 Let me see how good I am before you. Let's see what we start with. All right. I'm a little rusty. That's because they ain't playing my shit in Latin. That's what it is. Let me get in pitch. He ain't wet this shit because I will. What'd you say? Try the lower one. I ain't hear what you say. Put this on the table, you're a genius. Guess who we in here with today? Mr. Marcus Blackwell. That's just like class, I swear. Make music count. What's going on? How you doing, man? Man, you say you got this fail-proof system that can teach people math and music at the same time. Yes, yes, sir. Okay, give us a little background first. I'll see you to hooded. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'll get to that in a second. You will? Yeah. So just, just, that's how you do? This is my class room. We're going to get to it right now. Tell me when you're going to get to it. With a hoodie, you know, that's where I'm waiting for it. Don't worry about it, go ahead. I'm just messing with you now. So everything with me starts with, I played the piano. Word. I played it several, since I was five. Classical, jazz, gospel, R&B. All right, let me see you play this, dude. I knew that was coming. Yeah, because you were about to sit there and act like... What cue were you in? Don't worry about it. I played, that was Pee Wee Longway I was playing. You ever know Pee Wee Longway? Nope. I bet. So you're going to sing it? Go ahead. You're going to leave the door open? Go ahead. Girls in the club showing love. Not that she has the wrong song. I never heard it on the Casio before. Come on. What's up? And the Laws come in. All right, Mr. Marcus Blackwell. Okay. I thought you were just going to really, you know, just do your thing. There's a toy. There's a toy. There's a toy. Oh, okay. You really just put it over there so I wouldn't have it. Oh, yeah. All right, go ahead. I'm Pete Gaines, bro. I teach, man. You know, it's just like class. You know, we're going to do the math first, then we're going to get to the music. But no, all this started because I used to be really bad at math. Really? Yeah, math is already intimidating. And I would go so far to say that math is taught a particular way when it comes to black and brown kids. Which way would you say that is? The worst way. Okay. Because where all this comes from is the fact that there's a lack of culture when it comes to curriculum. Right? And for example, if you ask a kid from the hood to solve a word problem that references, I don't know, whole foods and they don't know or haven't been to a whole foods, you worried about that versus taking out the math to answer the question. So what that represents is a lack of cultural responsiveness in lessons. And so the way that I said we're going to fix that is by taking popular songs that we all listen to on a radio. That's what I'm going through. I see you got two chains. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is that math class. Katy Perry. Yeah. Beyonce. Exactly. So imagine you and, and it's so funny in class, like when we introduce this, the first thing that happens when kids see the list of songs is they look to see if it's OK. Burri, imagine you saying your little son in school, he come back and know how to play Rick Ross hold me back in a full scale. Yeah, but it's cool because he got there by doing algebra and then is more confident to talk about algebra because Rick Ross was the end result from him doing that math work. OK. So you as a parent is like, I need more Rick Ross in your lessons because it's transitioning back to more confidence in math. Oh, algebra. So we're not going to do algebra today. Good. But I did. I wouldn't do no algebra with you anyway. But I did. Algebra almost made me drop out of school. No, it actually, that's the case for most people. Algebra is like you make it if you do well or you don't. Brown was better at algebra than geometry though. So that makes sense because geometry is different. It is. It is. Shapes and stuff. Algebra still numbers until variables. But I did prepare something for you. Like what? I'm going to teach you how to play a song on the spot if you bear with me. If I bear with you? Yeah. You better bear with me. I got you. I got you. I ain't shit as a student. I tell you, let out. Those are the exact students that we work with. The ones that ain't shit. OK. Because we're going to make them do well. This man got a whole program. So here's the thing. This main music count is an app. It's a free app that you can download onto your phone. Make sure you download the app and make music count. Yeah. You scan the barcode there. And so what happens is you pick the subject you want to work on. So we're going to do simple fractions. OK. All right. So what happens is... Don't say they're simple fractions. I got you. I got you. Trust me. Trust me. You're not about to make me look bad. No, no, no. We would end up all this shit out. I promise. So you pick