In the Middle With Mr D

How should I handle a student who just mouths the words instead of singing?

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 18:34:07 +0000

When a Student Mouths the Words Instead of Singing: The Coach is About Way More Than Sight Singing

After 30 years of teaching middle school chorus, I know one thing for certain: Teaching music is only part of the job.

Picture this.

You're standing in front of your chorus. Most of your students are singing, but you notice one student moving their lips without making a sound.

What do you do?

Do you call them out? Move closer? Ask them to sing individually? Ignore it and hope they'll eventually participate?

And here's an even more important question:

Do you know WHY that student isn't singing?

Maybe they're embarrassed. Maybe they don't know how to match pitch. Maybe their voice is changing. Maybe they're afraid someone will laugh at them. Or maybe they've simply learned that mouthing the words is an easy way to get through chorus without participating.

Each possibility calls for a different response.

And that's exactly why I wanted to make this video.

Watch: What Do You Do When a Student Mouths the Words?

Click here to watch this one minute video.

In this video, I explore a situation almost every middle school chorus teacher has encountered.

It's a simple classroom moment, but the way we handle it can have lasting consequences.

Sometimes the smallest interactions with our students are the ones that matter most.

S-Cubed Was Always About More Than Teaching Sight Singing

When I created the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners, I wasn't simply trying to help teachers have a fun way to teach sight singing successfully. It's always been part method and part philosophy.

I was trying to help teachers build successful middle school chorus classrooms.

Yes, the program teaches sight singing through a carefully sequenced process. But anyone who has taught middle school knows that even the best lesson plan can fall apart if students aren't engaged, aren't participating, or don't feel comfortable taking musical risks.

That's why classroom management, pacing, student engagement, and building confidence have always been central to my approach.

You cannot separate successful sight singing instruction from successful classroom management.

And that brings me to something I've been working on for quite some time.

My New S-Cubed AI Coach Does More Than Help You Teach Sight Singing

When I began developing my S-Cubed AI Coach on Studio.com, I knew I didn't want to create something that simply told teachers what to do on Lesson 1, Lesson 2, or Lesson 3. I've already done that in the original program.

I wanted to create something that could help teachers navigate the unexpected things that happen when they're actually standing in front of students.

Things like:

A student who mouths the words instead of singing.
A student whose changing voice cracks and classmates begin giggling.
A class that won't stop talking long enough to begin an activity.
Students who are afraid to sing because they don't want to make mistakes.
A lesson that isn't progressing as quickly as expected.
A class with widely different levels of musical experience.
A teacher who needs to adjust instruction because a concert is approaching.

These aren't hypothetical problems.

They're the kinds of situations I encountered throughout my teaching career.

And they're the kinds of situations that teachers bring to me when they attend my professional development sessions.

The S-Cubed AI Coach is designed to help teachers think through these challenges, not simply move from one sight singing lesson to the next.

Imagine Having Someone to Talk Through a Classroom Problem With Right there the moment you need it.

When I was a young teacher, I didn't always have someone available to help me figure out what to do when something unexpected happened.

Sometimes I made the right decision.

Sometimes I didn't.

And sometimes I learned the hard way.

That's part of teaching.

But what if a teacher could describe a classroom situation and receive practical guidance based on the teaching philosophy I've developed over three decades?

That's what I've been working to create.

The S-Cubed AI Coach can help teachers explore classroom management strategies, differentiate instruction, adjust pacing, reflect on their teaching, and work through real-world situations.

It isn't meant to replace teacher judgment.

Quite the opposite.

It's designed to support teachers as they develop their own judgment, confidence, and classroom management skills.

And while it's grounded in my S-Cubed teaching approach, its usefulness goes beyond teaching students to read music.

A Special 20% Discount Through October 16!

To celebrate the launch of my S-Cubed AI Coach, I'm offering 20% off through October 16, 2026.

If you're a beginning middle school chorus teacher, someone using the S-Cubed program, or an experienced educator looking for another resource to help navigate classroom challenges, I hope you'll take a look.

You can explore the AI Coach here:

https://studio.com/daleduncanscubedcoach

The regular subscription options are $89 for three months or $249 annually. The launch discount is available through October 16.

Are You a Creator? There's an Opportunity for You, Too!

One of the exciting things about building this project on Studio.com is the opportunity for other educators, content creators, and entrepreneurs to explore creating their own AI-powered experiences.

If you've developed expertise that helps other people, you might be interested in seeing what Studio.com makes possible.

I also have a creator affiliate link. If you're interested in exploring the platform for your own work, you can use my link here:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

Disclosure: This is my affiliate link. I may earn a commission if you sign up through it.

One Final Thought

Let's return to that student who's mouthing the words.

It's tempting to see the behavior and immediately decide how to correct it.

But experienced teachers know that the behavior we see doesn't always tell us the whole story.

Sometimes we need to ask better questions before we can find better solutions.

That's true for sight singing.

It's true for classroom management.

And it's true for teaching in general.

After 30 years in the classroom, I'm still passionate about helping teachers find ways to reach their students.

The technology may be different today, but my purpose hasn't changed.

I want teachers to feel successful, and I want students to experience the joy of making music.

If you've ever dealt with a student who mouths the words instead of singing, I'd love to hear how you handled it.

Leave a comment below. Your experience might be exactly what another teacher needs to hear.

The S-Cubed AI Coach can solve so many issues beyond sight singing. It is 20% off until October 16th on Studio.com

— Dale Duncan

Creator, S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners

#MiddleSchoolChorus #MusicEducation #SCubedSightSinging #ClassroomManagement #AIinEducation

When a Boy’s Voice Cracks: Helping Middle School Singers Keep Their Confidence

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:47:24 +0000

A boy who used to sing confidently suddenly cracks on a note. A few classmates giggle. He looks embarrassed, and the next time you ask the class to sing, he barely opens his mouth.

What do you say? What do you do next?

For a middle school choir teacher, this moment involves much more than finding the right notes. You are navigating a changing voice, a student’s confidence, and the way classmates respond—all while trying to keep rehearsal moving.

During our "live" S-Cubed AI Coach demonstration, David Stauffer brought a situation like this to the app. His question involved a boy whose falsetto was cracking, friends who giggled, girls who became shy, and a classroom that lost its spark.

That is the kind of classroom question I wanted this Coach to help teachers think through.

Watch the short clip below to see the question and the Coach’s response.

Click here to watch the video of this discussion during our "live" test of the app.

Protect the student’s dignity first

One part of the response stood out to me: protect the student’s dignity and quietly reset the emotional temperature of the room.

That matters because a student who is embarrassed may remember how the room felt long after everyone else has forgotten the cracked note.

The Coach suggested language a teacher could use:

“Voices change. That is normal, and it happens to many excellent singers. We do not laugh at someone while they are learning. We support each other here.”

I appreciate the calm, matter-of-fact approach. It acknowledges what happened, establishes an expectation, and gives the teacher a way to move forward without making the student the center of a lengthy discussion.

You would adapt those words to your own voice and your students. The purpose is to make the expectation clear: this classroom is a place where people can learn without being humiliated.

Give the class a way to move forward

Correcting the laughter is only part of the moment. What happens immediately afterward matters, too. As teachers, we provide the culture of the classroom.

The response suggested moving into a whole-class activity so attention does not remain fixed on the boy who cracked.

That is a useful question to ask yourself before your next rehearsal: What familiar activity could I use to help everyone rejoin the music?

The goal would be to give students something manageable to do together and give that singer a chance to participate without another spotlight on him.

Offer support privately

The Coach also suggested speaking with the student privately rather than asking him to demonstrate the problem in front of the class.

That conversation gives the teacher a chance to listen. What feels comfortable to him? What feels difficult? Is he worried that everyone will laugh again?

The guidance included finding a comfortable range and avoiding pressure to force the voice. Those suggestions still require a teacher who can hear the student, observe his response, and make appropriate musical decisions.

An app cannot hear what I hear in the room or know that student the way his teacher does. It can help organize possible next steps. The teacher decides how to use them.

Why this belongs in a conversation about the S-Cubed AI Coach

People often know me through the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners. But sight singing happens inside a classroom filled with relationships, emotions, different abilities, and unexpected interruptions.

A student who is afraid to sing needs more than the next sight-singing exercise. A class that laughs at someone needs an expectation reset. A teacher facing both situations may need help deciding what to prioritize.

I spent 30 years teaching, and I created the S-Cubed AI Coach using my curriculum, procedures, teaching philosophy, videos, and classroom experience. Its initial S-Cubed lesson guidance focuses on Lessons 1–10, but questions like David’s show how the conversation can extend into the classroom challenges surrounding those lessons. If there is demand for the Coach, I will add more all of Level one of the program.

This clip is one example of its guidance in a live demonstration. It gives you something specific to examine: What seems useful? What would you adapt? What would you add?

The teacher remains the professional

In the clip, I say something I want teachers to hear clearly: we are still the humans, and we are still the professionals.

You bring the relationships. You hear the voices. You know the class. You decide whether a suggestion fits the student standing in front of you.

My goal is to offer another way to stand beside the teacher—to help you think through a difficult moment and prepare for what comes next.

If you would like to explore the Coach, you can find it here:

Explore the S-Cubed AI Coach

Studio.com is offering 20% off from October 6 through October 16, 2026. The S-Cubed curriculum is purchased separately.

What has helped your boys keep singing confidently through voice changes? Share a phrase you use, a rehearsal adjustment, or a question you are still working through. Your experience could help another teacher tomorrow.

—Dale Duncan

This Morning, I Realized I'm in Very Good Company

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 13:01:42 +0000

Today is launch day.

After months of building, testing, questioning, revising, listening, and occasionally defending what I’m creating, the new Studio coaching apps are officially out in the world.

So this morning, I did something pretty simple.

I went to Studio.com and started looking around.

And then I saw Idina Menzel.

Yes. That Idina Menzel.

Her app is called Mastering the Art of Broadway Performance.

Tony Award winner. Broadway star. Elphaba in Wicked. Elsa in Frozen. One of the most recognizable voices of her generation.

And there she was with her own vocal performance coaching app.

Seeing her there felt validating.

Not because Idina Menzel and I have the same career. We obviously don't.

But because we are both participating in something that I believe is going to become increasingly common: taking the knowledge that an experienced person has accumulated over decades and using new technology to make more of that knowledge available to the people who need it.

And Idina isn't alone.

As I explored Studio this morning, I found accomplished people from music, filmmaking, engineering, cooking, magic, business, and many other fields using this technology to extend their teaching beyond what would ever be possible one person at a time.

This matters to me because sharing my work creating this app hasn't always been comfortable.

If you've followed what I've been sharing over the last several weeks, you know that reactions to my S-Cubed AI Coach have been mixed.

Some people have been fascinated.

Some have been excited.

Some have immediately understood what I'm trying to build.

And some people have very strong feelings about AI.

I understand that.

New technology raises legitimate questions. Educators should ask questions. We should think carefully about what technology does well, where it falls short, and where human judgment absolutely must remain at the center.

But I've spent my entire career adapting.

I started teaching in 1989.

Think about how much the world—and the classroom—has changed since then.

Through every technological shift, I've tried to ask essentially the same question:

How can I use the tools available to me to help teachers and students more effectively?

That is the question behind this project.

S-Cubed AI Coach isn't replacing a teacher.

It is an attempt to make decades of my experience available when I can't physically be sitting beside someone.

A middle school chorus teacher might be wondering:

Am I moving through this lesson too quickly?

What do I do with the boy whose voice changed practically overnight?

How do I handle the student who refuses to sing?

Why is this class struggling when my other class isn't?

Should I move on—or spend another day here?

What would Dale do in this situation?

Should I repeat the curriculum next year or move on to the next level?

For years, teachers have emailed me questions like these.

I've answered as many as I possibly could.

But there is only one of me.

Technology suddenly gives me another possibility.

What if some of the lessons I've learned since walking into my first middle school classroom in 1989 could be available to a teacher at the exact moment that teacher needs them?

That's what interests me.

That's why I built this.

And this morning, something shifted for me.

Seeing Idina Menzel using this technology to extend her expertise in vocal performance made me realize that what I'm doing isn't some strange little experiment happening off in a corner.

Experts across many different fields are exploring the same fundamental idea:

Can technology help us share human expertise in a more personal and accessible way?

I believe the answer is yes.

Not perfectly.

Not without thoughtful questions.

And certainly not without humans.

In fact, the more I've worked on this project, the more convinced I've become that the human experience behind the technology is the most important part of it.

The technology didn't spend 30 years teaching middle school chorus.

I did.

The technology didn't experience the changing male voice in a classroom, learn how to preserve a child's dignity, figure out how to engage reluctant singers, make mistakes, adjust pacing, manage difficult classes, prepare concerts, or discover which tiny choices could completely change the atmosphere in a room.

I did.

The technology simply gives me a new way to share what those experiences taught me.

And today, I feel incredibly good about being willing to explore that possibility.

Tonight, I'm Going to Show You

Tonight, I'm demonstrating the S-Cubed AI Coach live.

Not a carefully edited promotional video.

Not just screenshots.

I want people to see it tested.

Ask questions.

Give it classroom situations.

See what it does well.

And see for themselves what I've been building.

Get the Zoom link on my Facebook Event page by clicking here.

If you're skeptical, you're welcome.

If you're curious, you're welcome.

If you're excited about it, you're welcome too.

I'd rather have educators see it working and make up their own minds than simply tell them what they should think about it.

Want to See What Idina Menzel Created?

If you're curious about what caught my attention this morning, take a look at Idina Menzel's vocal performance coaching app on Studio.

Click here to see it.

Her application is very different from mine, but the underlying idea fascinates me: using technology to make an experienced artist's knowledge and coaching available in an entirely new way.

And If You're an Expert or Creator Reading This…

There's one more reason I'm writing about this publicly.

Maybe you're a teacher.

A conductor.

A coach.

A fitness professional.

A creator.

A musician.

An artist.

Or someone who has spent 20 or 30 years becoming very good at something.

You may be looking at this technology and wondering:

Could I build something around what I know?

That's exactly the question I started asking.

If you're interested in exploring Studio and potentially creating your own coaching app, you can learn more through my creator link here:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

Yes, that's an affiliate link. If someone eventually creates through my link and becomes successful on the platform, I may benefit financially from that relationship. I believe in being transparent about that.

But I also wouldn't share it if I didn't think this was something worth exploring.

Because after looking around Studio this morning, one thought kept coming back to me:

I'm in very good company.

And after spending a career trying to keep learning, adapting and finding better ways to reach people, I'm pretty comfortable being here.

A New Way to Partner with S-Cubed: Become an AI Coach Affiliate

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 20:31:28 +0000

For more than a decade, S-Cubed has grown largely because music educators have shared it with other music educators.

A teacher finds something that works in the classroom. They tell a colleague. A choir director shares it in a Facebook group. Someone mentions it during a professional-development session. A podcast host talks about a resource that might help their listeners.

That kind of word-of-mouth has always meant a lot to me because it comes from real people helping other real people.

As I launch the S-Cubed AI Coach, I want to create another way for that to happen.

And this time, I want the people who help spread the word to be able to benefit financially as well.

Introducing the S-Cubed AI Coach Affiliate Opportunity

Teachers, music-education creators, podcasters, bloggers, and others who have an audience of educators can become affiliates for the S-Cubed AI Coach.

When someone purchases the Coach through your unique affiliate link, you can earn a 25% commission on qualifying sales.

That means if you already talk with music educators, share teaching resources, create educational content, host a podcast, run a Facebook community, write a newsletter, or simply have colleagues who trust your recommendations, there may be an opportunity for us to work together.

But I want to be very clear about something:

I don’t want people promoting the S-Cubed AI Coach simply because there is a commission attached to it.

I want partners who have explored what I’ve created and genuinely believe it could help the teachers they serve.

Explore It Before You Share It

One reason I created the onboarding experience for the S-Cubed AI Coach is so that teachers can see what the Coach is about before making a purchasing decision.

I would encourage potential affiliates to do exactly the same thing.

Explore it. Click here to head to my storefront and see more.

See how it works.

Look at the types of problems it is designed to help teachers solve.

Ask yourself whether the educators in your own community might benefit from it.

If the answer is yes, then I’d love for you to consider partnering with me.

This Is About More Than Sight-Singing

The S-Cubed AI Coach began with a very simple idea:

How could I help an S-Cubed teacher when I couldn’t personally be standing beside them?

That matches the original reason I created S-Cubed the way I did in 2013- how can I help teachers?

But as we tested the Coach, it became clear that teachers were asking questions that went far beyond simply, “What do I do next in the curriculum?”

They were asking about things like:

*pacing instruction when classes meet on different schedules

*classroom-management challenges

*students who are afraid or reluctant to sing

*boys navigating the changing male voice

*differentiation

*keeping students engaged

*determining when a class is ready to move forward

*responding when a lesson doesn’t go the way the teacher expected

Those are the kinds of issues I dealt with throughout my own career in the middle school choir classroom.

So I have spent months working to make the Coach reflect my teaching philosophies, my classroom-management approach, my S-Cubed methodology, and the ideas I’ve shared with music educators for years.

That distinction matters to me. I wanted to make sure all of my philosophies were reflected in what the coach advises you to do.

