AI is already a part of the conversation in Music Education

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.