MusicFirst. Excellent Teaching Second. Technology Third.

Back in 2012 I was given a once in a lifetime opportunity to start my own company in the music education space. I spoke with dozens of my colleagues and fellow music educators to find out whether my ideas for what I wanted to build were beneficial to teachers and students, as well as needed. Find the pain points and solve the problems with integrating technology into any music classroom. Naming the company was a very important step, and when a colleague said “How about calling it MusicFirst?” - I instantly knew that was the best name possible - mostly because it encapsulated my entire philosophy of technology in music education: Music is the most important thing, excellent teaching is next, and technology is in a distant third position. The technology is there to simply support your efforts to become the best possible teacher of the most important subject in school. Over the past 14 years, I’ve told the story of why we picked the name MusicFirst, but I recently heard that when some people first hear the name MusicFirst, they assume that we are a technology company that happens to work in music education. That assumption misses the point entirely. MusicFirst was built by music educators who know what it feels like to stand in front of students every day and try to help them become better musicians. Everything else comes second.

MusicFirst exists for one reason. To help music teachers and their students realize their full musical potential. That mission has not changed since the very beginning. The tools have grown. The platform has improved. The reach has expanded. But the heart of the company is still rooted in classrooms, rehearsal rooms, practice rooms, and performance spaces across K-12 schools. MusicFirst is music first because the people behind it are musicians and teachers. Many of us have taught band, orchestra, choir, general music, marching band, piano, and music theory. We have dealt with overflowing class sizes, limited budgets, and unrealistic expectations. We understand the pressure of concert season, the frustration of students who struggle, and the joy of watching a young musician finally get it. That lived experience shapes every decision we make.

Excellent teaching comes second, not because it is less important, but because it is inseparable from music itself. Great music teaching is not about software or screens. It is about listening, responding, modeling, guiding, and inspiring. I’ve always said that technology doesn’t make a bad teacher better - it likely makes them worse. In my opinion, once you start teaching, you need to take all of that energy that you spent becoming the best musician you can be, and focus it on becoming the best music educator you can be. MusicFirst does not try to replace that work. We try to support it. The goal is not to tell teachers how to teach. The goal is to give them tools that make their teaching more effective, more personal, and more sustainable. Music teachers are asked to do more than ever before. They are expected to differentiate instruction, assess growth, provide feedback, document progress, and still keep the joy of music alive. MusicFirst was designed to meet those realities head on. The tools we offer are not niche experiments or flashy add ons. They are practical, classroom tested solutions that address the core needs of music education across grade levels and disciplines.

Technology comes third, and that is exactly where it belongs. Technology is a means, not an end. To quote my dear friend Dr. Barbara Freedman: Teach music. The technology will follow. At MusicFirst, we are not interested in building tools just because we can. We build tools because teachers need them. Every product in our ecosystem exists to solve a real problem that educators face. Practice support. Assessment. Theory instruction. Ear training. Composition. Ensemble learning. These are not side projects. They are fundamental parts of a complete music education.

MusicFirst is often described as a platform, but it is more accurate to think of it as a trusted partner. We work alongside teachers rather than above them. We listen carefully to feedback from classrooms around the world. Many of our best ideas have come directly from educators who said, I wish I could do this, or I wish my students had access to that. Our role is to make those wishes possible at scale without losing sight of what matters most.

It is also important to say what MusicFirst is not. We are not a company built by tech geeks chasing a narrow slice of music education. We are not focused on one style of music, one method, or one philosophy. We are not a fly-by-night start-up company that is looking to make a ton of money by selling things to teachers that they don’t need. We’ve been helping music teachers for nearly 14 years. We support band directors, orchestra teachers, choir directors, general music teachers, modern band and music theory teachers alike. We believe that all students deserve access to high quality music learning, no matter where they live or what resources their school has. MusicFirst, excellent teaching second, technology third reminds us that music comes before metrics, teachers come before tools, and students come before everything else. As long has we hold to that order, MusicFirst will continue to do what it set out to do. Help music teachers teach more efficiently so that they can focus on what really matters, help students become more engaged with the music learning process, and help music remain a vital part of education for generations to come.