The goal isn’t to replace the teacher.

The goal is to give the teacher another source of support.

Who Might Be a Good Affiliate?

You do not need to have an enormous social-media following.

You might be:

A music teacher who already recommends resources to colleagues.

A choir or music-education podcaster whose listeners are looking for practical teaching tools.

A content creator who speaks to educators on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, or another platform.

A blogger or newsletter writer who regularly shares music-education ideas.

A professional-development presenter or clinician who works with teachers.

Or you may simply be someone who has followed my work, believes in what I’m trying to build, and has a community of educators who trust you.

The size of your audience matters far less to me than the relationship you have with that audience.

Authenticity Matters

One of my biggest goals throughout this project has been to keep the human being at the center of the technology.

I feel the same way about affiliate partnerships.

If you share the S-Cubed AI Coach, I want you to talk about it in your own voice.

Tell people what you like.

Show them how you explored it.

Explain why you think it might help them.

You don’t need to sound like an advertisement.

In fact, I’d rather you didn’t.

The most meaningful recommendations have always been the ones that begin with:

“I found something that I think might help you.”

I want testimonials just like the ones I've kept on my blog since 2013. Read them here.

Why Offer an Affiliate Program?

Creators put enormous amounts of time into building communities.

Podcasters spend hours preparing, recording, editing, and sharing episodes.

Teachers answer questions for colleagues, run online groups, write newsletters, and share resources constantly.

If your recommendation helps introduce another educator to the S-Cubed AI Coach and that teacher decides to purchase it, I think it is entirely reasonable for you to share in the revenue generated from that introduction.

It’s another way for educators and creators to support one another.

Interested in Becoming an Affiliate?

If you have an audience of music educators and believe the S-Cubed AI Coach could serve them, I’d love for you to take a look at the affiliate opportunity.

Email me at inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com. In the subject line, write, "I'd like to become an AI S-Cubed Affiliate". I'll email you back with a special link just for you to send to your followers.

When qualifying purchases are made through that link, affiliates can earn a 25% commission, subject to the terms of the affiliate program.

And before you share anything, I encourage you to explore the Coach yourself.

I want you to understand what you’re recommending. You don't have to purchase it to get a taste of how much this Coach can do. Experiencing the Onboarding session alone will give you an idea of how well-equipped and professional this is.

One More Way Our Community Can Grow Together

When I first began developing what eventually became S-Cubed back in 2009, I had no idea where it would lead.

By 2013, technology gave me a way to put my work directly into the hands of teachers.

Teachers shared it with other teachers.

That community helped S-Cubed grow.

Now technology is changing again.

And once again, I’m trying to figure out how we can use it in a way that helps teachers rather than distances us from the very human work we do.

This affiliate program is another part of that journey.

If you believe in what I’m building and think the S-Cubed AI Coach could help the music educators you serve, I’d be honored to have you as a partner.

— Dale Duncan

Creator, S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners

Creator, S-Cubed AI Coach

We put the S-Cubed AI Coach to the test- And the possibilities are bigger than I imagined

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 12:25:38 +0000

When I first started building the S-Cubed AI Coach, the obvious goal was pretty simple:

Help teachers successfully teach the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program. In the original program, I did my best to dot every "i" and cross every "t" by including video links to teaching examples and teaching tips for every lesson. It was a mammoth project that took two years. Even so, I still get tons of questions via email that I have answered for years, and I don't mind it, but...what if I were right by your side? That's what this is like...

We've been testing it for weeks. Click here to see what it can do.

The possibilities with this app are way stronger than I thought when I started this journey in late July 2026.

This Coach can help teachers navigate far more than the mechanics of teaching sight singing.

As you can see from the video, it can navigate a multitude of problems.

My longtime friend and fellow music educator David Stauffer has been putting the Coach through its paces and sending me screenshots daily.

He's been asking hard questions.

We wanted to know what would happen when a teacher brought it the kinds of messy, complicated, very human situations that actually happen in a middle school chorus classroom.

Because teaching chorus isn't just about:

“What exercise should I teach tomorrow?”

It’s also about the seventh-grade boy whose voice suddenly doesn’t work the way it did three weeks ago.

It’s about helping that student understand that nothing is wrong with him while his voice is changing.

It’s about finding ways to keep him singing while protecting his confidence and dignity.

It’s about the child who is terrified to sing alone.

The student who is embarrassed because everyone else seems to be getting it faster.

The class that suddenly becomes unusually talkative.

The rehearsal where classroom management begins slipping away from you.

The group that isn't progressing as quickly as you expected.

The class that meets twice a week instead of five times a week.

The teacher wondering whether to slow down, move forward, reteach something, change the activity, or simply give the students another day.

Those are teaching problems, not just S-Cubed problems.

And that distinction is becoming increasingly apparent to me as we do more to make sure it reflects my teaching approach.

I didn't want a generic AI telling teachers what to do

One of my biggest concerns while creating this Coach was that I did not want teachers asking an S-Cubed question and receiving generic teaching advice pulled from somewhere out in the universe.

I wanted the answers to sound like the philosophy I have shared with teachers since I began putting S-Cubed into the world in 2013.

So I've continued feeding the Coach the thinking behind the program.

My syllabus was uploaded so it would show how I handle classroom management issues.

My writings and videos about classroom management that I've used for years were uploaded as well.

My philosophies about teaching middle school students have been included.

Material from my blog posts and other resources I've created over the years has been incorporated so the Coach understands not only what I teach, but why I teach it that way.

I didn't want an app with my name attached to it that did anything other than reflect my teaching philosophies.

S-Cubed has never simply been a collection of sight-singing exercises.

I've always said S-Cubed is part method and part philosophy.

There is a philosophy about pacing.

There is a philosophy about mistakes.

There is a philosophy about adolescent voices.

There is a philosophy about classroom management.

There is a philosophy about creating a room where children feel safe enough to take musical risks.

There is a philosophy about knowing when to push and when to back off.

And there is a philosophy I have believed deeply for years:

Protect the child first. Respect is circular.

The changing male voice is a perfect example

Anyone who has taught middle school chorus knows how vulnerable this period can be for boys.

A voice that once felt predictable suddenly cracks.

Notes disappear.

Range changes.

A student may feel as though everyone in the room can hear something happening to him that he cannot control.

Handled poorly, that experience can make a boy decide he “can't sing.”

Handled well, it can help him understand that his voice isn't broken.

It is developing.

That requires more than knowing which pitch to give him.

It requires empathy.

It requires language.

It requires knowing how to adjust expectations without making him feel singled out.

It requires maintaining his dignity in front of his peers.

Those ideas are deeply embedded in the way I have taught for decades, and I wanted them embedded in this Coach too.

And then there is classroom management

Middle school teachers know this situation well:

Yesterday's lesson worked beautifully.

Today you try exactly the same structure, and somehow the room has completely changed.

It's middle school after all!

Maybe one child is disrupting the rehearsal.

Maybe several students are feeding off one another.

Maybe the energy level is unusually high.

Maybe students are afraid of an activity, and their anxiety is showing up as talking, joking, or avoidance.

Good classroom management isn't always about finding a consequence.

Sometimes it is about figuring out why the behavior is occurring in the first place.

That is another area where the Coach surprised us during testing.

You can describe what is happening.

You can tell it what you've tried.

You can explain where you are in S-Cubed.

You can talk through the personalities involved.

And the conversation can become much more nuanced than:

“Here is Lesson 7. Teach these measures.”

What about the student who is afraid to sing?

That student has been in virtually every chorus room I have ever taught.

Sometimes they're shy.

Sometimes they're perfectionists.

Sometimes they're afraid their classmates will laugh.

Sometimes they genuinely believe they cannot sing.

Sometimes they have simply never been in an environment where using their singing voice felt safe.

No curriculum guide can predict every one of those situations.

A teacher has to respond to the human being standing in front of them.

That's where I believe a tool like this becomes particularly helpful.

Not because AI replaces the teacher.

Quite the opposite.

The teacher is still making the decision.

The Coach simply gives the teacher another experienced perspective to consider.

Imagine having someone to ask

One of the thoughts that has stayed with me throughout this entire project is how much I would have appreciated something like this when I was a young teacher.

Someone I could ask:

“My boys' voices are changing, and suddenly this exercise isn't working. What should I do?”

“My students are getting frustrated. Should I move on?”

“I've got one student who refuses to sing. How can I help without embarrassing them?”

“My classroom management has fallen apart during this activity. What would you change?”

“We only meet twice a week. Am I moving too slowly?”

“My concert is coming up. How should I adjust my pacing?”

“What would you do tomorrow?”

For most of my career, teachers had to figure those things out alone.

Maybe you had an experienced colleague down the hallway.

Maybe you had a mentor.

Maybe you could email somebody and hope they had time to respond.

But many music educators—especially young teachers—don't have that person readily available.

That possibility is what excites me most about this project.

This is becoming bigger than I originally envisioned

The more we test the S-Cubed AI Coach, the more possibilities I see.

Yes, it can help you work through S-Cubed.

It can help with pacing.

It can help you think through lessons.

It can help you understand what might come next.

But it can also help you think about:

the changing adolescent voice
protecting students' dignity
reluctant and shy singers
classroom management
student engagement
differentiation
pacing for different schedules
responding when a lesson doesn't work
reflecting on what happened today
deciding what to change tomorrow

And we are still testing.

We are still asking harder questions.

We are still finding situations that I want the Coach to understand more deeply.

My goal has been to create something that helps teachers make better decisions for the children standing in front of them.

That has always been the heart of S-Cubed.

The technology may be new.

The philosophy behind it isn't.

It's the same philosophy I have been sharing with teachers for more than a decade:

Teach the child.

Protect their dignity.

Keep them singing.

Give them room to make mistakes.

Make learning challenging enough to matter and joyful enough that they want to come back tomorrow.

And now, teachers can have that philosophy available when they need it most.

The possibilities really are enormous.

Go check it out- It's on Studio.com!

I'm doing a "live" demonstration of it on Tuesday, October 6th at 7 PM EST.

Reserve your spot- Click here to get reminders.

If you’ve built an audience around your expertise, you may be sitting on an app idea without realizing it. Studio gave me a way to turn years of teaching knowledge, resources, and philosophy into an interactive AI Coach—and creators in many different fields could do the same. If you’ve ever thought, “I wish I could put what I know into something people could use anytime,” take a look at Studio through my affiliate link here:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

Before S-Cubed Was Ever a Product, There was David

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 21:51:41 +0000

Before S-Cubed Was Ever a Product,

There Was David

Long before S-Cubed became a product, and long before I imagined building an AI Coach around it, there was my friend, fellow musician, and international fitness presenter and future National Champion in Aerobic Gymnastics, David Stauffer.

David and I met at an aerobics workshop in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1992. He had majored in music with a piano focus, and he loved fitness, and so did I. We connected immediately, and we have been close friends ever since.

Soon after we met in 1992, I won a gold medal in Aerobic Gymnastics, and David moved to Europe for an opportunity to begin presenting about fitness internationally. David, or Dave as I call him, was there the night I won, and he watched it "live". In 1996, he invited me to Italy to help train him for an aerobics competition. It was my first international trip. While we worked together, he took me all over Italy. I remember the places, of course, but what stays with me most is the friend who brought me there...on my first international trip. He took incredible care of me, making sure I got on the right trains. With no experience travelling in a different country with a language I didn't know, I needed every bit of help I could get, and he gave it to me.

In 2008, my husband's job took us to Lausanne, Switzerland of all places. I stopped teaching during that time. I became an International Judge for Aerobic Gymnastics, and I was fortunate to get to travel all over Europe representing the USA as a member of the judges panel. David lived in Milan, about a 3-and-a-half-hour train ride over the Alps. He decided he wanted to compete again in Aerobic Gymnastics, and he asked me to train him, so he schlepped across the Alps about twice monthly and stayed at our apartment and stayed overnight.

During my time there, I was creating S-Cubed. I've written about it here on my blog. It is an incredibly special place to me because it was where the ideas flowed. Joe and I came up with the name S-Cubed on a hill outside of that apartment- Successful Sight Singing- S-Cubed!

Weekly, I would send my manuscripts for what I hoped would be a book. He would write back- "Too many exclamation points," and much more. I was trying to capture the essence of the program in a written form. He read my stuff religiously and sent feedback.

That mattered so much to me. I had no idea if anyone would ever care about what I called S-Cubed, but I was feverishly working on it.

S-Cubed grew in real classrooms, through mistakes, revisions, conversations, and friends and colleagues who were willing to say, "Um...what about this?" "What if you said it that way?"

I sent what I wrote to Greg Gilpin, who was very helpful. He said he would try to get it into the hands of people who might publish it. He was super gracious about that. I wrote to Patrick Freer, who had been super with my students at LGPE in New Jersey in the late 1990's, and he gave me publishing advice.

I appreciated their support. By 2012, nothing was happening, and I was about to let it go and move on to other stuff.

Then, in November 2012, my husband, who is in the business world, brought home a business magazine with an article about Teachers Pay Teachers with a focus on Deanna Jump- a very successful seller on the platform. Here is a link to the article.

My husband said- That's how you'll get it out there if you want to get it out there.

The rest of that story is well-documented history, filled with a lot of hard work that was and is a game-changer in my life and in the lives of teachers and students all over the world.

And now David is with me again at this new juncture-

David is one of the people testing the new S-Cubed AI Coach ahead of its October 6 official release on Studio.com. He is bringing it the kinds of questions that teachers actually face, then changing the circumstances to see how useful its guidance is. He has tested it with all sorts of angles...from classroom management to new students arriving who don't speak English to an administrator giving him his dream schedule after he was only supposed to see his students twice daily. When the "admin" gave him his students 5 days weekly, the AI Coach adapted immediately.

These are the moments I was thinking about when I built the Coach. A curriculum can lay out a sequence of lessons, but a teacher still has to respond to the class in front of them. The schedule changes. A student needs a different way in. Yesterday’s lesson does not land. A new teacher needs a practical idea before tomorrow morning.

During my own teaching career, I often wished I had an experienced teacher nearby to ask about those moments. Usually, I did not. I wanted the S-Cubed AI Coach to give teachers a place to talk through a situation, consider options, and make their own informed decisions.

The teacher brings the part that matters most.

Watching David test the Coach has reinforced something for me: its suggestions are only part of the conversation. David knows his students and his school. He notices what the tool has missed. He can push back, add context, and decide whether an idea would work in his classroom. I kept telling David to give the Coach as much info about what he was experiencing as possible so the Coach can help him the most.

That is what I hope every teacher will do with it. Ask a question. Change a detail. Tell it when an answer does not fit. Keep your professional judgment at the center.

David also brings a lifetime of experience and a friendship that no software could reproduce. He has shared deeply personal stories in his own writing on Substack. Those stories are his to tell, and I value the trust and humanity behind them. More on David's personal story later-

A friendship that has come full circle

In 1992, we met because music and fitness happened to bring us to the same aerobics workshop.

In 1996, we traveled through Italy while I helped him prepare for a competition. Years later, he helped me test early S-Cubed ideas. Now he is putting the AI Coach through its paces with the unpredictable situations a teacher encounters in a classroom.

I am grateful that he is asking hard questions and changing the variables. That is how I learn what needs to get better. Before I ask other teachers to trust this resource, I wanted people to use it, challenge it, and tell me where it helps and where it falls short.

On October 6, I will demonstrate the S-Cubed AI Coach "live" and share more about how teachers can use it. Before then, I wanted you to meet one of the people helping me make it the best it can be. Sign up here to get reminders on Facebook.

My friend David. Thirty-four years of friendship, and apparently we are still testing things together.

Here are screenshots from the testing he has sent to me.

Here is the one in which he told the Coach that his principal came to him and told him that instead of seeing his students twice weekly, starting the next day, he would see them daily for 50 minutes...his dream schedule...but a nightmare for a new user of S-Cubed. Thankfully, he had the coach.

Here is a partial sample of some of the other screenshots from his testing of the app.

He focused largely on Classroom Management issues in these screenshots, but he has tested it with a variety of questions.

At the heart of all of this, there are still two human beings who met in 1992 and have spent more than three decades showing up for each other. David was there before anyone knew the name S-Cubed, when it was simply an idea I was trying to make work for real teachers in real classrooms. And now, all these years later, he is here again, helping me test something completely new using new technology. That matters to me because this work has never really been about a product or a piece of technology. It has always been about people.

David knows something about that in ways far deeper than S-Cubed. He has chosen to write openly on Substack about his struggle with addiction, telling the truth about something that so many people live with quietly—teachers included, or the people they love. I hope some of them find his story and recognize that they are not alone. There is something profoundly human to me about both of us, at this stage of our lives, still trying to take what we have learned and use it to help people. That is also how I am choosing to approach AI. Not recklessly, and not without questions, but moving toward it thoughtfully rather than running from it out of fear. I did something similar in 2013 when I put S-Cubed into the world, long before I knew whether anyone would care. Had I allowed fear to make that decision for me, none of this would exist today. So I am moving toward this new technology the same way I have tried to move through most of my life: cautiously when caution is warranted, but ultimately from a place of love, curiosity, and service. The objective has not changed. I want to help teachers. And behind this new tool are real people, real friendship, real struggle, real history, and a great deal of love.

