Music lessons or music therapy: which are you looking for?

Music lessons teach you to play. Music therapy uses music to work toward clinical goals, and it’s run by a board-certified music therapist. If the goal is playing songs, you want a teacher. If the goal is clinical, you want a therapist. Some families end up wanting one of each, and that combination works fine.

I’m a music teacher in Denver, so I sit on one side of this line. This page exists because people land on it from both directions, and the kindest thing I can do is help you find the right door fast.

Music therapy is clinical work that happens through music. A board-certified music therapist, an MT-BC, designs sessions toward goals a family or care team names: communication, emotional regulation, motor skills, memory. Playing well isn’t the point; the music is the tool. Therapists assess, document progress toward the goals, and coordinate with the rest of a care team when there’s one.

Lessons teach you to play the instrument you want to play. With me that means bass, guitar, drums, piano, or Logic Pro production, taught by ear and chord charts, on songs you or your kid actually love, in your home or online.

Lessons can still be built around how a particular brain works. My teaching runs interest first, in short varied segments, with movement treated as normal, and I’m flexible about lights, volume, and breaks. Plenty of my approach fits ADHD students well, and I say so plainly on the ADHD lessons page. You don’t need a diagnosis to want lessons that work this way. But none of that is music therapy, and I don’t pretend otherwise.

Here are some quick sorting questions.

Is the wish “I want to play songs”? Lessons. That’s true for ADHD kids and adults too, when playing is the goal.

Did a clinician, school team, or care plan recommend working on goals through music? Music therapy, with an MT-BC.

Are you hoping music will address a diagnosis? Start with the therapist. If playing for its own sake grows out of it later, a teacher slots in naturally at that point.

Both sound right? That happens, and the two work well side by side, with therapy handling the goals and lessons handling the love of playing.

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.

For music therapy, two Denver options I can point to as of August 2026. Rhythmic Roots Music Services is run by board-certified music therapists and offers both music therapy and adapted lessons; their directory listing notes a waitlist for individual services, so ask early. Swallow Hill Music also runs a music therapy program alongside its school. Both are the real thing.

For lessons, that’s me: bass, guitar, drums, piano, and Logic Pro production, in your home or online, with published rates. And in fairness, if you want a big-school environment with many teachers and group classes, Swallow Hill teaches lessons too. It’s a different door, and the same love of the thing.