your subject you want to learn and then the songs pop up. And again, it's like you say it's the list, right? So we're going to learn straightened in by Migos. OK, bad. OK. So here's how it works, right? This is how we're counting on the piano. So all you're doing is when you move from one key to another, it's a half. Because in music, it's called a half step. So this question says G plus one. There are two halves in one, right? So all you have to do is start on G, you're going to go half one. So G plus one would be A. And you'd push that as your answer. OK. OK. I'm going to do another one. So E minus one would be what? D? Exactly. Look at them doing math. Stop playing with me. I thought math was a problem. It's not. So yes, E minus one is D. All right. You want to roll? What's C plus two? It's got to be E. Exactly. Exactly. And so what you're doing right now is you're getting the notes as answers, but you're applying math to get there. That's what we're doing. So you get all of them right. And so when you get them all right, you're solving for the notes to play the song. So your reward is you get to hear the song and the notes will light up on the piano so that you can play. This is when you play. Hold on. Stop playing with me. It's hard to tell you. That's enough. Oh, that's crazy. You saw that? I put this. You saw that? I can't just play with tape playing. I got to put my own in there. And that's fine. This is the reward for doing math right. The remix song produced by PSA told me. I'm almost there. See, now I might be able to slide this because you played it there. See, look at you. I'm on the summer. I'm on the summer. Catch me in the studio all next week. Price just went up. You should be teaching him. He does music. Oh, fantastic. Show him one. Because if you could teach him, then you're good. Because I'm a great learner. He on the other hand. So wait, let's break down what we just did though. We got to talk about what we just did. You applied the concept of fractions to the piano. And as a result played a song on a piano. And you've never played a piano before. Exactly. So you get a two for one for doing your math correctly. That's what this is. And the reaction that you had is exactly the reaction you should have in a learning environment. Something that's positive that reinforces what you just learned. That's the reason why we perform better than your kind academies and other math platforms. Where is this program available at? Yeah, so first it's in App Store. So just search, make music count on your phone or iPad or tablet. This is too good, bro. You got to be teaching this in person, bro. No, so here's what we do. We actually license this to school districts. So that they can implement it into math class, music class, after school program. That's very positive. I like that. We've even used this in children's hospitals, man. Really? Yeah, because kids that have illnesses, have a longer stay in the hospital, need ways to keep up with their learning. So this is the way to do it. So the cool part is the list of songs is endless, right? Like it's all genres. I mean everything from Migos to Taylor Perry to, what did I say? Katie Perry. Taylor Perry. Taylor Perry. Ooh, look. What music you got? The kids pop songs. You get the money, but hello. Right, right. And that's the beauty of it, right? Like once you do one lesson, you just go down a rabbit hole just looking for your favorite song. Then you just go to another subject. So we did fractions. There's integers, multiplication, division, algebra, pre-calculation calculus for the older kids. So it's a full curriculum. And then after you do the math, you can practice the song that you just solved. So that's the piano playing piece, right? Like you got to practice the song as you learned it, so you can do that too. That is dope, man. And just for you to, you came up with this? Yeah, I did. I did at Morehouse. Told you I was going to bring it back. Now like, math is all confidence. That's really, I mean really anything, right? And I got confidence in math once I saw that you could apply it to the piano. And so I'm surrounded by some really great professors at Morehouse that believed in this crazy idea. I was like, well, if I'm this good at the piano, I got to be good at math. So I majored in math and then made what I wish I would have had as a kid. Just something creative to connect the dots. Because as long as I've been, as long as I've had an issue with math, it made no sense. I should have said all that piano that you're doing, don't you know that that's math? And I would have been healed a long time ago. Man, I need to get with you. You got me brainstorming over here, bruh. So I was thinking of a way to just teach grown people shit. You know how much shit grown people don't know? So it's crazy, right? So I've made this for kids, adults like it, because it's an easy way to play the piano without the sheet music and the theory. So