My approach
After 19 years of teaching, including years in exceptional student education, these are the principles I come back to every day. They shape my lessons, my consulting, and every setting in SoundQuest.
01
If a lesson only works once I've adapted it for one student, it wasn't designed well. I plan for the widest range of learners from the start: how a student will see the material, hear it, respond to it, and show what they know.
In practice: every activity has a version with no reading, a version with larger targets, and a version a student can complete with one simple response.
02
Many students need far more time to respond than a typical lesson or app allows, sometimes 15 seconds or more. When a student fails repeatedly, they don't learn the concept; they learn that music isn't for them.
In practice: new skills start errorless, so the student can't get it wrong. I widen the challenge gradually, adding real stakes only once the student is confident.
03
Students with disabilities are too often given activities instead of instruction. My students work on the same core concepts as their peers: steady beat, high and low, loud and soft, melody, tempo, and harmony. The adaptation changes how they get there, never what they learn.
In practice: every lesson names the musical concept it teaches, and I can tell you how each student is progressing on it.
04
Not a participant. Not a visitor to music class. A musician, with preferences, a sound, and growth worth celebrating. How we talk about students shapes what we expect of them, and what they expect of themselves.
In practice: students make real musical choices in every lesson, and progress is celebrated out loud.
One lesson, many ways in
I offer adaptive private lessons for families and consulting for music programs.