This is my friend, David Stauffer. And again, Here is where he is sharing his struggle with addiction.

Thank you, sweetie!

Love, D

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

AI is already a part of the conversation in Music Education

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 21:17:16 +0000

There are two statements I think music educators need to hear right now.

NAfME has embraced the responsible exploration of AI in music education and has published guidance encouraging educators to understand how AI can support—not supplant—music learning.

And:

ACDA is actively engaging with AI rather than treating it as something that has no place in choral music. Choral Journal, ACDA’s official publication, now has a formal policy requiring authors to disclose their use of AI.

Those aren't my interpretations of where our profession might be headed someday.

This conversation is already happening within our national professional organizations.

What NAfME Is Actually Saying

The National Association for Music Education has gone considerably further than simply acknowledging that artificial intelligence exists.

In July 2025, NAfME published Guiding Principles, Frameworks, and Applications for AI in Music Education, developed by its AI Task Force. NAfME says the resource explores ways AI can enhance creativity, support performance, deepen student reflection, assist with assessment and productivity, and help educators think through the ethical responsibilities surrounding AI.

You can read NAfME's resource here:

NAfME: Guiding Principles, Frameworks, and Applications for AI in Music Education

NAfME also maintains an entire Artificial Intelligence and Music Education resource page containing articles, research, webinars, policy information, and practical resources for teachers.

NAfME: Artificial Intelligence and Music Education

One of the most important things NAfME has said about this subject is that AI presents opportunities to enhance creativity and instructional practice, but educators must ensure that these tools are used responsibly. NAfME has explicitly stated its commitment to exploring both the benefits and the appropriate use of generative AI in music education.

That distinction matters.

Support the teacher. Support learning. Preserve human creativity. Use the technology responsibly.

That's a very different conversation from either blindly embracing every new AI tool or declaring that AI has no legitimate place in music education.

NAfME has even published an article called “Make AI Your Personal Music Teaching Assistant,” discussing ways teachers can use AI to brainstorm ideas and support their professional workflow while also warning educators about limitations such as inaccurate AI-generated information.

NAfME: Make AI Your Personal Music Teaching Assistant

That's a remarkably good description of the philosophy behind what I have been building in my S-Cubed AI Coach.

What About ACDA?

The American Choral Directors Association is engaging this issue, too.

Choral Journal, ACDA's official peer-reviewed publication, now specifically requires authors to disclose their use of AI and provides an AI Use Policy for authors.

You can see ACDA's official submission guidelines here:

ACDA Choral Journal Submission Guidelines and AI Use Policy

Think about what that means.

ACDA isn't pretending AI doesn't exist.

It isn't responding to AI by simply saying, "This has no place in our profession."

Instead, it is developing expectations around transparency, authorship, and responsible use.

That's exactly the type of conversation I believe we need to be having.

ACDA's next national conference will take place March 7–10, 2027, in Minneapolis, with educational sessions and research addressing current and emerging issues within the choral profession. As of September 2026, however, ACDA has not yet publicly posted the complete individual session lineup, so I don't want to claim that a particular AI session will be presented until ACDA publishes that program.

You can follow the official conference information here:

ACDA 2027 National Conference

To me, the larger point is already clear.

Our professional organizations are not solving the AI question by pretending the technology will disappear. They are educating, researching, creating guidelines, and talking about responsible use.

And I think music educators should do the same.

That Is Exactly How I Am Approaching the S-Cubed AI Coach

This is also why I want people to understand what I have actually created with the S-Cubed AI Coach before forming an opinion about it.

I did not create an AI app to replace the choir director.

I created one to help the choir director.

There is a huge difference.

For more than a decade, teachers using S-Cubed have emailed me questions:

What do I do when my students aren't following the hand?
What happens when they start getting bored?
How do I handle a difficult classroom-management situation?
How do I adapt this lesson for students with different needs?
What if I'm only seeing my students twice a week?
What if my schedule suddenly changes?
What should I do next when something isn't working?
Do I start from the beginning next year?

For years, I have personally answered those questions.

The S-Cubed AI Coach is an attempt to make that guidance available to teachers when they need it.

I've been feeding the Coach the philosophies I've developed and shared since 2013. I've given it my teaching materials, my syllabus, my writing, my videos, my approaches to classroom management, and the principles behind how S-Cubed works.

The goal isn't for a generic AI system to tell a choir director how to teach.

The goal is for a teacher using my program to be able to ask a question about implementing that program and receive guidance grounded as closely as possible in the teaching philosophy behind it...the teaching philosophy that is mine that I still use when I lead choirs as a guest conductor, for example.

And the teacher still makes the decision.

The teacher remains the professional.

The teacher knows the students.

The teacher knows the classroom.

The teacher listens to the voices.

The teacher builds relationships.

The teacher makes the music.

AI doesn't replace any of that.

Responsible AI Doesn't Mean Unquestioning AI

I also don't believe responsible AI use means believing everything an AI system produces.

It shouldn't.

AI can make mistakes. It requires oversight. It requires human judgment. It requires transparency. And in education especially, privacy and appropriate use have to remain central considerations.

Those are exactly the conversations NAfME is encouraging educators to have.

And they're exactly the conversations I want surrounding the S-Cubed AI Coach.

I'm not asking music educators to abandon everything they know because a new technology has arrived.

Quite the opposite.

I'm asking:

How can we take the knowledge experienced teachers already possess and use technology to make that knowledge more accessible to other teachers?

How can we give a young teacher struggling at 9:30 on a Tuesday morning some of the guidance that previously might have required finding a mentor, sending me an email, and waiting for a response?

How can technology reduce some of the overwhelm of teaching so that educators have more time and energy for the human parts of music education?

The students.

The relationships.

The rehearsal.

The artistry.

The music.

We Don't Have to Choose Between Technology and Humanity

I think sometimes the AI conversation gets framed as though there are only two choices.

Embrace everything AI does.

Or reject all of it.

I don't accept those choices.

I spent 30 years in public-school music classrooms.

S-Cubed came out of my classroom because I moved out of the love of helping teachers and students succeed rather than out of fear of posting my stuff online. Before S-Cubed, all sight-singing materials were books only. S-Cubed came from years of figuring out what worked, what failed, what motivated middle-school students, and what helped beginning singers become independent musicians using the technology that was available at the time.

None of that disappears because we have new technology.

If anything, I want to use the technology to make those years of experience more accessible to the next teacher who needs them, and that philosophy is in line with my journey sharing S-Cubed from the beginning in 2013.

That's why I find the direction from organizations like NAfME—and the transparency expectations being established by ACDA—encouraging.

They aren't saying that AI should replace music educators.

Neither am I.

They're recognizing that AI is here and that music educators need to understand it, question it, develop ethical standards around it, and determine where it can genuinely serve teaching and learning.

That's the conversation I want to be part of.

And that's the philosophy behind the S-Cubed AI Coach.

Not AI instead of teachers.

AI in service of teachers.

Because ultimately, the most important technology in a choir room is still the person standing in front of the students.

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

The S-Cubed AI Coach is for Teachers- Not Student Data

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:11:59 +0000

As I’ve begun sharing the S-Cubed AI Coach, I’ve received some really thoughtful questions from music educators.

And I’m glad people are asking them.

Questions about student privacy, what information needs to be entered, whether teachers have to upload videos, and how AI fits responsibly into a music classroom are legitimate questions.

So I want to make something very clear:

The S-Cubed AI Coach is designed to help you, the teacher, teach S-Cubed more successfully.

**It is not designed to collect information about your students. It's for you only. **

You do not need to enter student names.

You do not need to upload rosters.

You do not need to enter grades, IEP information, student records, or other personally identifiable student information.

And you do not need to upload photos, audio recordings, or videos of your students in order to get meaningful help from the Coach.

In fact, I encourage teachers to keep student-identifying information out of their conversations with the Coach.

If you are having a problem with a seventh-grade class, for example, you can simply describe the situation:

“My seventh graders are struggling to stay focused during Forbidden Pattern. What would Dale suggest?”

The Coach does not need to know who those children are.

It needs to understand the teaching problem you are trying to solve.

Think of It as a Conversation Between You and a Coach

That may be the easiest way to understand what I have built.

You + the S-Cubed AI Coach.

That’s the relationship.

The purpose of the app is to give an S-Cubed teacher access to guidance when a question comes up:

Am I moving too quickly?

Why are they struggling with this lesson?

Should I repeat this activity tomorrow?

Can I skip lessons and start at lesson five? (That's a BIG no!)

My students are getting bored. How can I refresh this without abandoning the sequence?

This class is behaving very differently from my other classes. What should I change?

I only see these students twice a week. How should I adjust the pacing?

I’m having classroom-management problems during this part of the lesson. What would Dale do?

Those are the kinds of questions teachers have sent me by email for years.

And I want to emphasize something:

I have never minded answering them.

I have personally answered teacher questions about S-Cubed since I began sharing the program in 2013.

Many of those questions appear again and again because teaching is complicated.

Two teachers can use exactly the same curriculum and encounter completely different situations because their schedules, students, schools, experience levels, rehearsal structures, and classroom cultures are different.

The original S-Cubed curriculum was designed to give you everything you need to successfully teach the program.

The AI Coach does not change that.

You absolutely do not need the Coach in order to use S-Cubed.

But what I have always wished I could provide is something even more personal:

What if I could be standing beside you when the question actually occurred?

That is the problem that this app solves. After class, you do a reflection, and then the app helps you. You tell it what went well and what didn't.

When I started building this in July of 2026, I didn't know what it would be able to do...

At that time, I thought primarily about answering the questions I had received repeatedly over the years.

But as I built it, tested it, challenged it, corrected it, and continued feeding it my approach to teaching S-Cubed, I realized it could help teachers in ways I had not originally imagined.

It can help you think through:

Pacing.

Classroom management.

Student engagement.

Differentiation.

Re-teaching.

Refreshing an activity that has gotten stale.

Working around unusual schedules.

Helping a struggling group without holding back a stronger group.

Getting back on track after interruptions.

And, of course, the day-to-day journey through S-Cubed itself.

Sometimes a teacher doesn’t need another curriculum.

Sometimes they need an experienced teacher to say:

“Based on what you just described, here is what I would try tomorrow.”

That is what I want this Coach to do.

You Do NOT Have to Upload Video Content

This is another question I want to address clearly.

The Coach can provide feedback based on video in situations where a teacher chooses to use that capability.

But **video is optional. In fact, before you purchase, you tell the app whether you want to upload video of your teaching (not the students). It is a function that you can choose to use or not. **

You are not required to record yourself teaching.

You are not required to upload anything from your classroom.

You can use the S-Cubed AI Coach entirely through conversation.

Describe what happened by either typing or talking to the app with the microphone.

Describe what you tried.

Tell it what your schedule looks like.

Tell it where you are in the program.

Tell it what isn’t working.

Tell it what is working.

Then ask for help.

That alone can produce an incredibly useful conversation.

The Original S-Cubed Program Is Still the Program

This distinction matters to me.

The AI Coach is not replacing S-Cubed.

It is not writing a different sight-singing curriculum for you.

It isn't replacing the teacher.

And it certainly isn't replacing the musicians sitting in front of you.

The students still have to sing.

They still have to listen.

They still have to think.

They still have to make mistakes, adjust, practice, develop independence, and become musicians.

And you still teach them.

The Coach is an additional support layer around the curriculum I created.

The same teaching philosophy.

The same sequence.

The same mission.

More support.

What About AI and Music Education?

I also think it is important to acknowledge the larger conversation taking place in our profession.

Our national professional organization, NAfME — the National Association for Music Education — is actively addressing artificial intelligence in music education.

In July 2025, NAfME published Guiding Principles, Frameworks, and Applications for AI in Music Education, developed by its AI Task Force. NAfME describes the resource as helping music educators understand ways AI may support areas including instructional practice, creativity, reflection, assessment, productivity, and accessibility while also considering the ethical responsibilities surrounding its use.

Importantly, NAfME's guidance is not simply, “Use AI for everything.”

Nor is it, “AI has no place in music education.”

The conversation is much more thoughtful than that.

NAfME encourages educators to consider AI intentionally and mindfully, with attention to issues including privacy, intellectual property, transparency, ethics, and the irreplaceable importance of human music-making. Its guidance specifically discusses using AI to support rather than supplant music learning.

That philosophy resonates deeply with what I am trying to do.

Human beings are still at the center of this.

The teacher.

The student.

The rehearsal.

The singing.

The relationship between a great teacher and the young musicians standing in front of them.

I have no interest in replacing any of that.

I am interested in using a new tool to help the human teacher become more confident and effective.

The Same Mission I Have Had Since 2013

When I first put S-Cubed online in 2013, what I was doing was pretty unusual.

Traditional music publishers had not been interested in what I created.

But I knew the approach was working with my beginners.

So I found another way.

I recorded myself teaching.

I made PowerPoints.

I put videos online.

I wrote teaching tips.

I tried to anticipate the problems another middle school chorus teacher might encounter hundreds or thousands of miles away.

The technology was different.

The mission was exactly the same.

Help teachers.

That is still my mission.

The S-Cubed AI Coach is simply the newest way I have found to do it.

And because this technology is new, I think those of us using it have a responsibility to use it thoughtfully.

That includes protecting student privacy.

That includes respecting school and district policies.

That includes remembering that technology should serve good teaching — not become the reason we are teaching.

And it includes being transparent about what the tool is actually designed to do.

So Here Is the Simplest Way I Can Say It

Don't give the S-Cubed AI Coach student-identifying information. It doesn't need it.

You don't have to upload classroom videos.

You don't have to use the Coach to successfully teach S-Cubed.

But if you want help while you're teaching the program…

If you want another set of experienced eyes on a problem…

If you want help figuring out tomorrow's lesson after today didn't go the way you expected…

If you want help with pacing, engagement, classroom management, differentiation, or simply figuring out “What should I do next?”

That is exactly why I built it.

I have tested the Coach extensively, and even though it is already available, **I am still testing it along with other teachers. I tested it earlier today. **

I'm still trying new situations.

I'm still looking for weaknesses.

I'm still asking difficult questions.

Because I want this tool to do what I have tried to do since the very beginning of S-Cubed:

Help teachers succeed.

And when teachers succeed, their students have a better chance to succeed too.

S-Cubed stands for Successful Sight Singing- that means success for the students AND for you, and this tool can help you if you need it.

Same mission. New tool. More support.

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

How to Purchase the S-Cubed AI Coach With School Funds

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 08:47:28 +0000

One of the questions I’m already receiving from teachers about the S-Cubed AI Coach on Studio.com is:

“Can I use school funds to purchase it?”

The answer is yes — absolutely.

I strongly encourage teachers to use school, department, professional development, or other approved instructional funds whenever those funds are available to you.

But purchasing through a school can sometimes involve a few extra questions from bookkeepers, administrators, or purchasing departments. One teacher recently went through this process, and Studio was kind enough to answer the purchasing questions directly.

I’m putting all of that information in one place so you can simply send this article to your administrator or purchasing department if they have questions.

First: Who Is the Vendor?

This is an important distinction.

When you purchase access to the S-Cubed AI Coach, you are purchasing through Studio.com, not directly from me personally.

It is similar to purchasing one of my resources through Teachers Pay Teachers. I created the content, but the company processing the transaction is the vendor.

For Studio purchases, the legal business/vendor name is:

Openmind Learning, Inc.

Studio’s billing address is:

5850 W 3rd St, Ste E #1503
Los Angeles, CA 90036

What About a W-9?

This is one of the most common questions I receive when teachers are using school funds.

Because the purchase is being made through Studio rather than directly from Dale Duncan or S-Cubed, my personal W-9 is not the appropriate W-9 for this purchase.

Studio has told me that they have not historically provided W-9s for these purchases.

If your school specifically requires a W-9 or needs additional vendor documentation, your purchasing department can contact Studio directly using the contact information at the bottom of this article.

That is different from a situation in which a school is hiring me personally — for example, to present professional development, conduct a choir, lead a workshop, or provide another service directly. In those situations, the school may be contracting with me personally and the paperwork would be different.

For the S-Cubed AI Coach, however, Studio/Openmind Learning, Inc. is the company handling the transaction.

Can My School Use a Purchase Order?

Yes.

Studio has confirmed that schools may use their normal purchase-order approval process.

There is one important thing to understand:

The final Studio purchase must still be made by credit card.

In other words, your school may create or approve a purchase order internally, but Studio currently requires the actual order to be placed using a card.

Studio does not currently offer traditional invoicing where the school receives an invoice first and mails payment later.

So a typical process might look something like this:

Ask your administrator or purchasing department for approval to purchase the S-Cubed AI Coach.
Complete any purchase-order paperwork your district requires.
Provide the vendor information in this article.
Have the authorized school employee or department complete the Studio purchase using the school's purchasing card or another approved credit card.
Save the Studio receipt for your school's records and reimbursement or expense process.

Every district handles purchasing a little differently, so your school's internal process may vary.

What About Tax-Exempt Purchases?

Studio has told me that taxes are automatically calculated based upon the purchaser's billing address.

The purchaser receives a receipt after the transaction and can submit that receipt through the school's normal expense or purchasing process.