they're just as excited. How about we come up with one when you get it wrong and you get roasted? Boy, you dummy head. You just get roasted by your favorite comedian. You take the quiz and you fail. That's part of learning, though. That's part of school. I'm on your ass, boy. You stupid ass, dumb ass. Can't even add, can't you try and don't know fresh and stupid ass but not knowing ass? That's part of school. Yeah, I know. That's the important part of school. I'm telling you, these kids want to be entertainers, too. You better get your math right, James. I know you. Man, we got to come over to the program. Hey, I mean, this is it right here, you know, like, but the crazy part is, you know, I've been doing this for nine years. It started off with bringing these into the classroom and then we made the app. You're a teacher now? Are you currently a teacher? I've been an official teacher. I started off at the Boys and Girls Club doing this. Okay. You know, just going in and trying it out and, you know, because I actually, like, I wasn't thinking about teaching at all because not to be funny, but I thought teachers didn't, teachers don't make much money. Don't say that. Well, it's the truth. They're going to be on your ass. No, it's not me. I'm not deterring this. We know that, but you can't just say it like that, though, because then they're going to be like, what I'm saying is it needs to, they need to help and improve that, you know? So I had to start in an after-school space, right? And it's for a number of reasons. Number one, there's less red tape in an after-school space. They're looking for anything that holds their attention. And, you know, when you think about it, we were kind of getting blocked a little bit going into school day because, you know, when you think about who creates curriculum, it's not anybody looks like me. Who is that? Who is that? We don't even know. Who made Common Core? I don't know. That's the stupidest math they ever had. It's awful. It's like slowing down. It's like they made up math. They made up math to be harder than what it already is. Exactly. So, you know, and then here I come, like, oh, here's a new way to learn math with music. And they're like, no. You got that core math in there? No. That is, because it's never real. No, no, no, we don't do that. It's just foundational stuff, like the, you know, the milestones, multiplication, division, algebra, stuff like that. What would you say to some people who may be struggling with math, like, in real life? Like, you the genius with the math, like, talk to the people about this. You know it's an epidemic. Yeah, it's confidence, right? But it also requires the right teacher, right? So that's really where it starts. You know, if you have a bad teacher, it's over before it even begins, right? So for parents that have kids that may come home and complain about a teacher, you got to listen to that, because they're not making that up, right? Sometimes, especially if you have, most math teachers are foreign, you may not be able to understand. And you got to be able to take in what's being taught, right? So that's first. And then it's just, you know, using creative ways to, because here's the crazy part, right? Why it makes no sense to be bad at math, because we use math with everything. So my thing is, find how math connects to your passion. That's what I did. Right. Math connected to the piano that I played my entire life. Yeah, yeah. So that's how, so whether it's... I think people good in some forms of math, though, because everybody know how to subtract, because we used to not having shit. You're just taking shit away. Everybody can subtract. Exactly. So make it real, right? Yeah. But that goes back to what we were saying. This is why a culturally responsive curriculum is needed, because I can't connect to what I'm learning if I've never experienced what it's trying to teach me, you know? Man, you're going to do well in this shit, because your voice is so believable. It's the truth. It's the truth, man. You got to believe whatever you're saying, bro. No, man. It's the truth. You got to be thinking, I can fuck with algebra. Knowing. Knowing. You can. Algebra is no joke. We can. Look, you just got to find your favorite song, and that's it. Well, man, what can they find in the program? Yeah. So first you can find us in the App Store or on Google Play. It's called Make Music Count. It's called Make Music Count. It's free. It's absolutely free to download onto your phone, iPad, or tablet. You can find our books in the Village Retail Store in Pont City Market. You can also find our workbooks on walmart.com. And also my website, MakeMusicCount.com. So if you're a school district, please reach out to us. Your kids, especially in this pandemic, we need creative ways to battle the learning loss from the pandemic, right? This is the way you're going to be able to get the kids back into the classroom. So also... Blackboard