Facilitating Differentiated Instruction with MusicFirst
Over the past twenty years, differentiated instruction has become more than just a buzzword—it’s an essential framework for reaching every student in our classrooms. Like many music teachers, I have sat through professional development sessions that seemed aimed squarely at the core subject areas, leaving us to figure out how to apply the strategies in a rehearsal hall or general music class. What I’ve learned since then is that technology—especially music technology—can be the most powerful tool we have for differentiating instruction in meaningful ways for our students. Today, platforms like MusicFirst Classroom and the wide range of integrated software tools make it easier than ever to personalize learning for every type of student. What follows is a look at how differentiated instruction applies in music education, some traditional methods we’ve always used, and how technology available from MusicFirst has revolutionized our ability to make them work for every learner.
What is Differentiated Instruction?
Differentiated instruction means teaching in ways that acknowledge students’ diverse learning styles, backgrounds, and needs. Traditional lecture formats—even when enhanced with audio and visual aids—only address a narrow slice of learners. Cooperative projects, self-directed practice, and creative applications broaden access for all. Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, paired with Beatrice McCarthy’s 4MAT system, still provides a useful framework. Students who are logical, creative, auditory, kinesthetic, or visually oriented each bring strengths—and each needs opportunities that speak their language. Technology makes those adaptations possible in ways we could barely imagine when I first wrote about this ten years ago.
The MusicFirst Classroom has numerous built-in tools that allow for differentiated instruction. The first is that a teacher can create as many classes as they need - no limit - so you can create a class for a small group of students who might all be struggling to learn a specific concept - or maybe they’re switching instruments and need help reading a new clef. The Groups feature is one of my favorites, and my strong recommendation for the easiest way to differentiate within a class. You can create as many groups as you’d like, and students can be in as many groups as you need. For example, a common situation that I ran into was when a student had an IEP that I needed to make modifications for - especially with assessments. You can create a group with just one student in it and custom create assignments for them based on their IEP. The student has no idea that they’re in a group to begin with so this is the perfect way to adhere to the IEP while providing a seamless learning experience for the student. Additionally, the Assessment creator in the MusicFirst Classroom allows a teacher to customize any assessment for any student - including allowing for unlimited time to finish, modified questions, audio-only questions, and more.
Performance-Based Classrooms
In band, orchestra, and choir, we constantly juggle students who are far ahead with those who are just beginning. For years, strategies like sending students to practice rooms or peer-coaching have been the norm. Today, MusicFirst’s Performance Ensemble Bundle provides directors with integrated tools that transform those strategies.
PracticeFirst allows teachers to assign individualized repertoire or exercises, set personalized goals, and automatically receive assessment data when students submit recordings. Each student can progress at their own pace, with instant feedback guiding their growth.
Sight Reading Factory generates unlimited sight-reading exercises at customizable difficulty levels. Directors can differentiate instantly by creating one level of sight-reading for struggling students and a far more challenging version for advanced ones—all within the same rehearsal cycle.
AuraliaFirst and MusitionFirst, from Rising Software, give directors powerful tools to reinforce both ear training and theory fundamentals at differentiated levels. A beginning clarinetist and an advanced trumpet player can each work independently on exactly what they need, while the teacher monitors progress.
Flat for Education, the collaborative notation platform, allows students to create compositions together online. A single assignment can be tailored so that one student writes rhythms, another adds melody, and another arranges harmonies—each contributing through their strengths.
These tools allow us to do what we’ve always tried to do—meet each student where they are—but with far greater precision and efficiency.
General Music Classrooms
General music classrooms, where nearly every student in the school passes through, can be the most challenging for differentiated instruction. Technology creates opportunities to engage every learner, whether or not they identify as “musical.”
Focus on Sound provides interactive listening-based lessons that appeal to audio, visual, and even analytical learners, pairing rich media with structured content. Students can explore a concept through text, images, audio, and quizzes, each tapping into a different learning style.
OGenPlus - is a perfect introduction for all students to compose with music technology. With its Project Starter Library, your students can adapt and edit various musical styles, allowing them to personalize their compositions. They can learn about song writing and music for film. They create their own loops by adding in every note and sounds. Compositions can be exported into DAW's like YuStudio.
Soundtrap for Education, the online digital audio workstation, empowers students to compose with loops, record voices or instruments, and produce polished tracks. For a student who struggles to read notation, Soundtrap provides a path into music creation that is every bit as rigorous and rewarding as traditional notation-based work.
The MusicFirst Elementary platform provides rhythm grids, drag-and-drop activities, and interactive games that are perfect for younger learners, ensuring that differentiation starts early.
One of the simplest ways to differentiate is to offer choices. Instead of requiring every student to submit the same final product, today’s music technology makes it easy to allow multiple options: a podcast analyzing a favorite artist, a notated composition in Flat, a Soundtrap track, or a research project in Focus on Sound. With students generating their own rubrics alongside teachers, assessment becomes both fair and empowering.
The MusicFirst Classroom and the suite of software that we offer provide everything a music educator needs in one seamless, browser-based platform. Students can log in from anywhere, practice on their own time, and receive feedback instantly—while teachers can differentiate instruction across entire ensembles or classrooms without adding to their workload. Differentiated instruction remains one of the most powerful ways to ensure every student succeeds. Technology has caught up to the vision. For music educators, the question is no longer if we can differentiate effectively, but how creatively we will use these tools to unlock every student’s potential. If you’d like to sign up for a FREE 30-day trial to check out all of these options for differentiating instruction, click HERE. Let me know what you think!