Music lessons for neurodivergent learners

I'm autistic and I have ADHD, though I wasn't diagnosed until I was an adult. As a kid, I'd get assigned work between lessons, and I'd either forget it or start it, struggle, and give up. These were lessons I had begged for, and I still walked into each one ashamed, knowing I was about to get scolded.

The hardest places were the ones where students were compared with each other, which mostly happened with teachers who didn't adapt how they taught. If another student was doing well, the question was why I wasn't.

So if you show up having done nothing, I'll ask why. Maybe you had a busy week. Maybe what I gave you wasn't interesting, and we need to find something you'd want to practice. There's no reason practicing music needs to look one specific way.

I also pay close attention to body language. Growing up undiagnosed, I had to learn it deliberately, because I didn't always understand it intuitively. If you start to get overwhelmed, we lighten the load. It's like a washing machine that's too full: it struggles and makes loud noises, so you stop it, take some out, let it finish, and then give it more. (Not to compare people to washing machines.) I don't get upset easily, so I won't make it worse.

I outline lessons, but I don't script them, and where you are that day matters more than what I wrote down. I also explain a lot through analogies and patterns, because that's how I learn. If that doesn't work for you, we'll find what does.