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

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.  

The Tool is Changing. The Purpose is Not.

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.

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

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.

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.

The Hardest Part of S-Cubed? Getting Through It the First Time.

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.

The Silver Medal that Felt Like Gold.

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.

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?

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.

I've been here before-

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.  

TpT Back to School Sale and some gift cards for you!

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