Inclusion is at the heart of United Sound, a peer mentoring program that provides musical performance experiences for students with special needs (called New Musicians).
The United Sound method was created for use in a school setting, but the same training can be used by private lesson teachers.
Below are training videos that showcase United Sound’s program and resources.
Please note: These videos were created for students participating in United Sound programs in public schools around the country. We hope that the concepts will help shed light on working with students with special needs, but we acknowledge that private teachers’ experiences might vary greatly.
In this program overview, you’ll see the relationship between Peer Mentor Abby and New Musician Jessica develop and grow during the school year.
If you’d like to reflect on your own teaching while watching the video, download this worksheet. United Sound suggests thinking about the key themes of “Empower,” “Communicate” and “Modify” as it applies to each clip.
Parents of New Musicians express how United Sound has positively affected their children in this video.
Teachers may find it helpful to reflect on:
In this video, United Sound founder Julie Duty explains how to utilize the United Sound methodology to create an inclusive environment for New Musicians, Peer Mentors and all band students.
While watching the video, reflect on how you might implement some of United Sound’s methodology in your teaching. You may find it helpful to download this worksheet to help you dig deeper on the key themes of EMPOWER, COMMUNICATE and MODIFY during the video’s pause-for discussion sections.
This video shows you how to install and use the United Sound font from Finale (filmed during the ABLE Assembly at Berklee College of Music in April 2019).
You can download the Finale font here. You can download Finale font flashcards here.
Now, you’re ready to use the Finale font to write music in modified “food” notation. Good luck!
Parents, students, teachers and administrators strongly endorse the United Sound program.
If you would like to learn more about United Sound or if you are interested in setting up a program at your school, visit the United Sound website.
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