Student and Teacher

Our Methodology

Little Kids Rock empowers and inspires youth using a revolutionary new teaching method called “Music as a Second Language” (MSL). This student-centered approach to music education teaches children to play the popular musical styles that they know and love, including rock, reggae, hip-hop pop and also how to improvise and compose their own original music. The MSL method was developed by our Founder and CEO, David Wish.

Wish’s decade-long public school teaching career was in the field of bilingual education. Drawing upon what is known about how children learn language, he developed a unique approach to teaching music that utilizes the deeply interconnected nature of language and music. “Just as all kids are natural language speakers,” says Wish, “they are also natural music makers. Not just some kids; all kids.”

Over two thousand public-school teachers have been trained in the MSL Method since 2002 and these teachers have used it in the service of over 500,000 children grades K-12. This makes MSL one of the most broadly used and fastest growing methods of teaching music in the U.S. public schools today.

MSL website     •     MSL article (pdf)     •     MSL Youtube videos