Music lessons for ADHD brains.
Interest first, movement built in, ear before paper, and zero shame about the blank week. You don't need a diagnosis to want lessons that work this way.
If lessons didn't stick before, look at the method first.
The standard lesson method fails a lot of ADHD people the same way: assigned songs you don't care about, minute quotas, notation before music, and a weekly serving of shame when the practice log comes up empty. You got handed a method built on obligation, and you work on interest. When it didn't stick, everyone assumed the problem was you.
Here's how lessons with me run instead. This is how I teach everyone.
The commitments.
Interest first, immediately.
The whole point of music is to make something enjoyable and to enjoy doing it. That starts with wherever you're at and whatever you're into. We work on real songs you're actually interested in, from the start. If exercises are needed, for improvisation or to get more facility around the instrument, we use them, but only as far as they serve the songs you want to play.
We follow the energy.
We can switch things around. We can switch songs. I'll only push on something if you're close to a breakthrough. Music is physical, physiological, and mental, so we use the body, the ears, and the mind, and switching between them is how we reset when you need a reset.
Ear and patterns before paper.
Reading music is not part of what we do. We work by ear and from chord charts. You'll learn to identify what's happening in a song and play along with it, without worrying about how it's notated.
Practice for the feel.
I don't set minute quotas or daily floors. We go for a feeling. If you get the lick down in five minutes instead of twenty, you're done.
The blank week gets problem-solving.
Shame is a blunt tactic, and I'm not going to use it. If a week went by and the instrument stayed untouched, we problem-solve instead: is the goal connected to your actual life, and what's in the way? I want to help you get in touch with what you really care about, so you can build your practice around something you actually want. That's coaching, and I do a lot of it.
Keep the instrument where you live.
If touching the instrument is the hard part, we figure out what pulls you toward it and what you're afraid of. Often the fix is physical. Put the instrument in the middle of the room where you actually sit, out of the case and in your way. A lot of times that alone does it.
Feedback matches your goal.
The feedback matches what you've told me you're committed to: if you're in it for fun it stays light, and if you're working toward something specific and time-bound I'll coach you hard toward it.
Set up for your senses.
I'm sensitive to sensory needs, lights, volume and comfort, ADHD and AuDHD both, and we set the space up around you. In your own home, that's easy.
Between lessons, you can reach me.
Midweek, if you want it, I check in by text or a call. It covers whether you got to it, where it snagged, and quick answers on the tune if I know it off the top of my head. There's no instrument in hand and no video; it's a check-in. You also get direct text access to me between lessons.
What the evidence says.
Music training has reasonable evidence behind it for attention and inhibition skills in general child populations. The ADHD-specific studies, especially around rhythm and drumming, are promising and small. And nobody disputes that interest-driven, movement-rich, immediate-feedback activity is the kind of thing ADHD people engage with. I can't promise that music will change your brain, and I can promise lessons built the way you actually engage, with interest first, movement, patterns before paper and quick wins.
I'm a music teacher, not a music therapist. My job is helping you play. If you're looking for clinical goals with music, Denver has board-certified music therapists, and I'm glad to point you toward them.
Asked plainly, answered plainly.
No. Nothing here asks for paperwork. If lessons built this way sound right for how you work, that's enough.
No. I'm a music teacher, and lessons are for learning to play. If you're looking for clinical goals with music, Denver has board-certified music therapists, and I'm glad to point you toward them.
This is how I teach everyone. The page exists because ADHD students have usually been burned by the other way, and deserve to know this one exists before writing lessons off.
It's normal, and it's a design problem. We design for it: songs you actually care about, no minute quotas, the instrument out of its case in the middle of the household, and zero shame when a week goes blank.