If your school has specific questions about tax-exempt purchasing, I recommend having your purchasing department contact Studio directly before completing the transaction.

Is There a Studio Vendor Packet?

At this time, Studio does not have a standard school vendor packet or purchasing-document package that I can distribute to teachers.

That is one of the reasons I created this page.

You can send this article directly to your:

Principal
Fine arts administrator
Bookkeeper
School secretary
District purchasing department
Professional development coordinator

It contains the basic vendor information Studio has provided to me.

What If My Purchasing Department Needs More Information?

Studio has given me a direct contact for school purchasing questions.

Cathy at Studio
Cathy@studio.com

Your administrator or purchasing department is welcome to contact Cathy directly if they need additional information or documentation.

A Quick Purchasing Summary

Here is the information your school may need:

Product: S-Cubed AI Coach
Platform: Studio.com
Vendor/legal business name: Openmind Learning, Inc.
Billing address: 5850 W 3rd St, Ste E #1503, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Purchase orders: Allowed as part of the school's purchasing process
Payment: Final order must be completed by credit card
Traditional invoicing: Not currently available
Receipt: Provided after purchase
Standard vendor packet: Not currently available
School purchasing questions: Cathy@studio.com

Please Use School Funds When You Can

Teachers spend far too much of their own money supporting their classrooms.

If your school or district provides funding for curriculum, instructional technology, professional development, music education resources, or teacher support, I encourage you to ask whether those funds can be used for the S-Cubed AI Coach.

The entire reason I created this tool is to give teachers more support while they are using S-Cubed — whether you are beginning Lesson 1 for the first time, trying to solve a classroom-management problem, refreshing something you've taught before, or simply wishing you had someone available to answer an S-Cubed question when you need it.

And if someone in your purchasing department has a question that this page doesn't answer, please have them contact Studio directly at Cathy@studio.com.

I hope this makes the purchasing process a little easier — and keeps more of those teacher dollars in your own pocket.

Ready to Explore the S-Cubed AI Coach? It's available early!

Visit my S-Cubed AI Coach storefront on Studio.com:
https://studio.com/daleduncanscubedcoach

Want to Learn More and See the App Operate Live?

Join me for a live Zoom event on October 6 at 7:00 PM Eastern.

You can mark yourself as Going or Interested on the Facebook event page so you’ll receive reminders:

https://www.facebook.com/share/19nkmyhuSG/

Want to See What Happens Before You Purchase?

I made a short, approximately five-minute video that walks you through the S-Cubed AI Coach onboarding process step-by-step before you actually purchase.

You can see what the app asks you, how the onboarding works, and how it begins building a more personalized coaching experience for you.

Watch the onboarding video here:
https://youtu.be/k2HlPMXqsc0?is=bFd_3c6YsIg4dFQu

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

Dale Duncan
Creator of the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners
S-Cubed AI Coach Creator

Are You a Creator Too?

If you are a teacher, TPT seller, content creator, coach, or other creator who has ever thought about building your own AI-powered coaching app, you can learn more about creating one through Studio here:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

Want to Build Your Own Coaching App? What I Learned Creating My S-Cubed AI Coach with Studio.com

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 14:26:40 +0000

If you’re a creator, teacher-author, coach, or curriculum seller, I want to encourage you to think seriously about something that may be bigger than your next product.

What if the expertise you’ve built over years of teaching, creating, troubleshooting, and answering questions could become its own app?

That’s exactly what I’ve done with my S-Cubed AI Coaching app, and I believe more creators should be exploring this path — especially those of us who have spent years building resources, supporting customers, and developing a recognizable teaching voice.

If you want to learn how Studio works and explore what it might look like for your own business, here is my affiliate link:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

Why I Created My Own Coaching App

For 13 years now, teachers have used my S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners and have reached out with questions.

Some are brand new and need help getting started.

Some are in the middle of teaching it and run into classroom management issues, especially with the gamified parts of the program.

Some have used S-Cubed for a long time and simply want a fresh perspective or renewed momentum.

My app is designed to feel like having me with you when those questions come up.

It can guide teachers through implementation, help them troubleshoot problems, offer ideas, reinforce my philosophy, and support them in a way that feels practical and immediate. That’s what made me realize something important:

This isn’t just about my app. This is a model other creators can use too.

If you have a curriculum, a framework, a method, a coaching style, or a body of expertise people already come to you for, you may be sitting on something that could become an app of its own. From Fitness to Education to Business apps, if you have created something, it's likely that you could create a useful app to help your users.

This Is Bigger Than Music Education

My audience is rooted in choral music education, but this idea goes far beyond that.

Yes, I think this is especially worth considering if you are:

a choral director
a music educator
a Teachers Pay Teachers seller
a curriculum writer
a teacher-author.
a private instructor
a coach or consultant of any sort

But really, this applies to any highly motivated content creator who has valuable knowledge and wants to build something that can help people while also creating another stream of income.

If people regularly ask you:

“How do you do this?”
“Can you help me get started?”
“What would you do in this situation?”
“What’s your process?”
“Can you look at this and guide me?”

…then you may already have the raw material for a coaching app.

Why This Matters Financially

Let’s be honest: many creators are looking for ways to build something that is both meaningful and financially worthwhile.

I understand that because that's what I have done with S-Cubed and all of my other products. I've followed the passion first, and then the money came. That's always been my philosophy.

A well-designed coaching app can allow you to extend your reach beyond one-on-one support, beyond a static PDF, and beyond answering the same questions over and over in emails or DMs. It can take your expertise and turn it into an interactive experience that supports users more consistently and gives you a way to monetize your knowledge in a new format.

That’s especially relevant for people who already sell resources online.

Many of us have spent years creating products. But an app offers something different. It can feel more dynamic, more responsive, and more personal. It can serve beginners, returning users, and experienced customers in different ways — all while staying centered on your own voice, philosophy, and method.

That is powerful.

Yes, There Are Concerns About AI — and I Respect Them

I also want to say this clearly: I understand why some people have concerns about AI.

Some are concerned about ethics and overreliance.

Some are concerned about originality, privacy, trust, or the possibility that technology could weaken the human side of teaching and artistry.

Those concerns are real, and I believe they deserve respect.

For me, the goal is not to replace the human being.

The goal is to extend the reach of the human being. With my own app, I am not creating music. I am using it to support the teachers who have trusted my work.

That’s how I think about my app. It is not “me replaced.” It is my experience, my thinking, my teaching approach, and my support made more accessible to the people who need it.

Used responsibly, this kind of tool can help creators serve people better — not by removing the human touch, but by amplifying it.

What NAfME Says About AI

I think it matters that the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) has taken AI seriously as an area music educators need to understand thoughtfully.

On its official AI resource page, NAfME says that artificial intelligence “has the potential to significantly transform the landscape of music education.” It also says NAfME will continue to provide music educators with information about AI policy, regulation, and classroom application.

NAfME’s 2025 guidance, Guiding Principles, Frameworks, and Applications for AI in Music Education, also acknowledges that teachers are approaching this from different places. I appreciate that the organization explicitly says: “Whether you’re curious, cautious, or already experimenting with AI,” educators need help making “valuable, informed decisions” about its use.

That wording matters to me.

Why?

Because it makes room for nuance.

It makes room for people who are excited, people who are hesitant, and people who are somewhere in the middle.

NAfME also says its guidance is “Grounded in the National Music Standards” and explores how AI can enhance creativity, support performance, deepen student reflection, and address the ethical responsibilities educators should consider when using AI in teaching.

In other words: this conversation is real, it is happening, and it is not going away.

What Kinds of Apps Could Creators Build?

Here’s the exciting part.

Once you understand the concept, you begin to realize how many different types of apps a creator could build.

A creator could build an app that:

walks users through a curriculum step by step
helps customers implement a signature framework
answers common troubleshooting questions
supports lesson planning or sequencing
gives coaching around classroom management
helps users adapt materials for different levels
reinforces the creator’s philosophy and style
provides encouragement and accountability
offers fresh ideas to long-time users
supports onboarding for first-time buyers

That’s exactly why I believe this is such a strong opportunity for teacher-authors and TpT sellers.

If you already have a body of work and a recognizable point of view, an app lets you turn that into a more interactive support experience.

Why I Chose Studio.com

What appealed to me about Studio.com is that it gave me a way to take what I know and turn it into something useful for teachers who have trusted me since 2013. I went to a one-hour online session in July 2026 online, and I saw the amazing things that were possible with this technology, and I knew was all in.

During the early years of my online presence, no company helped me succeed. I tried to get music publishers to help me publish S-Cubed starting in 2009, and nobody bit. When I found TPT in 2013, I knew I could do it on my own my way, and that is what I did. I started popping lessons up on TPT week by week for two years. And people loved it. I've kept a lot of them here on my blog so my story is one that I get to tell. Companies came to me once I was successful and wanted to find ways to share a piece of the pie, and I have collaborated with some, but for the most part, TPT is where I've done the most work.

My experience creating the S-Cubed AI Coach with Studio.com was super simple, and it showed me that this technology can do amazing things when it is centered around real expertise and a real desire to help people.

It allowed me to create something that feels aligned with my mission:

to help teachers succeed.

And for creators, that’s the key question:

What do people come to you for that could be turned into an experience they can access anytime?

That question can open a lot of doors.

If you want to explore how Studio.com works and think through what your own app might become, you can use my affiliate link here:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

A Word to Creators Who Are Still Unsure

If you are reading this and thinking, I’m not techy enough for that, or I’m not sure anyone would want an app from me, let me say this:

If you have built trust…

If you have helped people…

If you have created something that solves real problems…

If you have developed a way of thinking that others find valuable…

…then you may be far more ready than you think.

The app is not the magic.

Your expertise is the magic.

The app is simply a way to package that expertise so that it can serve people more effectively and, yes, potentially more profitably too. The staff at Studio.com guided all of us through every single step. They were always accessible via email. I finished my app 3 weeks early because of it. The official launch isn't until October 6, 2026, but mine is already on the market, and I've already made sales.

Final Thoughts

I created my S-Cubed AI Coaching app because I saw a genuine need.

Teachers needed more support.

They needed guidance.

They needed help applying my work in real situations.

And I realized that the kind of support I had been giving one person at a time could become something more scalable, more accessible, and more useful.

If you’re a creator with a curriculum, a teaching method, a coaching style, or a body of knowledge people rely on, I encourage you to think about what this could look like for you.

There is room to approach AI responsibly.

There is room to honor the concerns people have.

And there is also room to build something innovative, helpful, and financially meaningful.

If that possibility speaks to you, you can learn more here:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

Before You Pay: A Look Inside the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program AI Coach

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 19:10:42 +0000

If you’ve heard about my new S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners AI Coach but you’ve been hesitant to click the link because you aren’t quite sure what happens next, I made something specifically for you.

I recorded a short, approximately five-minute video showing you exactly what happens before you ever reach the payment screen. Here is the link to the video on my YouTube Channel

No mystery. No surprises.

If you’re a visual person, watch the video. I walk you through the onboarding process screen by screen so you can see what you’re being asked, why you’re being asked, and when the payment screen appears.

And if you’d rather read about it first, I’ll explain it here.

What Happens During Onboarding?

Before the S-Cubed AI Coach starts coaching you, it needs some context about your teaching situation.

You are simply giving your coach context so it can personalize your experience, and giving your context is critical even before you pay if you decide to use it.

For example, it may ask what grade levels you teach, how often you see your students, where you currently are in the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners, and whether concerts or other interruptions are coming up.

Why?

Because a teacher who sees students every day has a completely different timeline from a teacher who sees them twice a week.

A teacher starting S-Cubed Lesson 1 has different needs from somebody who made it to Lesson 6 last year, got overwhelmed, and stopped.

And somebody with a concert three weeks from now needs different pacing advice from somebody whose calendar is wide open.

The coach uses the information you provide to help determine a realistic path through the program.

Right now, the AI Coach covers Lessons 1 through 10 of the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners.

I am absolutely willing to continue developing it through all 27 lessons — and potentially into S-Cubed Level 2 — if teachers want it.

Demand will help determine where I take it next.

This Is Not Another Curriculum

This is important.

The AI Coach does not replace the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners.

It helps you use the curriculum successfully.

That distinction matters to me.

When I created S-Cubed beginning in 2013, I tried to explain every detail I could possibly think of. I made teaching videos. I created PowerPoints. I recorded teaching tips. I answered emails, and I still do. I showed teachers what had worked in my own classroom.

And yet, over the last 13 years, I’ve still heard from some teachers who struggled even though I tried to dot every "i" and cross every "t".

Sometimes their pacing was slow.

Sometimes they got overwhelmed.

Sometimes a concert interrupted everything, and they never restarted.

Sometimes classroom management problems took over.

Sometimes Lesson 6 hit and everything seemed to fall apart.

Sometimes teachers simply looked too far ahead.

That last one is especially important.

S-Cubed was always intended to be taken one day at a time.

Do today’s work.

See what happens.

Adjust tomorrow.

That is exactly what this coach helps you do.

Tell It What Actually Happened in Your Classroom

This may be the most important thing I learned while testing the coach with teachers.

Give it information.

If something went wrong today, tell it.

If the lesson went beautifully, tell it.

If your students weren’t focused, tell it.

If the Forbidden Pattern didn’t work the way you expected, tell it.

If you had a classroom management problem, describe what happened.

If you’re struggling with pacing, say so.

The more useful context you provide about what actually happened in your classroom, the more useful your coaching can become.

The coach can then bring you back to the philosophies and approaches I built into the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners and help you think through what I might suggest doing differently tomorrow.

That’s the part that excites me.

For years, teachers have emailed me questions like these, and I’ve personally answered them.

Now you can have that support available when you need it every single day. I want it to feel like I am your personal coach for success with teaching S-Cubed.

You Can Even Use Video

Another possibility I think is incredibly exciting.

If you choose to, you can upload video of your teaching and use it to get feedback.

Point the camera toward yourself.

Teach.

Then use that information to reflect on what happened.

For teachers who really want to dig into their practice, I think the possibilities are enormous.

This isn’t about somebody judging your teaching.

It’s about helping you notice things, ask better questions, and think about how the philosophies behind S-Cubed are actually showing up in your classroom.

Who Is the S-Cubed AI Coach For?

I designed this with several different teachers in mind:

The first-time S-Cubed teacher who wants somebody walking beside them from the beginning.
The teacher who started S-Cubed but got stuck, overwhelmed, interrupted by concerts, or lost somewhere along the way.
The longtime S-Cubed teacher who knows the program but feels like their approach has become stale and wants fresh ideas.

That last group matters to me personally.

If I walked back into a middle school chorus classroom tomorrow and taught everything exactly as I taught it years ago, some of my own approaches would probably feel stale to me too.

Good teachers evolve.

The underlying principles can remain strong while the way we deliver them continues to grow.

That philosophy is built into this coach.

What Does the S-Cubed AI Coach Cost?

There are currently two ways to subscribe as of September 21, 2026.

The annual option is $249 for one year, which works out to less than 70 cents per day for access to daily coaching.

There is also a shorter option currently priced at $89 for four months, which works out to less than $1 per day.

And I want this to be completely clear:

You will know when you reach the payment screen.

You can go through the onboarding process and see how everything works before making that decision.

There is also a seven-day cancellation/refund period, so you have an opportunity to get inside, experience the coach, and decide whether it is useful for you without any risk of losing money. I know how hard teachers work to earn their money.

I Know Teachers Are Spending Their Own Money

I spent 30 years teaching public school.

I know exactly what teachers do.

We buy things.

We buy music.

We buy materials.

We buy classroom supplies.

We spend our own money because we want something that will help our students.

But I also want teachers to continue asking schools and districts to support these purchases.

The S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners is curriculum, and this AI Coach is designed to help teachers successfully implement curriculum they have purchased.

There is a legitimate argument for schools, departments, booster organizations, and other approved funding sources to help support that professional resource.

When I was teaching, I also found ways to generate money for my chorus program that did not necessarily require me to personally fund everything.

At the beginning of the year, I sometimes did a very simple no-frills fundraiser. Some parents were extraordinarily busy and couldn't volunteer their time, but they were happy to make a contribution to the chorus program instead.

Those checks went into the official chorus account that was overseen through my school secretary. The money wasn't mine. It belonged to the program and was handled through the proper school procedures.

I also raised money through our annual musical. Rather than charging traditional admission, we encouraged contributions. Some parents gave the suggested amount. Others gave more.

That money helped fund things our students needed, including expenses such as choreography and staging.

Every school and district has different rules, so teachers should absolutely follow their local policies. But don't automatically assume that your personal checking account is the only possible way to pay for professional tools that support your students.

Ask.

Explore the legitimate funding options available to your program.

And Yes, There Is Still a Human Being Behind This

That human being is me.

Dale Duncan.

I created the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners largely on my own beginning in 2013 after traditional publishers weren't interested in what I had created.

For more than 13 years, I've answered teacher emails myself, and I still will.

I've made the videos.

I've written the lessons.

I've created the teaching tips.

I've listened when teachers struggled.

And I built this AI Coach around those years of experience and around my philosophy for teaching beginning sight singing successfully.

My teaching philosophy is captured in this app.

When you subscribe, there is a personal welcome message from me inside the experience.

