever run out of melodies?'”

Bill told the students: “But mathematics teaches us there are a lot of ways to rearrange small amounts of objects. And I found out that if you're going to try to write a song, 18 notes is all you'll ever need. It's incredible how many ways you can line up small amounts of objects.”

On the overhead screen, Hart displayed an image of a 12-note keyboard with green dots on three of the keys, and while pointing to the dots with the fingers of one hand, he played the notes on his trumpet with the other.

Hart noted that the same three notes, when varied a bit in length, begin the songs “There's No Business Like Show Business” and the “Jeopardy” TV theme.

To amplify, he played the first four notes of “Rudolph” and used the same notes to begin “Silent Night,” “The Toreador Song,” “The Last Time I Saw Paris” and others, just by changing the length of the notes.

Upping the ante still a bit, he showed that one note played seven times introduces “The William Tell Overture,” known to generations as “The Long Ranger” theme, as well as the song “Jingle Bells.”

As the clincher, Hart held up a carton of 12 eggs and asked the students how long they thought it would take to show one photograph a second of every possible configuration of the eggs in the carton.

He took them through a convincing argument that concluded it would take 15 years and 65 days to show all of the photographs.

And the number of photographs? He wrote: 479,001,600.

It's a short segue to a discussion of the advantages of peeling large potatoes over smaller ones, and then to:

“If you study biology you're going to find out that small animals have to eat a lot of food in the winter time because they have a lot of surface area to heat with respect to what's inside their skins.”

After the performance fifth-grader Nikki Schlueter said she loves math and thought Hart was “awesome.”

“It was the best assembly I ever attended,” she said.

When asked if she learned something, fifth-grade teacher Jean Dell said: “Absolutely.”

Principal and fellow trumpet player Dale Lewis, who acted through the assemblies as Hart's straight man, said later: “Our students really enjoyed the music and the neat math tricks that they learned and will be sharing with their parents. It's nice to see how math can be fun and can apply to everyday life.”

Lincoln principal Tom VanDeventer told Hart, “Your assembly is exactly what we need: educational and fun. Our students really connect to your program.”

Hart also performed at Lincoln, Sheridan and Ottawa schools during his two-day foray into the Michigan north, with a stop at North Central Michigan College to discuss a possible seminar about his recollections of big bands and famous people he has known.

“I gave my ‘Big Band Memories' program once a few weeks ago. It was so much fun, I want to do more with it,” Hart told Charles MacInnis who books performances for the college.

In the program he shares the wonderful memories he had with such performers as Eddie Fisher, Dinah Shore, Jack Jones, Frankie Laine, the Maguire Sisters, Les Paul and Mary Ford, and the Lennon Sisters.

Hart, one of the nation's top musicians before he was 20, decided early on to pursue a relatively secure career in mathematics - achieving professorship during his 43 years at Macomb Community College north of Detroit teaching calculus, statistics and math for education, while never leaving music as an avocation far behind.

During his non-teaching days, Hart travels through the state, conducting his programs “The Joy, Wonder and Fun of Mathematics” before students of all ages, as well as performing with various bands.

Married for 33 years to Lydia, a native of Argentina, the Harts visit Buenos Aires each year for vacation and otherwise.

“When a school retires its math books, we collect them and send them down to South America. The project put 84,000 donated books onto the shelves of the schools and libraries of Argentina,” he said.

Talk to Hart over a beverage of any kind, and he'll tell you memorable tales, such as the one that occurred in the spring of 1959 when the Michigan State University band was staying at the Mather Hotel in Ishpeming, where an all-star cast stayed while “Anatomy of a Murder” was being filmed.

During breakfast, Hart slipped out of the dining room to ask the young desk clerk if she would divulge Jimmy Stewart's room number. After demurring, she disclosed the movie star was in room 21B.

When Stewart greeted Hart at the door, Hart told him he and his family had seen “The Glenn Miller Story” several times and asked if Stewart, who had portrayed the famous musician in the film, would honor him with an autograph.

Hart got the autograph, just as 47 years later, last Saturday night, in fact, he persuaded singer/guitar player Jack Williams to share a few notes at an impromptu jam session at John D. Lamb's Songwriters Retreat at Harbor Springs High School's new auditorium.

The few promised notes stretched on for over an hour, with singer and instrumentalist Eric Schwartz joining in. Finally the janitor ended the session by announcing he would douse the lights in five minutes time.

Then, precisely at midnight and to the dismay of the assembled musicians and admirers, he kept his promise.

For more information visit www.mathwithhart.com and www.musicwithhart.com.

Copyright © Math with Hart