JB. Oh, yeah. So I update this every week. So whatever's on the Billboard Top 100 is in here. Right. Whatever's on TikTok is in here. All right. Let me ask you this on some music stuff, though. Yeah. You know, like they say music has been dumbed down, right? Have you heard... As a musician, have you heard any of these new rap songs that are more complex than people are giving them, musically complex than people give it credit for? Yeah. So I'm a big fan of Chloe and Hallie's music. Their music, if you listen to it, it's really complex. It's really complex. And I appreciate that. And I mean, you got to have different types of music anyway, right? You got to reach different types of people. It's not... I wouldn't say it's dumbed down. Music isn't dumb at all, right? That's too powerful. That's just what the argument is. Yeah. I don't even understand why they say that. I don't need no shit that's about to make me go look up something. Oh, I wanted to tell you something else about this music thing, right? So we found out that our app has created a space to market music where labels can't currently reach, which is a school day, right? So if you think about Spotify, Amazon Music, none of them can access the school day. That's what our app does. So we actually talked to labels and like Cartoon Networks about putting their content in here so that they can market it through learning. That's how we're going to make it. That's the content too. Hey, let's put it in there. Because now your content will be able to help kids get better at learning. That's the connect. That's what we bring to the table. It's marketing you need and connect to your content to help people learn. That's it. That's a dope concept, bro. I think you really got a really dope product right here. Thanks, man. We can do anything to help get it out there so people can know. Let's help our kids get this mad and get this music. Yeah, man. Now I appreciate it. I appreciate it. And I appreciate you coming through here too, Mr. Marcus Blackwell. Yeah, man. Oh, also follow me on social media. Twitter is at underscore, make music count. Instagram is at underscore, make music count. I've got a YouTube channel. If you just search make music count, we'll pop up. But yeah, you know. Who else on your team that's helping you make this possible? So, you know, I'm not a coder, so I've got a developer. What? No, you can't do everything. You can do math. You can code. No, you just had me believing in myself. Don't you dare tell me what you can do. You asked me by the team. No. Math, coding, same shit. Come on, Mr. Marcus. You got to have a team. I believe in you. Thank you, thank you. You can do it. I know what I think I can. I know you could. However, I got a team that handles that right now. So, I got a team of developers. I've got some designers that help me with my websites and stuff. We're still kind of small. But we're looking to grow our team because I need more people to help me make more lessons. But I know a gang of teachers. You got to be fine with them drinking, though. When they're not at the school, they don't drink some wine. If the math is right. They grade it, man. But they just drink wine, though. They can make questions on their own and submit them. I don't, you know, that's on their own time. All right, man. I'm letting you know. I'm letting you know. Yeah, we're looking to help teachers, man. There's a way they can. Let's make that connection. Yeah, we're helping teachers make some more money, too. Because, you know, the pandemic really sucked for kids. But it's also got to help teachers, too. I've been trying to help a few teachers, man. They sent me the Amazon list. We bought a few teaching materials and stuff like that. Working with the Boys and Girls Club in my hometown. And I try to help as much as I can. That's awesome, man. When it comes to, you know, giving back. Because education is important. And like you said, you get that right teacher that can really reach you. Yeah, man. You can have a breakthrough. That's it. That's it. So, man, shout out to all the teachers out there. Yeah. Doing that thing. All the, not just teachers, the educators, the principals, the people who make sure the kids are safe and getting on the bus. The bus drivers, the lunch ladies, the everybody who got something to do with the educational process. Yeah. Marcus Blackwell, it's your first time over here in the trap with the black market. Let it be the last. No, I'd love to come back. Keep updating that list every week. I'm one of your star students. You saw me go from zero to a hero. On the spot. Where, Kat? Ring the bell. Oh, you want to hit? Kat, love the bell. You want to ring the bell? Ring the bell. Let them know the black market is open. Oh, for 50 bucks, I'm safe. A black excellent spot like the black market is open. Let's take a picture, man. Awesome. Awesome. I gotta let them see me because I graduated. Took me no time.