I also explain exactly what to do if you encounter something in the AI Coach that you believe needs to be corrected.

Email me.

I even tell you what to put in the subject line so I know exactly why you're writing.

Because if you purchase this, you're trusting me.

I don't take that lightly.

And if you'd like to be added to my email list, you can contact me and simply tell me that you found me through Studio.com, the S-Cubed AI Coach, or this article.

Watch the Five-Minute Walkthrough Before You Decide

You don't have to wonder what happens when you click.

I've shown you.

Watch the short onboarding video and see exactly how the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners AI Coach by Dale Duncan works before the payment screen appears.

Then decide for yourself whether this kind of day-by-day coaching would help you.

My goal with S-Cubed has always been the same:

Help teachers. That's why 90% of my work online is free, from blog posts to videos.

In 2013, technology finally gave me a way to share the sight-singing system that had worked in my classroom.

In 2026, technology is giving me a new way to help teachers actually implement it.

One day at a time.

Just like I always intended.

Want to Create Your Own AI-Powered App?

If you’re a creator, educator, coach, consultant, or expert with knowledge you’d like to turn into an interactive experience, Studio.com gives you the tools to build your own AI-powered app.

I used Studio to create the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program Coach, taking the experience and teaching philosophy I’ve developed over many years and turning it into something that can support teachers whenever they need it.

If you’re curious about creating something of your own, you can explore Studio.com through my creator link:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

If you have expertise people regularly come to you for, it may be worth asking: Could I turn what I know into an app?

The S-Cubed Sight Singing Program Coach is here

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 14:44:55 +0000

In 2013, almost nobody knew who I was.

I had created this strange little sight-singing system in my own middle school classroom. Publishers weren’t interested, so I decided to figure out another way to get it into teachers’ hands.

I recorded myself teaching directly to a camera.

I uploaded videos to YouTube.

I put links inside PowerPoints. I wrote out lesson plans. I tried to anticipate every question a teacher might have because I wanted someone hundreds or thousands of miles away to feel like I was standing beside them saying:

“Here’s what I would do next.”

And I was scared to death when I put Lesson 1 out there.

Would teachers think it was awesome?

Would they think it was awful?

Would anybody even care?

That picture is from the very beginning.

It was the first day in August 2013 when I recorded teaching tips for Lesson One, Forbidden Pattern.

I went home that night, uploaded the video to YouTube, got the link, popped it into the PowerPoint, uploaded the lesson to Teachers Pay Teachers...

...and held my breath.

Different Tools. Same Mission.

Those early PowerPoints weren't particularly pretty. Some of them still aren't!

But they're part of the story of S-Cubed.

I didn't invent YouTube.

I didn't invent Facebook, Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, or any of the technologies that eventually helped S-Cubed find its way into classrooms.

And I certainly didn't invent AI.

But throughout this entire journey, I've been willing to look at a new tool and ask one question:

Can this help a teacher?

Thirteen years later, that question has brought me somewhere I didn't expect.

I've built an AI Coach specifically around S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners.

And I want to tell you why.

Why an AI Coach?

I know educators have serious reservations about AI.

I respect that.

Over the past two months as I've been building this Coach, I've been reading conversations on social media, participating in some of them, listening to teachers, and thinking carefully about where I believe this technology belongs — and where it doesn't.

This is not AI replacing music teachers.

It isn't composing music for students.

It isn't taking the human being out of music education.

The human being standing in front of those students is still the most important part of the equation.

But here's something I've learned after supporting teachers using S-Cubed since 2013:

Sometimes a lesson plan and some videos aren't enough.

Maybe Lesson 6 is falling apart.

"Dale, why can't I get them to sing out confidently during Chaos? What am I doing wrong?"

Maybe you're brand new to S-Cubed, and changing your classroom routines feels overwhelming.

Maybe you've taught S-Cubed for years and need some fresh ideas.

Maybe you're dealing with a pacing or classroom-management problem that I couldn't possibly have anticipated when I wrote the original lessons.

Those are the kinds of questions teachers have been emailing me for years.

That's why I built the Coach.

What I Want the S-Cubed AI Coach to Do

I want you to be able to tell the Coach what's happening in your classroom and get help applying S-Cubed to your situation.

Because S-Cubed has never just been a method.

It is part method and part philosophy.

And at the center of that philosophy is something I've said for years:

3/4 Learning + 1/4 Cup Fun = SUCCESS!

S-Cubed stands for Successful Sight Singing, but I've always wanted that success to belong to two groups of people:

The students AND the teacher.

That's what I'm trying to teach this Coach to understand.

You Can Try the S-Cubed AI Coach Yourself

I've initially built the Coach around Lessons 1–10 of S-Cubed.

And you don't have to buy anything just to see what I've created.

MEET YOUR S-CUBED AI COACH FREE

Think of the onboarding process as introducing yourself to your S-Cubed Coach.

Tell it about your classroom.

Tell it what grade you teach.

Tell it where you are in S-Cubed.

Tell it what's working.

Tell it what's not working.

You can even tell it what makes you nervous about beginning the program.

Then test it.

Try telling it:

"I'm brand new to S-Cubed."

Or:

"I've started S-Cubed several times but have never gotten past Lesson 4."

Ask it a real question you've had about the program.

See what it already knows.

I Put It to the Test Myself

Lesson 6 — CHAOS — has been one of the biggest challenges I've heard about from teachers over the years.

So I decided to test the Coach myself.

I gave it the kinds of problems teachers have brought to me about Lesson 6 and recorded what happened.

Don't take my word for it.

Watch it respond.

WATCH ME TEST THE S-CUBED AI COACH: LESSON 6 — CHAOS

See It Tested Live on October 6

On October 6 from 7:00–8:00 PM Eastern, I'm going to reveal the S-Cubed AI Coach live on Zoom.

I'm going to show you what I've built, how it works, and what I believe it can do for teachers.

And I want your questions.

I especially want the questions from people who aren't sure about AI yet.

Come see it. Test the idea. Ask me what you're wondering.

I'M GOING / I'M INTERESTED

Facebook will remind you as we get closer, and I'll share more in the event before the Zoom.

You Don't Have to Wait Until October 6

A few teachers have already decided to jump in early.

If you know my work, trust what I've built over the last 13 years, and you're ready to start using the Coach now, I've created a 10% early-access discount.

START USING THE S-CUBED AI COACH + SAVE 10%

The annual subscription works out to less than 70¢ per day for a Coach designed to help you through those critical first ten lessons.

But here's what matters more to me than the price.

I Don't Want Teachers Dependent on AI

The goal isn't to make you dependent on AI.

The goal is to make you more confident teaching S-Cubed.

That's what I was trying to accomplish when I sat in front of a camera and made those first teaching videos in 2013.

And that's what I'm trying to accomplish now.

Different tools. Same mission.

Thirteen years ago, I sat in front of an iPhone 4 camera, recorded a teaching video, uploaded it to YouTube, put the link into a PowerPoint, uploaded the lesson to Teachers Pay Teachers...

...and held my breath.

I'm doing a little bit of that again.

The difference is that back then, almost nobody knew me.

Today, some of the teachers reading this have trusted my work for more than a decade.

That makes this moment mean even more to me — not less.

I know AI brings questions.

Some teachers are excited about it.

Some are skeptical.

Some aren't sure what to think yet.

I understand all three.

But the question I'm asking myself is really the same question I was asking back in 2013:

Can I use the technology available to me to help a teacher standing in front of beginning singers tomorrow morning?

I believe I can.

And I believe this Coach can help me do it.

Whether you're excited, skeptical, curious, or somewhere in between, I hope you'll come see what I've built.

Different tools. Same mission.

My friend- David Stauffer- who was reading my manuscripts back in 2009 when I was starting this journey has been testing it for me-

Same pixellation I'm known for- the realness. And so is this app. It's going to help a lot of teachers.

— Dale Duncan
Creator, S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners

A Note for My Fellow Curriculum Creators

If you've been watching what I'm doing and wondering whether you could build something similar around your own curriculum or expertise, I partnered with Studio to create mine.

EXPLORE CREATING YOUR OWN STUDIO APP

The S-Cubed AI Coach is Ready- Three weeks early!

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 17:44:45 +0000

The S-Cubed AI Coach Is Ready — Three Weeks Early!

I clicked “publish” on my announcement a little sooner than I expected to. I can still tweak things for infinity and beyond, so that's good, but I am feeling great about this new endeavor.

The S-Cubed AI Coach is ready. Actually, it’s more than three weeks early.

That feels a little strange to write because I’ve been working toward an October 6 release date for months. I expected to be scrambling right up until the end. Instead, I’ve reached a point where the app is working beautifully, the onboarding is working, and people who have gone through it are telling me it looks and feels professional, so I am treating this announcement as a soft launch. If any of you purchase it, and you have questions or feedback, come straight to me. inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com. In the subject line write- AI Coach question/suggestion

So what am I doing with the extra three weeks? I’m doing what I’ve always done with S-Cubed. I’m listening.

One of the people testing the app right now is a musician friend who helped me way back in 2009, when I was trying to turn my approach to teaching sight singing into a book. This was before I had heard of Teachers Pay Teachers. Before S-Cubed. Before I had any idea where all of this would eventually go.

Seventeen years later, I asked him to go through the app as though he were an actual teacher using S-Cubed. I want him to get confused. I want him to ask questions. I want him to tell me when something isn’t clear. I want to know what happens when somebody who isn’t inside my head tries to use the app.

I’ve had several other friends go through the onboarding process, too. So far, their feedback has been extremely positive. They’ve commented on the flow, how easy it is to understand, and how professional the whole experience feels.

That makes me happy.

But I’m not done listening. I want this to do what it is supposed to do for people who trust my work.

The more you tell the Coach, the more useful it becomes

Something came up while my friend was testing that I think is really important. The S-Cubed Coach isn’t meant to be something you visit, ask a generic question, get a generic answer from, and leave.

Tell it what is actually happening in your classroom.

That’s where this gets interesting. You can type your needs or talk them into a microphone. The more information you give about what you are encountering, the more the app is able to help you.

Let’s say you have a child with ADHD who simply cannot seem to stop singing the Forbidden Pattern. Tell the Coach what’s happening. Give it some context. What have you already tried? When does the student do it? How are the other kids reacting? Or maybe you have a kid who knows EXACTLY what the Forbidden Pattern is and sings it on purpose just to get a reaction.

That’s a different problem!

Tell the Coach.

Maybe you taught Follow the Hand and it was a complete disaster. You thought you executed it the Mr. D explains. The kids looked like they understood. Then they tried it and…nope.

Tell the Coach what happened.

And here is something I’m particularly excited about: next time, record yourself teaching it. Upload the video and ask for feedback.

Maybe there’s something in your delivery that you aren’t seeing. Maybe the directions need to be tightened up. Maybe the kids need something different before they’re ready for that particular skill.

Or maybe nothing is “wrong” at all.

Maybe you’ve taught one of my games for five years and YOU are bored with it.

I understand that one!

Tell the Coach:

I understand the purpose of this game, but I’m tired of teaching it this way. Give me some fresh ideas that accomplish the same S-Cubed goal.

That’s what I want this to become.

Not technology for technology’s sake.

Useful help when a teacher needs it.

I built it for the teacher who is starting tomorrow

When I started creating the S-Cubed Coach, I kept thinking about the teacher who has just purchased S-Cubed and is sitting at home on Sunday night trying to figure out what to do Monday morning.

I know that teacher.

I’ve answered emails from that teacher since 2013.

Sometimes the question is about sight singing. Sometimes it’s classroom management. Sometimes it’s pacing. Sometimes it’s simply, “Dale, am I doing this right?”

Sometimes it is...why aren't we using key signatures yet? Or some other of the non-traditional ways I have laid out my program from the start. I also thought about the teacher who bought S-Cubed two or three years ago with every intention of using it…and never really got it off the ground.

Life happened. The school year got crazy. They started Lesson 1 but never made it very far. Or something didn’t work the way they expected, so they put it aside.

This Coach is for you, too. It helps you plan around your schedule, your concerts and your holidays so you stay on track.

And then there are the longtime S-Cubed teachers.

Some of you know this program incredibly well. You don’t necessarily need somebody to explain Lesson 3 to you again. But after teaching something for years, sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes.

How can I make this feel new?

What can I do with this particular group with this special set of problems/issues.

Why is something that worked beautifully last year falling flat with this year’s kids?

The Coach can help with that, too.

That’s why I really see this as something for any teacher who uses S-Cubed, regardless of where you are in the journey.

I wanted the advice given to be exactly what I would give you if I were in your classroom watching you teach S-Cubed because the philosophy matters

This was probably the most important part for me.

I didn’t want to create an AI app, dump the S-Cubed lessons into it and call it a Coach.

That wouldn’t interest me very much, and it isn't how I roll. If you know my work, you know that about me.

I wanted this app to understand why I teach the way I teach.

If you’ve followed me for very long, you know my formula:

3/4 cup learning + 1/4 cup FUN = SUCCESS!

That goes for ALL of my lessons that I offer in my TPT store.

That isn’t just a cute phrase I came up with for marketing. It really is how I taught. Middle school kids need structure. They need high expectations. They need to learn. They also need to laugh. They need to feel safe enough to fail. They need to experience success and so do you.

Remember what S-Cubed stands for:

Successful Sight Singing.

I don't think “successful” should apply only to the child.

If the students eventually become great sight singers but the teacher is exhausted, frustrated and miserable getting them there, I haven't accomplished what I set out to accomplish.

I want successful students AND successful teachers.

That philosophy has been infused throughout the Coach.

And then there is Lesson 6: Chaos

Those of you who already use S-Cubed know why I’m bringing this one up.

Chaos. Lesson 6. It is one of the most important moments in those first ten lessons because it can look and feel like everything is falling apart. But there is a purpose behind it. While I was developing the Coach, I tested it repeatedly with situations like this because I wanted to know whether it would give a teacher advice that actually reflected what I would tell that teacher.

I recorded one of those tests, and you can watch it here:

Watch my Lesson 6 “Chaos” test

That’s the kind of help I’ve built into this app.

You shouldn’t have to sit at home wondering, What in the world just happened in my classroom today?

Ask the Coach.

What is this actually worth to a teacher?

I thought about this a lot when I set the price because I wanted to make the Coach affordable enough that a teacher could actually use it as a daily resource. That's how it is intended to be used.

There are two options during this opening period.

Three months is $89. That works out to less than $1 per day for access to coaching every single day. That's about the cost of a Starbucks Coffee, right?

Or you can choose a full year for $249, which works out to less than 70 cents per day. That will buy you a lot more Starbucks coffee, and you'll have it all year.

Right now, the Coach focuses on Lessons 1–10. I did that very intentionally. Those early lessons are where so much of the S-Cubed foundation is created, and they’re also where a teacher who is new to the program is most likely to need me. Will I add more? Maybe!

I’m going to see where this goes.

If teachers use it, love it, and there is demand for support beyond Lesson 10, then I’ll build more into the app. If I get tons of emails from teachers who make it to lesson 10 successfully, and tell me to add more, I'll do it.

I don't need to pretend I know today exactly what this will look like a year from now. That's part of what makes this exciting to me.

You can try it before I officially launch it.

This is another benefit of finishing early.

You don’t have to take my word for any of this.

Go try it.

The app is available now, and you are completely welcome to explore it before I demonstrate it at the official premiere.

Try the S-Cubed AI Coach. By clicking this link, you'll head to the landing page where you can choose to experience the onboarding process at no cost. Remember- this is a soft launch- That means, if you love it, please review it on Studio.com. Please and thank you. If you don't love something about how it functions, reach back to me personally. inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com

If you already use S-Cubed, ask it about something that has actually happened in your classroom.

Challenge it.

If you’re brand new, tell it you’re brand new.

If you bought S-Cubed years ago and never really got going, tell it that.

And if you've been using my program forever, give it something complicated and see what it says.

I’d much rather you experience what I’ve built than have me spend ten paragraphs trying to convince you how useful it is.

Then I want to show you what I've learned

The official premiere is still happening on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 at 7:00 PM Eastern on Zoom.By then, I will have had three additional weeks of people testing the app, asking questions and giving me feedback. That means the product I demonstrate on October 6 should be even better than the one that is ready today. That's the great thing about this. I can tweak and keep tweaking as time goes by...the same way I did and still do with the original Mega Bundle of S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners.

And THAT is a pretty wonderful position to be in three weeks before a launch.

Join me live for the S-Cubed Coach premiere on October 6 at 7 PM Eastern

I keep thinking about my friend helping me with that book in 2009. Neither one of us could possibly have imagined this. The book didn't happen.

Something else did.

S-Cubed found its way onto Teachers Pay Teachers. Teachers began using it. They emailed me. I answered them. They told me what worked. They told me what didn't. I changed things. I made videos. I answered more questions. More teachers found it.

And now, seventeen years after I was trying to figure out how to put these ideas into a book, I'm figuring out how to put my experience, my philosophy and the lessons I've learned from teaching thousands of middle school singers into a completely different kind of tool we never could have imagined by then.

Technology changed.

My mission didn't.

I still want that beginning teacher to walk into the classroom tomorrow feeling a little more confident than they did today.

I still want those kids to discover that they really CAN sight sing.

And I still believe deeply in the formula that started all of this:

3/4 cup learning + 1/4 cup FUN = SUCCESS!

Let's see where this goes. ❤️

Want to Create Your Own AI-Powered App?

If you’re a creator, educator, coach, consultant, or expert with knowledge you’d like to turn into an interactive experience, Studio.com gives you the tools to build your own AI-powered app.

If you’re curious about creating something of your own, you can explore Studio.com through my creator link:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

If you have expertise people regularly come to you for, it may be worth asking: Could I turn what I know into an app?

How One Classroom Video Became the Next Chapter of S-Cubed Sight Singing

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 20:12:09 +0000

The image at the top of this post is me on the first day I began sharing S-Cubed from my classroom.

Lesson 1. Day 1. The game was Forbidden Pattern.

I remember how vulnerable I felt when I turned on that camera.

I was a working middle school chorus teacher sharing my real classroom, my real teaching, and my real students. Nothing was staged. I did it for a year and a half. There was no production crew, no perfect lighting, and no guarantee that anyone would find what I was creating useful.

I set up my iPhone 4 in the corner of the room, pressed record, and taught, giving teaching tips for every lesson.

And I was scared.

I worried that other music teachers might watch and judge my choices. I wondered whether they would criticize my classroom, my teaching style, or the sight-singing program I was beginning to share. I wondered whether anyone would watch at all. But I did it day after day. It was and is a labor of love and passion.

Honestly, whenever I share something new, part of me still feels that way.

But I shared that first video anyway. Every day for a year and a half, I came home at the end of the workday, uploaded the new videos to my YouTube Channel, implanted the links into my PowerPoint, and uploaded the lessons to TPT.

The video from the first day has now been viewed approximately 15,000 times.

Why I Started Recording My Sight-Singing Lessons

When I began creating the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners in 2013, I knew that written directions would not be enough.

Sight singing can be intimidating—not only for beginning singers, but also for the teachers responsible for teaching it. Many excellent music educators were never shown how to introduce sight singing to middle school students in a way that feels sequential, engaging, and achievable.

A written lesson might tell a teacher what to do. I wanted teachers to see how it looked and sounded in a real classroom. We had the technology to do it. Nobody else was doing or had done anything like it. Every other method was essentially a similar sequence that didn't work for my beginners. Most other methods were written from the perspective of a music educator with a long history of private music lessons and, of course, a college education.

In the videos, teachers could see the pacing, procedures, mistakes, laughter, corrections, and breakthroughs. They could watch my students encounter the material for the first time rather than watching a polished demonstration after everything had already been learned.

My goal was simple:

I wanted to stand beside the teacher.

I wanted a band director unexpectedly assigned to teach chorus to feel supported. I wanted a young choir teacher opening Lesson 1 for the first time to know what to do next. I wanted an experienced teacher who had never found a successful way to teach beginning sight singing to have a clear, practical path forward.

The videos were never about showcasing perfect teaching. They were about making the process visible.

What Started in One Classroom Kept Growing

I could not have imagined where that first vulnerable video would lead.

Since 2013, S-Cubed has been used by more than 2,000 teachers, more than 250 school districts, and more than 100,000 students. Teachers have written more than 900 reviews on Teachers Pay Teachers, describing what happened when their students began experiencing success with sight singing.

Those numbers matter to me—but the individual teachers behind them matter even more.

Over the years, teachers have contacted me with questions about pacing, procedures, and student difficulties. Some were just beginning. Some had started S-Cubed but lost momentum. Others had used it successfully for years and needed a reminder, a reset, or a shot in the arm.

Again and again, I saw the same truth:

Having a strong curriculum matters, but teachers also need support while they are using it.

They need help interpreting what is happening in front of them.

Is the class actually struggling, or is this a normal part of the learning process? Should the teacher repeat the lesson or move forward? Was an important procedure unintentionally skipped? What should happen tomorrow when today did not go as planned?

Those are difficult questions for a PowerPoint to answer in the moment.

Why I Am Building the S-Cubed AI Coach

Thirteen years after putting that iPhone in the corner of my classroom, I am taking another risk.

I am building the S-Cubed AI Coach, scheduled to launch in early October.

I am currently spending two to three hours every day teaching it the details of the first 10 S-Cubed lessons. Those lessons are the initial focus because they establish the habits, language, and procedures that support everything that follows in Level One.

I am giving the Coach specifics about:

● Lesson pacing and priorities

● Procedures that may appear small but become essential later

● Common beginning-student responses

● Frequent teacher questions and mistakes

● When to repeat and when to advance

● How to rebuild consistency after a difficult day

● Which S-Cubed instructions and videos can provide additional help

● How to encourage a teacher who feels uncertain or discouraged

I am also teaching it to help bring new energy to teachers who've taught the program for a while and want some new ideas to keep the daily routines fresh.

The more I build, the more I realize how much knowledge lives between the written instructions—the small decisions an experienced teacher makes after observing students in real time.

That is the knowledge I am working to make more accessible.

The Teacher Must Remain at the Center

When I first announced this project, some teachers were excited. Others were understandably cautious.

I have listened to those concerns.

Educators are asking important questions about accuracy, intellectual property, privacy, environmental impact, and the growing pressure to use technology in places where human expertise and relationships belong.

The S-Cubed AI Coach is not being created to replace a teacher.

It cannot know your students personally. It cannot listen to your choir, build your classroom culture, or make professional decisions for you. It cannot replace the creativity, empathy, and judgment that a teacher brings into the room each day.

The teacher remains at the center. That is not negotiable.

This Coach is being developed from the curriculum, videos, procedures, and teaching philosophy I have created and refined since 2013. Its role is to help teachers navigate and implement S-Cubed with greater clarity, confidence, and consistency.

It also does not replace the S-Cubed curriculum. Teachers will still need the instructional materials purchased separately through Teachers Pay Teachers or J.W. Pepper. The Coach is designed to help teachers use those materials more successfully. S-Cubed stands for Successful Sight Singing. That success applies to the students but also to the teacher. Success builds confidence, and that is what we are working to do. Success feels good to the teacher and to the student. That's what I was doing in 2013, and that is what I am doing with this new tool.

Who Is the S-Cubed AI Coach For?

I am building it for the teacher opening Lesson 1 for the first time.

I am building it for the teacher who began S-Cubed, became overwhelmed, and put it aside.

I am building it for the longtime user who knows the program works but needs fresh energy or renewed consistency.

I am building it for the band teacher who has suddenly been assigned a chorus class and does not feel prepared to teach singing.

I am building it for every teacher somewhere in between.

Ultimately, this work is about more than helping teachers complete lessons. It is about helping students experience the confidence that comes from doing something they once believed they could not do.

Successful sight singing means success for the teacher and the students.

Different Tools. The Same Mission.

When I look at that image from my first classroom video, I see more than a younger version of myself.

I see someone frightened of being judged but believed that sharing might help another teacher.

I did not know that the video would be viewed approximately 15,000 times. I did not know that S-Cubed would eventually reach more than 100,000 students. I did not know that 13 years later I would be developing an entirely new way to support the teachers using it.

I only knew that teachers should not have to figure this out alone.

That is still what I believe.

Different tools. Same mission.

The S-Cubed AI Coach is scheduled to launch in October. Make sure you are on my email list. Write "subscribe" in the subject line, and I will add you.

Want to Create Your Own AI-Powered App?

If you’re a creator, educator, coach, consultant, or expert with knowledge you’d like to turn into an interactive experience, Studio.com gives you the tools to build your own AI-powered app.

If you’re curious about creating something of your own, you can explore Studio.com through my creator link:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

If you have expertise people regularly come to you for, it may be worth asking: Could I turn what I know into an app?

The Tool is Changing. The Purpose is Not.

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 00:41:18 +0000

I’ve been watching the reactions to the AI coach I’m building for S-Cubed, and they have covered nearly the entire emotional spectrum—excitement, curiosity, skepticism, fear, and, in some cases, outright anger.

Honestly, I’m underwhelmed by the overreactions on both sides.

AI is neither a miracle that will solve every problem nor a monster we can make disappear by refusing to use it. The technology is already here. The question is what thoughtful, experienced people are going to do with it.

This is not the first time I have stood at a technological crossroads.

When I began sharing my work through YouTube and Facebook, many educators were uncomfortable with those platforms, too. But traditional publishers were not interested in S-Cubed. They did not give my work its reach because they wouldn't accept my work.

Technology made it possible for me to get my work out there, and because of it, I've been able to help a lot of teachers in a lot of classrooms and, most importantly, their students.

I used the tools available to me at that time when no one knew what S-Cubed was to show teachers what I had created. I demonstrated the lessons. I answered questions. I still do. I did it today. I built relationships. Teachers tried S-Cubed, their students succeeded, and word began to spread.

Only after I had created that success myself did established companies become interested in what I was doing.

Even then, I had to fight for the value of my work. I had an extremely difficult conversation with the leadership of J.W. Pepper when they wanted to underpay me.

I handled it.

I stood up for what I had built, and that is why S-Cubed is offered there today, and I am paid what I deserve for what I created.

Now we have arrived at another crossroads.

I am not using AI to replace my work. I am using it to deliver my work in a new way.

The coach is being built from the program I created, the classroom experience I earned, the videos I recorded, the questions teachers have asked me, and the guidance I have provided for years. I am not pressing a button and asking a machine to invent a sight-singing curriculum for me.

I did it already.

It's documented.

I am the one who will tell my story. That's why I have always been tech-forward.

I am carefully teaching a new tool how to help teachers use the curriculum I have already spent years developing.

And I am working just as hard on this version as I worked on the original.

Teachers do not have to feel completely comfortable with AI today. I understand the hesitation. But I also believe that refusing to explore a new technology will not stop that technology from changing education.

My responsibility is to explore it thoughtfully, protect the integrity of my work, and find out whether it can help more teachers get past those difficult early lessons—when they are most likely to feel stuck or give up.

That is what I have always done: use the tools available to help teachers reach students.

The tool is changing.

The purpose is not.

Want to Create Your Own AI-Powered App?

If you’re a creator, educator, coach, consultant, or expert with knowledge you’d like to turn into an interactive experience, Studio.com gives you the tools to build your own AI-powered app.

If you’re curious about creating something of your own, you can explore Studio.com through my creator link:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

If you have expertise people regularly come to you for, it may be worth asking: Could I turn what I know into an app?

I've been here before part 2- Why AI is a part of the next chapter of my S-Cubed Journey

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 22:54:16 +0000

As I’ve been building the new S-Cubed AI Coach App, I made a decision about something that might seem pretty insignificant.

I’m not changing my old slides.

Some of them are pixelated. Some of them aren't particularly pretty. If I created them today, they certainly wouldn't look the same.

But I'm keeping them.

Because they're part of the story.

When I created S-Cubed, this was pretty much a one-man show. It still is mostly that. I hired people to help me with things here and there once I had some success, but when you look at those original materials, you are looking at the work of a teacher who had a lot of ideas and absolutely no idea how to make them look professionally polished.

I knew how to teach.

I knew how to get middle school students to read music.

I knew how to make them laugh while they were learning.

I knew how to take something that intimidated kids—and intimidated their teachers—and break it into small enough pieces that suddenly they could do it.

What I didn't know was graphic design.

And you can tell.

I'm okay with that.

In fact, I've decided that I don't want AI—or anything else—to go back and sanitize that part of my journey.

Over the years, teachers who purchased S-Cubed have sometimes created beautiful versions of my materials for their own classrooms. They've shared them with me. I love seeing them.

But the originals are mine...in all of their imperfect glory.

They represent where I was at that moment in my life.

And I think there is something worth preserving about that.

I've watched technology change before.

I've lived long enough to know that times change and new technologies arrive.

I also decided a long time ago that I don't want to make my decisions out of fear.

I want to make them out of love.

I love this program, and I love helping teachers. S-Cubed has been a lifelong journey for me.

I've created hundreds of lessons over the years in addition to S-Cubed, and they matter to me because of the teachers and students on the other side of them.

That has always been the mission.

Help teachers. Help students. Make learning accessible and fun and effective.

3/4 cup learning + 1/4 cup fun = SUCCESS.

My motto. Look at the original stuff I posted 13 years ago. I've stuck to it.

The technology has changed.

The mission hasn't.

And that is how I see AI.

I remember being terrified in 2013.

When I started putting unedited videos of myself teaching on YouTube in 2013, I was scared to death.

These weren't beautifully produced videos.

They were me.

Teaching.

Talking.

Trying things.

Sharing what I had learned from years in a middle school chorus classroom.

And putting yourself out there like that means people get to judge you.

When I began selling my lessons on Teachers Pay Teachers for $3 a pop, every time a new review appeared, I was afraid to read it.

I remember one review after I finished Level One in 2014.

A fellow Teachers Pay Teachers seller tore the program apart.

The painful part?

A lot of what she said was true.

Some things could have looked better. There were things I could have cleaned up. But...I didn't know how.

But what she couldn't possibly have known was how many hours this one teacher had spent sitting at a computer trying to get all of those ideas out of my head and into those PowerPoints and into the hands of teachers and students who needed it.

Thankfully, most teachers approached me differently.

They would write reviews about how much the program helped their students—and then sometimes privately message me:

"Hey, Dale, you might want to take another look at this slide."

That's how most teachers are.

We help each other.

We make each other's work better.

And I listened.

Sometimes you have to build the thing yourself.

Before S-Cubed became what it became, I tried to interest traditional publishing companies in what I was doing.

It didn't really fit. My vision seemed to be ahead of where they were. And that's ok.

The way I wanted to deliver the program was unusual at the time.

So eventually I did what I've done many times in my life.

I built it myself.

Looking back now, I realize I've been standing at versions of this same crossroads for most of my career.

When I decided to compete in sportaerobics back in the early 90's, none of the folks at my gym would do it with me because I was scrawny. Some of them had actually won a regional event. Most had not. So, I picked up the rule book myself, and did it my way. And three years later, I was a National Champion in the sport when it was at its peak. It's what I do. It doesn't mean I am always right...but I'm following the path right now that I have always followed, and it is all documented on social media.

At the time I shared S-Cubed for the first time-

YouTube was new.

Teachers Pay Teachers was new.

Social media was new.

Putting your classroom and your teaching ideas on the internet was new.

Every one of those things came with reasons to be nervous.

And now AI is here.

So I'm building an AI Coach App.

For the past several weeks, I've been training an AI-powered S-Cubed Coach app using my own teaching, my own philosophy, my own materials, and my own experience.

The first version is intentionally focused.

Lessons 1 through 10.

Those first lessons are where teachers are learning how S-Cubed works. They're figuring out the games, the pacing, the philosophy, and how all the pieces fit together.

Some teachers fly through them.

Others need somebody beside them saying:

"Here's what Dale is trying to accomplish today."

"Don't worry about that yet."

"Watch for this."

"Here's what you should do tomorrow."

For years, I have tried to provide that kind of support through videos, emails, blog posts, Facebook groups, and professional development.

Now there is another possibility.

An AI Coach that can help hold a teacher's hand through those first ten lessons—day by day—using the approach I have trained it to use.

Over the next two months, I'm going to test it.

And I'm excited.

I'm also nervous.

Those two feelings can exist at the same time.

I know some people won't like this.

I'm in an artistic field.

I'm an artist.

I'm also a businessman.

Those two identities don't always sit comfortably beside each other.

I understand why musicians and teachers are asking hard questions about AI. I think we should ask hard questions about it.

I also believe people should have choices.

People can choose whether they want to use Facebook.

They can choose whether they want to use YouTube.

They can choose whether they want to use TikTok.

They can choose whether they want to use AI.

And they can choose whether they want to purchase something that is powered in part by AI.

That's why I'm being completely transparent about what I'm building.

I'm not hiding the AI.

I'm talking about it while I'm building it.

I'm talking about what excites me.

I'm talking about what worries me.

And I'll talk about what works and what doesn't.

Because that's pretty much how I've lived my entire career.

I've been transparent about much harder things.

I was an openly gay public school teacher through years when doing that wasn't always easy.

I knew some people wouldn't approve.

Some didn't.

But I eventually learned something important:

Being disliked by some people isn't the same thing as being wrong.

Leadership doesn't mean everyone agrees with you.

I accepted many years ago that I am a leader.

And being a leader in any field carries responsibility.

It means listening.

It means questioning yourself.

It means being willing to change when you're wrong.

But it also means being willing to move when you believe something can help people—even when not everybody is ready to move with you.

That's where I am with AI.

The slides are staying.

So those slightly ugly, occasionally pixelated S-Cubed slides?

They're staying.

Because AI isn't going to rewrite my history.

It's going to sit beside it.

The teacher who made those PowerPoints is still here.

The guy who uploaded those imperfect YouTube videos night after night after teaching all day full-time is still here.

The teacher who was terrified to open his first reviews is still here.

The artist is still here.

What's changed is that I now have access to a tool I couldn't have imagined when I started.

And I'm going to see what I can do with it.

If it helps a teacher make it through Lesson 7 when they otherwise might have given up, that's important to me.

If it helps a teacher understand why a particular game matters, that's important to me.

If it helps that teacher's students experience that wonderful moment when they realize, Wait—I can actually read this music, then I've accomplished exactly what I set out to accomplish all those years ago.

The tool changed.

The mission didn't.

I'm 62 years old now.

My résumé is my résumé.

I'm thankful for my life experience.

I'm thankful for the teachers and students I've helped.

I'm not going to start making decisions out of fear now. I've never done that.

On my personal Facebook page, I've had a motto for years:

Share your gifts.

That's what I've tried to do with mine.

It's what I'm doing with this next chapter.

And it's what I intend to keep doing until I take my last breath.

Want to Create Your Own AI-Powered App?

If you’re a creator, educator, coach, consultant, or expert with knowledge you’d like to turn into an interactive experience, Studio.com gives you the tools to build your own AI-powered app.

If you’re curious about creating something of your own, you can explore Studio.com through my creator link:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

If you have expertise people regularly come to you for, it may be worth asking: Could I turn what I know into an app?

Being a Leader with New Technology is a Trick.

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:46:21 +0000

Being a leader with new technology is a trick.

Move too slowly, and the world can pass you by.

Move too quickly, and you can find yourself chasing every shiny new thing that comes along.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately as I build the new S-Cubed AI Coach App.

Because the funny thing is, I’ve been here before.

Not with artificial intelligence, of course. But with technology.

I Remember the “Old” Way

When I started teaching in 1989, Apple was the "new tech". Everyone was up in arms about Apple. The Mac.

In 1989, I stood in front of students. I watched their faces. I listened to their voices. I figured out when they understood something and when they didn't while the next-level older teachers were telling the other young ones and me...Apple is it.

They were right.

Over 30 years in the classroom, though, something interesting happened.

Technology kept changing around me.

Mac has arrived.

Then the internet.

Then digital resources.

Then YouTube.

Then social media.

Eventually, a teacher could create something in one classroom and share it with teachers all over the world.

That changed my life.

At Some Point, I Had a Choice

I could keep doing things the way I had always done them.

Or I could ask a different question:

Can this new technology help me do what I already know how to do—better?

That question eventually helped turn the lessons I had created for my own students into the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program using tech long before AI came around. I just used the tech of the time.

Technology didn't create those lessons.

Years of teaching children created them.

Years of watching students struggle created them.

Years of trying something, failing, changing it, and trying again created them.

Technology simply gave me a way to share what I had learned with people far beyond my own classroom.

That's an important distinction.

And now, all these years later, I'm asking myself essentially the same question about AI.

AI Feels Different

I understand why some teachers are uncomfortable with artificial intelligence.

I'm not dismissive of those concerns.

In fact, I think some skepticism is healthy.

We should ask questions.

What are we giving up?

What happens to creativity?

What happens to critical thinking?

What happens to the relationship between a teacher and a student?

Those things matter enormously to me.

But there's another question I think we need to ask:

What becomes possible now that wasn't possible before?

That's the question that has me excited.

Old Knowledge. New Technology.

I've spent the last several weeks putting years of my own teaching experience into the S-Cubed AI Coach App. The same way I spent thousands of hours getting my original work into the hands and classrooms of teachers 13 years ago.

And there is something almost surreal about it.

I'm doing it all over again.

I'm taking lessons I developed long before anyone was talking about generative AI and putting them inside one of the newest technologies available.

Old and new are meeting each other.

The teaching philosophy is still mine.

The sequence is still mine.

The mistakes are mine.

The successes are mine.

The stories are mine. I told them when I set my iPhone 4 into a corner of my classroom in 2013. I took control then. And I am still taking control. This blog is my spot. It has been my spot since 2013. Look. It will always be my spot as times change.

The experience behind it comes from real classrooms filled with real middle school students. I did it.

AI didn't create any of that.

What AI may be able to do is help me make that experience available to a teacher at the exact moment they need it.

A teacher doesn't necessarily need another 90-minute professional development session.

Sometimes they need someone to say:

"You're on Lesson 3. Here's what you should pay attention to today."

Or:

"Don't panic. Your students are supposed to struggle with this part."

Or maybe:

"Try this tomorrow."

That's where I see the opportunity.

And I am working as hard on this as I did when I created the original program.

It's all documented. I made sure of it. Nobody gets to tell my story but me.

Maybe This Is What Leadership Looks Like

For a long time, I think I associated leadership with knowing the answer.

Age has changed that for me.

Now I think leadership often means being willing to walk into something new before you completely understand it.

Not recklessly.

Curiously.

You bring your experience with you.

You ask questions.

You experiment.

You keep what works.

You throw away what doesn't.

And most importantly, you don't abandon the principles that got you there in the first place.

I'm 62 years old. That- actually- is currently my power. And I am owning it.

I'm not trying to become a 25-year-old technology entrepreneur.

I'm bringing decades of experience into a technology that didn't exist for most of my career.

And I'm discovering that those two things aren't in conflict.

They may actually belong together.

Because New Doesn't Automatically Mean Better

I've watched plenty of technologies come and go.

Some promised to revolutionize education and disappeared a few years later. I've been there for it.

So I'm not interested in AI simply because AI is new.

I'm interested in it because I'm beginning to see ways it might solve problems I've been thinking about for years.

That's different.

Technology should serve the mission.

The mission shouldn't serve the technology.

My mission hasn't changed.

I want teachers to feel successful.

I want students to experience the incredible feeling that happens when they suddenly realize:

"Wait. I can actually read music."

I wanted that when I was standing in front of my own students in all of the videos I have posted since 2013 on YouTube before people trusted YouTube.

I did it to document my work.

And I want it now as I build an AI coach.

The tools have changed.

The purpose hasn't.

Maybe That's the Trick

Perhaps being a leader with new technology isn't about always being the first person through the door.

And it certainly isn't about adopting every new tool that comes along.

Maybe it's about knowing when a new tool can help you carry something valuable forward.

That's where I find myself right now.

Taking 30 years of teaching experience, 13 years of building S-Cubed, thousands of interactions with teachers and students—and introducing all of that experience to something completely new.

I don't know exactly where AI is going.

None of us do.

But I've been through enough changes in my life to know this:

I'm not afraid of something simply because it's new.

And I'm not willing to discard something simply because it's old. And I want to stay that way.

The best part of moving forward may be figuring out how to bring the best of the old world with us.

That's what I'm trying to do.

And on October 6, I'll get to share the next step of that journey.

Want to Create Your Own AI-Powered App?

If you’re a creator, educator, coach, consultant, or expert with knowledge you’d like to turn into an interactive experience, Studio.com gives you the tools to build your own AI-powered app.

If you’re curious about creating something of your own, you can explore Studio.com through my creator link:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

If you have expertise people regularly come to you for, it may be worth asking: Could I turn what I know into an app?

The Hardest Part of S-Cubed? Getting Through It the First Time.

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 19:35:00 +0000

Today I uploaded two more lessons into the S-Cubed AI Coach, which means I’m getting very close to the end of the uploading process.

Two more to go, and then I will start testing the app.

And I have to admit—I’m getting excited.

October 6 is starting to feel very real. I'm going to do an "Ask Mr. D" session on it sometime before or on the day of the release. I haven't done one of those in a LONG time. Stay tuned for details. Make sure you are on my email list so you don't miss it. Write "Subscribe" in the subject line, and I'll add you! Email inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com

As I’ve been building this coach, I keep thinking about two groups of teachers.

The first group is made up of teachers who have heard about S-Cubed, seen other teachers talking about it, read the reviews, maybe even watched some of my videos—but haven’t taken the leap yet.

The second group may be even more important to me.

They’re the teachers who already own S-Cubed.

They bought it because they wanted something different for their students. They started it. They may have even seen glimpses of what it could do.

But somewhere along the way, they stopped.

And I understand why.

S-Cubed asks you to trust a process that probably doesn't look like the way you learned music.

That’s a big deal.

Most of us were taught music in a very particular way. We were given explanations. We were taught terminology. We learned rules. We practiced skills.

S-Cubed often turns that process around.

Students experience things before they completely understand them.

They play games.

They make mistakes.

They laugh.

They listen.

They discover patterns.

And little by little, the pieces begin connecting.

For a teacher experiencing S-Cubed for the first time, there can be a voice in your head saying:

“Am I really supposed to do it this way?”

That's exactly where I want the S-Cubed AI Coach to help.

I don't want AI to replace the teacher. I want it to support the teacher.

This is an important distinction for me.

The magic of S-Cubed has never been technology.

It's you.

It's the relationship you build with your students. It's the environment you create in your classroom. It's the way you encourage them to take risks, make mistakes, and keep trying.

The AI Coach isn't there to do that job.

It's there to stand beside you while you do it.

Imagine finishing Lesson 3 and wondering:

Did I do that correctly?

Or perhaps your students reacted differently than you expected.

Maybe you aren't sure whether you should move on tomorrow.

Maybe something in the lesson doesn't make sense yet.

Maybe you simply need someone to remind you:

Trust the process. You're exactly where you're supposed to be.

That's what I'm building.

The first 10 lessons are the key.

My biggest goal with this first version of the S-Cubed AI Coach is very simple:

Help teachers successfully get through the first 10 lessons.

Each day, I want the Coach to help you understand what you're doing, why you're doing it, and what to watch for.

And when you have a question?

Ask it.

That's the part that excites me most.

You won't have to wonder whether you're interpreting something correctly or search through materials in hopes of finding an answer.

The Coach will be there to help you work through it.

Because I believe something important happens when a teacher gets through those first 10 lessons.

You begin to understand the flow.

You start trusting it.

Your students start understanding the expectations.

The games begin making more sense.

And, most importantly...

you start seeing and hearing the incredible results you've heard and read about.

That's when I think you'll want to keep going.

Not because an AI Coach tells you to.

Because your students will tell you—with what they're now confidently able to do.

And before long, I hope you'll find yourself wanting to take them all the way through Level One.

Thousands of teachers have already trusted this process.

That's something I don't say lightly.

S-Cubed has been used by teachers for 13 years, and there are hundreds of reviews on Teachers Pay Teachers and testimonials on my blog from teachers who took the leap.

They trusted a process that initially may have felt unfamiliar.

And many of them watched their classrooms transform.

Their students became more independent.

They became more confident.

They started reading music in ways their teachers weren't sure were possible.

Those teachers didn't have an AI Coach walking beside them.

Now you will.

And if you bought S-Cubed years ago but never made it very far, I'm especially talking to you.

Pull it back out.

This time, I want to help you get through those first 10 lessons.

You already made the investment.

Let's finally help you experience what all those other teachers have been talking about.

And if AI makes you nervous...

I understand.

I've spent most of my professional life creating, teaching, and connecting with real human beings. I don't want technology replacing the things that make teaching human.

That's why I'm approaching AI differently.

I'm asking:

How can this technology help a teacher feel MORE supported—not less human?

How can it take something I've learned through decades of teaching S-Cubed and make that support available when I'm not standing beside you?

How can it help a teacher at 7:00 Tuesday morning who's thinking, “Okay, Dale...what am I supposed to do today?”

That's the AI I am interested in.

Not replacing you.

Supporting you.

October 6.

We're getting closer.

Two more lessons went into the Coach today.

Soon I'll finish uploading.

Then comes the really exciting part—seeing how all of this works together and getting it ready for teachers to use.

Whether you're discovering S-Cubed for the first time or you've had it sitting in your Teachers Pay Teachers library waiting for another try, I hope you'll join me.

You don't have to figure it all out on the first day.

You don't even have to completely trust the process yet.

Just give me 10 lessons.

Let the Coach walk beside you.

Let your students experience it.

Then listen to what happens in your classroom.

Hundreds of teachers have already made that leap.

You could be one of them.

The S-Cubed AI Coach arrives October 6.

Want to Create Your Own AI-Powered App?

If you’re a creator, educator, coach, consultant, or expert with knowledge you’d like to turn into an interactive experience, Studio.com gives you the tools to build your own AI-powered app.

If you’re curious about creating something of your own, you can explore Studio.com through my creator link:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

If you have expertise people regularly come to you for, it may be worth asking: Could I turn what I know into an app?

The Silver Medal that Felt Like Gold.

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:25:45 +0000

https://youtu.be/CiTldvBgBnw?si=cnpeowc77EPaR4lC

This was the peak of my aerobic gymnastics career, even though I had won gold in 1993.

It was my best athletic performance ever. This was prelims.

With this performance, I won the opportunity to represent the USA at the World Championship.

But it was my personal best performance.

That's why I love it.

I Don’t Want AI to Replace Artistry. I Want It to Help Artists.

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 21:21:43 +0000

A few days ago, I asked music teachers on Facebook how they feel about artificial intelligence.

The responses surprised me—not because people had strong opinions, but because there seemed to be so little middle ground.

Some were all in.

Others wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. Most who feel this way worry about environmental concerns or about people stealing other artists' work. I share those concerns and some others as well.

I am old enough to remember when people were terrified of Facebook, but I embraced it. Nobody would know about my work without social media. None of the major music education publishers would touch S-Cubed as a book. I'm not upset about that. It wasn't supposed to be a book. The universe had a different plan, and I embraced all of the technologies that I could find at the time to get it out there...blogging....posting videos to my YouTube Channel...sharing them in choir director Facebook groups and using TPT as my launch pad for people to get it. I called it the 21st-century way to learn to teach the subject of sight singing, and it is.

As the comments kept coming about my AI Facebook post, I became curious about something else. I edited the post and asked people to share their generation—Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, etc.—because I wondered whether age might help explain some of the divide.

I'm still watching those responses come in.

But the whole conversation has made me think about my own relationship with technology—and especially about what happens when you're not just a musician or a teacher, but also a creator trying to get your work into the world.

In 2013, the year I started creating S-Cubed, I didn't know what I was doing.

When I created S-Cubed Sight Singing for Beginners, I had never created a PowerPoint in my life.

Not one.

And it showed.

I was a music teacher. I knew how to teach middle school students to sight-sing. I had spent 20 years developing a method that worked in my classroom, and I believed other teachers and students could benefit from it.

But turning that method into something I could share with teachers around the world?

I had no idea how to do that.

So I figured it out.

My early images were terrible. Most were pixelated. My PowerPoints weren't pretty. I was criticized for them. I took them down from TPT, and I tried again. Hours and hours of work.

And, truthfully, graphic design still isn't my gift.

But I kept creating anyway.

There's a quote often associated with Sheryl Sandberg that became something of a philosophy for me:

"Done is better than perfect."

Thank goodness I believed that.

Because if I had waited until I could make everything look perfect, S-Cubed might never have existed.

Instead, I put my imperfect work into the world, and I was scared to death of the judgment.

I still am...as I adopt AI to help my work.

Thousands of music teachers eventually adopted my sight-singing program in those early years, and are still purchasing it now for the Back to School season. I am grateful.

More importantly, their students are learning from it.

That mattered more to me than whether every slide looked like it had been designed by a professional graphic designer.

Then AI arrived.

And I understand why musicians are uncomfortable with it.

I don't want artificial intelligence replacing composers.

I don't want it replacing singers, instrumentalists, conductors, teachers, or the creative process.

I don't want a machine to become a substitute for the messy, beautiful, deeply human experience of making music.

Ever.

And I don't believe it can.

But I've also started realizing something else:

AI can help me do things that have always been difficult for me.

It can help me organize my thoughts.

It can help me communicate an idea more clearly.

It can help me improve something visually when graphic design isn't my strength.

It can help me brainstorm, edit, analyze, question, and refine.

It can help me spend less time struggling with the things I'm not particularly good at so I can spend more time doing the things I am good at.

That distinction matters to me.

I don't want AI to create my artistry. I want AI to help me present my artistry.

And yes, there's another side to this for me.

Since 2022, when AI first became available to the public, I became very concerned that people would find ways to take my intellectual property. I have created S-Cubed, but I also created tons of other products that I was also concerned about.

I've spent more than a decade developing, refining, documenting, and sharing a very specific method of teaching sight-singing. That work represents thousands upon thousands of hours of my life, and it still does.

I worry that tools like AI make it easier than ever to take someone's intellectual work, strip away the name attached to it, and recreate something that looks remarkably similar.

I hope that isn't happening with my work.

But I'd be lying if I said I haven't thought about it.

And that puts me in an interesting position.

Because the same technology that concerns me is also becoming one of the tools. That is why I am using AI to make my work better. That is exactly why I am creating the new AI coach app for S-Cubed. It's becoming available on October 6, 2026.

Maybe that's where the middle ground is.

We don't have to worship AI.

And we don't have to run from it.

We can ask difficult questions about copyright, intellectual property, creativity, compensation, and what happens to artists when machines can generate things that resemble human creative work.

We should ask those questions.

I’ve learned over the years that once you put creative work into the world, you can’t completely control how others use it.

At the same time, I think artists have always had to adapt to new technology.

I certainly have.

In 2013, PowerPoint was new technology to me.

YouTube changed what was possible for me.

Teachers Pay Teachers changed what was possible for me.

Social media changed what was possible for me.

None of those things made me a better music teacher.

But they allowed the work I had spent decades developing as a music teacher to reach people I never could have reached otherwise.

I'm beginning to see AI through a similar lens.

And now I'm building with it.

As I mentioned above, I'm currently using AI as part of the next evolution of S-Cubed.

I'm developing an AI coach designed to help teachers work successfully through the first ten lessons of the program—the place where some teachers need the most reassurance and guidance. The AI coach is built around MY 13 years of S-Cubed experience and materials.

The AI isn't inventing my teaching method.

It's helping me deliver the method I spent years creating.

That's an important distinction.

I want a teacher who gets stuck to be able to ask a question.

I want the teacher who feels overwhelmed to know what to do next. That's what I did when I created the original, messy version of S-Cubed.

I want someone who bought S-Cubed but never quite got it off the ground to have another chance at succeeding with it.

And ultimately, I want their students to succeed.

That's why I created S-Cubed in the first place.

I'm still a musician and artist first.

Maybe that's why this conversation about AI interests me so much.

I don't believe artists should surrender their artistry to technology.

I believe we should protect it fiercely.

But protecting artistry doesn't necessarily mean refusing to use the tools that are changing the world around us.

Sometimes it means learning how to use those tools in service of our artistry rather than in place of it.

Thirteen years ago, I didn't let my inability to make a beautiful PowerPoint stop me from sharing something I knew could help teachers.

Today, I'm not going to let fear of AI stop me from discovering how it might help me serve those teachers better.

I'll keep asking questions. I hope the industry continues finding ways to address AI’s very real environmental costs.

I'll keep protecting the human part.

I'll keep learning.

And I'll keep adapting.

Because perhaps the choice isn't between AI and artistry.

Perhaps the challenge for artists now is figuring out how to use one without ever surrendering the other.

And I'd really like to know where you land.

Has AI changed the way you work as a musician or music teacher—or are you still keeping your distance?

Want to Create Your Own AI-Powered App?

If you’re a creator, educator, coach, consultant, or expert with knowledge you’d like to turn into an interactive experience, Studio.com gives you the tools to build your own AI-powered app.

If you’re curious about creating something of your own, you can explore Studio.com through my creator link:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

If you have expertise people regularly come to you for, it may be worth asking: Could I turn what I know into an app?

Why I’m Building an AI Coach for S-Cubed

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 20:54:20 +0000

Why I’m Building an AI Coach for S-Cubed

Over the past 13 years, I’ve watched thousands of teachers discover S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners.

And I’ve noticed something.

Sometimes the hardest part isn’t deciding to try the program. People who buy it have seen the reviews and continue to see the recommendations on social media.

The problem most people encounter is getting started — and sticking with it long enough to see what happens. The results are real. They are proven.

Those first lessons are important. They establish the routines, the language, the expectations, and most importantly, the relationship between the teacher and the students. S-Cubed is not just a method. There are tons of those out there. As I've said for years...S-Cubed is part method and part philosophy.

But there can also be the point where a teacher starts wondering:

Am I doing this right?

Should I move on or repeat this lesson?

What if my kids aren’t getting it yet?

What exactly should I focus on today?

I've answered versions of those questions for years through emails, blog posts, Facebook messages, YouTube videos, workshops, and conversations with teachers.

And lately I've been thinking:

What if I could be there every day?

Obviously, I can't.

But perhaps new technologies can.

Enter the S-Cubed AI Coach

For the last several weeks, I’ve been working on something new: an AI-powered coach designed specifically to help teachers navigate the first 10 lessons of S-Cubed.

And I want to be very clear about what I want this to be.

I don't want it to replace the teacher.

I don't want AI teaching your students.

I want it to help you teach your students the way I originally intended and to make it easy for you to be successful.

Think of it as having someone beside you who knows S-Cubed and can help you figure out what comes next.

The goal is simple:

Daily guidance through the lessons.

You’ll be able to check in, get help understanding what you should be doing, find the resources connected to that lesson, and ask questions when something isn't going quite the way you expected.

In other words, I'm trying to take the support I've provided teachers for years and make it available when they actually need it.

I Know the Words “AI” Make Some Teachers Nervous

I understand that.

In fact, I think a healthy amount of skepticism about any new technology is probably a good thing.

But I've also been thinking about my own journey with technology.

When I started S-Cubed, I didn't follow the traditional route.

I used YouTube.

I wrote blog posts.

I shared ideas on social media.

I used Teachers Pay Teachers.

I connected teachers directly to videos and resources in ways that weren't particularly common in traditional choral music publishing at the time.

The technology wasn't the point.

Helping teachers was the point...and it still is.

And that's how I feel about AI.

I'm not interested in using it simply because everyone is talking about it.

I'm interested in whether it can help a teacher walk into the classroom feeling a little more confident about what to do next with their students that day.

If it can do that, I think it's worth exploring, and that's why I am working on it.

Why Lessons 1–10?

I'm intentionally starting small.

I'm not trying to put the entire S-Cubed universe into an app.

I want to solve one specific problem really well:

Helping teachers successfully navigate the beginning of the program.

Because once the routines start clicking...

Once the students understand the games, the friendly competition component, the daily routines...everyone starts to see the results.

Once the teacher begins seeing why the sequence works...

Something changes.

Confidence grows.

The rewards of the work pay off.

For everyone.

I’m Building This Carefully

This isn't something I'm throwing together and putting online next week.

I'm going lesson by lesson.

I'm thinking about the questions teachers have asked me over the years.

I'm connecting the resources I've already created.

And I'm trying to teach this coach to support teachers in a way that feels like S-Cubed — and feels like me.

There are limitations. There are things I'm learning. There are things AI can do remarkably well and other things it simply can't do.

I'm learning all of that as I build.

And over the next two months, I'm going to share some of that journey here.

Because if you're skeptical, curious, excited — or some combination of all three — I want you to be able to watch this develop rather than suddenly seeing an announcement one day saying:

“Here's my new AI app!”

That's not how I want to introduce this.

I want you to understand why I'm building it.

October 6

That's the date I'm working toward.

And between now and then, I'll show you more of what I'm creating, what I'm learning, and how I believe this can help teachers who are beginning their journey with S-Cubed.

Technology will continue to change.

It always has.

But my goal hasn't changed much at all.

Help teachers succeed.

Help students succeed.

And maybe make that first steps into S-Cubed feel a little less intimidating.

That's why I'm building an AI coach.

Want to Create Your Own AI-Powered App?

If you’re a creator, educator, coach, consultant, or expert with knowledge you’d like to turn into an interactive experience, Studio.com gives you the tools to build your own AI-powered app.

If you’re curious about creating something of your own, you can explore Studio.com through my creator link:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

If you have expertise people regularly come to you for, it may be worth asking: Could I turn what I know into an app?

I've been here before-

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:45:14 +0000

When I first began creating S-Cubed, there wasn't really a roadmap.

Most music education resources still revolved around printed books, teacher manuals, and the traditional publishing model. That's a wonderful model, and it has served our profession well.

But I wanted to try something different.

Instead of asking teachers to figure everything out from a printed page, I began creating YouTube videos. Then blog posts. Pinterest boards. Facebook communities. Email support. Teacher tips. Video demonstrations.

Many people thought it was a little unusual.

Others embraced it immediately, and for that, I am grateful.

Over the last thirteen years, that decision has connected me with thousands of teachers around the world. Together we've accumulated hundreds of reviews on Teachers Pay Teachers, countless success stories on social media, and an incredible community of educators who have helped shape S-Cubed into what it is today.

None of that happened because of technology.

It happened because teachers trusted one another.

Technology simply allowed us to have the conversation.

Today we're standing at another crossroads.

Artificial intelligence.

I completely understand why some teachers are hesitant.

Every new technology brings questions.

Will it replace teachers?

Will students rely on it too much?

Will it make learning less personal?

Those are fair questions.

I've asked many of them myself.

But after spending months exploring what AI can—and cannot—do, I've come to see something important.

The best educational technology has never replaced great teaching. Ever. I've done this since 1989. When I started, I remember having meetings with people who were helping the administrators trust Apple. Seriously.

It removes obstacles so teachers can spend more time doing what only teachers can do.

That's exactly why I'm building the S-Cubed AI Coach.

This isn't an app that teaches instead of you.

It isn't a shortcut.

It isn't designed to replace the hundreds of videos, lessons, and years of experience that have gone into S-Cubed.

Instead, it's designed to organize all of that knowledge into one place.

Imagine having a coach that's available whenever you need it.

"I'm starting Lesson 3 tomorrow. What should I watch for?"

"One of my students keeps making this mistake. What should I do?"

"How fast should I move through Lesson 7?"

"What if my students are struggling with skips?"

Instead of searching through years of blog posts, videos, emails, and social media discussions, the AI Coach can guide you through the first ten lessons using the same philosophy I've been teaching for years.

We have learned from thirteen years of questions.

Thirteen years of answers.

Thirteen years of teacher feedback.

Thirteen years of refining what works.

The goal isn't to make teachers dependent on AI.

The goal is to help teachers become confident with S-Cubed more quickly so their students experience success sooner.

Because that's what has always mattered.

Not the technology.

The kids who land in front of us.

If this AI Coach helps one more teacher feel confident enough to stick with sight-singing...

If it helps one choir experience that magical moment when students realize they can truly read music...

Then it will have done exactly what I hoped.

Every chapter of S-Cubed has looked a little different.

First it was YouTube.

Then blogging.

Then social media.

Now AI.

The mission hasn't changed.

I'm simply continuing the journey of meeting teachers where they are, using the best tools available to help them become successful.

And when teachers become successful...

Their students do, too.

I can't wait to share what's coming.

October 6.

Want to Create Your Own AI-Powered App?

If you’re a creator, educator, coach, consultant, or expert with knowledge you’d like to turn into an interactive experience, Studio.com gives you the tools to build your own AI-powered app.

If you’re curious about creating something of your own, you can explore Studio.com through my creator link:

https://studio.com/join/daleduncanscubedcoach

If you have expertise people regularly come to you for, it may be worth asking: Could I turn what I know into an app?

TpT Back to School Sale and some gift cards for you!

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 15:41:42 +0000

The first two people to email me at inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com with "Send me the gift card" in the subject line will be sent a $10 gift card for the TpT Sale!

Thanks for reading!

The sale is August 4th and 5th.

Google Slides Version of Mega Bundle of S-Cubed

The new Mastery Belt System Bundle. Great for long-time users of S-Cubed.

The"QUICK!" Series 15 lesson bundle

The Elementary Bundle of S-Cubed

My New Nine-Week Musical Bundle that includes Hairspray, Shrek, and Matilda.

My Nine Week Music Bundle that includes Annie, Newsies, and Sound of Music.

My Chorus Sub Plan Bundle

Why do so many children quit music lessons?

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 21:14:22 +0000

Why Do So Many Children Quit Music Lessons?

The answer may have less to do with talent... and more to do with how they're being taught.

Every year, thousands of children begin music lessons with excitement. They dream of playing songs they love, performing for family and friends, and becoming "musical."

Yet, just a year or two later, many of those same children have quit.

Why?

Parents often assume it was because their child wasn't motivated enough or simply "wasn't musical."

After teaching music for more than 30 years, I don't believe that's the real reason.

I think many children quit because success isn't celebrated, and it doesn't happen fast enough.

Music Should Build Confidence... Not Frustration

Imagine asking a child to read an entire chapter book before they've learned the alphabet.

We would never expect that to work.

Yet that's often what happens in music education.

Many students are asked to play songs on an instrument before they truly understand the language of music itself. They memorize finger patterns, practice the same songs over and over, and rely heavily on a teacher to tell them what comes next. In choir classes, that is super common because teachers are under pressure to do concerts, and they don't always make time to teach their students to read music.

Eventually the children begin asking themselves...

"Why is this so hard?"

"Why can't I do this on my own?"

Little by little, confidence disappears.

And when confidence disappears...

...so does motivation.

Reading Music Is a Language

Music isn't just something we play.

It's something we read.

Just like learning to read words, learning to read music begins with understanding the symbols, recognizing patterns, and gradually building fluency over time. Learning to read music mimics the exact way our children learned to speak their native language. They should WANT to learn what the words mean, and with S-Cubed, they will.

When children can look at a piece of music and understand what they're seeing—even before touching an instrument—they begin developing true musical independence. A capella? Absolutely. It's the best way.

The confidence they gain when following the S-Cubed system changes everything.

Instead of feeling lost...

...they begin feeling capable and excited to see what is next.

The Philosophy Behind S-Cubed

When I created the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners, I wasn't trying to create another system that imitated all of the others out there. They start in the key of C (already confusing to a beginner...those LEDGER lines), move to the key of G or F (It's so HIGH...I can't sing that high), and on and on. Systems like those are a dime a dozen and they don't work for the true beginner.

I wanted to teach children how to read music confidently.

That's why every lesson is built around a philosophy that guided my classroom for decades:

3/4 Learning + 1/4 Cup Fun = SUCCESS!

Children absolutely need to enjoy learning.

But they also deserve lessons that build real skills.

The "learning" comes from carefully sequenced instruction that develops music literacy one step at a time.

The "fun" comes from celebrating progress, singing, games, and activities that keep students engaged and looking forward to the next lesson with Mr. C, with whom I collaborated when we created this version of the program. He is a long-time user of S-Cubed, and he captures the Home version of this program perfectly.

When we balance "fun" with celebration of success, something wonderful happens.

Children are excited to continue to learn.

And success makes them want to keep going.

You Don't Need a Piano to Build a Musician

One of the biggest misconceptions parents have is believing they need a piano before their child can learn to read music.

The truth is, your child's first instrument is already with them...

their voice.

The S-Cubed Homeschool Edition is designed to help children become confident music readers using their voice first. Because the program is self-paced and taught through video instruction, families can learn at home without owning a piano or paying for weekly private lessons. Try the first lesson for free by clicking this link. Check out all of my reviews from teachers over the last 13 years right here, and there are more in my TpT store!

Whether your child eventually chooses choir, band, orchestra, piano, guitar, or another instrument, they'll already have one of the most valuable musical skills they can develop:

The ability to read music independently.

Every Child Deserves the Chance to Succeed

If your child has struggled with traditional music lessons—or if you're looking for an affordable way to introduce music at home—I hope you'll consider giving them a different kind of musical beginning.

One built on understanding.

One built on confidence.

One built on success.

Because I don't believe children quit music because they aren't capable.

I believe many simply haven't been given the right foundation and the right philosophy.

And that's exactly why I created S-Cubed. The original version of the program has been used in classrooms all over the world since 2013. Now it's time to bring it into their homes!

Have a question? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below. Has your child ever taken music lessons? What was their experience?

What if your child could learn to read music...without piano lessons?

noreply@blogger.com (inthemiddlewithmrd1.blogspot.com) — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 13:36:42 +0000

What if your child could learn to read music...without piano lessons?

When I taught middle school chorus, one of my greatest joys was watching students discover that they could actually read music.

Not guess.

Not imitate.

Not wait for someone to play it on the piano.

They could simply look at the notes on the page and sing them.

That skill changed everything.

For the past 13 years, my S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners has been used by hundreds of classroom teachers and thousands of students. It has been refined, tested, and proven in real classrooms by music educators across the country.

But recently, I began thinking about a different group of children.

What about the child who loves music but doesn't have a piano or other instrument at home?

What about the family who wants to give their child a strong musical foundation before they ever choose an instrument?

Or homeschool families looking for a complete music reading curriculum they can use at home?

That's why I created the S-Cubed Homeschool Edition.

This isn't just for homeschoolers.

It's for any family that wants their child to learn to read music in a fun, self-paced way.

Why parents love it

🎵 No piano or other instrument is required.

🎵 No musical background is required from the parent.

🎵 Children work at their own pace.

🎵 It's far less expensive than years of private piano lessons.

🎵 The lessons are engaging, interactive, and designed to build confidence one small success at a time.

My teaching philosophy has always been simple:

3/4 learning + 1/4 cup fun = SUCCESS!

By the end of Level One, students will be able to:

Read music independently.
Sight-Sing music examples a cappella (without a piano or adult helping).
Read skips as wide as an octave accurately.
Perform syncopated rhythms accurately.
Confidently use the Curwen hand signs to locate pitches.
Sing a chromatic scale in tune.
Have excellent ability to identify sharp/flat and in-tune singing.
And have fun while they do it!

Those are remarkable skills for beginning musicians. I wasn't able to demonstrate some of those skills until I was in college.

Whether your child eventually joins choir, learns an instrument, sings in church, auditions for musical theatre, or simply enjoys making music, learning to read music is a gift that lasts a lifetime.

Try Lesson One of the program for FREE

I'd love for you to experience the program before making any commitment.

🎵 FREE Lesson 1 of S-Cubed Home Edition:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/S-Cubed-Homeschool-Edition-Lesson-1-The-Game-Forbidden-Pattern-5594070

If your family enjoys it, the Complete Level One Homeschool Edition is available here:

🎵 Complete S-Cubed Home Edition:
View the complete Level One program

As families prepare for a new school year, this is a wonderful time to add a fun extracurricular activity that develops real musical skills. Whether you're homeschooling, supplementing a traditional school education, or simply looking for a meaningful music curriculum your child can enjoy at home, I'd love for you to take a look. The program was created by me, and the videos in the Home edition are led by a long-time user of my sight-singing program in the public school classroom, Mr. C.

And if you know a parent, grandparent, homeschool family, music teacher, or anyone raising a child who loves music, I would be honored if you shared this post with them.

Music literacy is one of the greatest gifts we can give a child—and it doesn't require a piano to begin.