You’re Already a Music Curriculum Maker. Let’s Make It Easier.

You make curriculum decisions every day: when you choose repertoire, plan units, prepare performances, respond to students, interpret standards, revise projects, or decide what matters most in the limited time you have.

Imagining Possibilities is a book-in-progress for music educators who want to design, update, and expand music curriculum with more clarity, imagination, and confidence.

Follow along as I write Imagining Possibilities and get free notes, frameworks, and better questions to help you build a program that fits your students, your community, and your context.

The Problem

A collection of activities or repertoire is not the same as a curriculum that fits your students.

Lesson planning and curriculum design are not the same.

Most of us were taught how to plan lessons, choose repertoire, and prepare for the next performance.

Far fewer of us were ever taught how to design, update, or expand a cohesive sustainable music curriculum.

Without a clear system, we lean on one-size-fits-all packages or spend hours piece-mealing activities online. It’s exhausting, and it still might not fit the actual students in front of us as communities, students, and music keep changing.

You and your students deserve classes, ensembles, and curriculum built with and for them.

Start Where You Are In Your Curriculum Work

Is this you?

Every music educator comes to curriculum work from a different place.

Whatever you teach, you are still wrestling through th question: How do I build something that best fits my students, community, and context?

Meet Your Guide

I Know How Exhausting and Frustrating Curriculum Development Is. I’ve Spent My Career Helping Teachers Fix It.

I’m Evan Tobias, Associate Professor of Music Learning and Teaching at Arizona State University and Director of the Consortium for Innovation and Transformation in Music Education.

I know how hard it is to innovate in the music classroom when you’re bogged down by daily teaching demands and rigid expectations. I remember the Sunday nights early in my career—tabs open, scrambling to assemble a coherent plan that would guide the next couple weeks let alone get me through Monday. I knew my students deserved better. Gaining systems, frameworks, and structures for curriculum was a game changer.

You want a program that contributes to all students’ musical lives, but figuring out how to build that curriculum takes time you simply don’t have or resources and foundations you were never provided.

That’s exactly why I’m writing Imagining Possibilities for Music Learning and Teaching—a guide drawn from years of working alongside music educators designing curriculum, researching how music educators actually experience this work, and helping programs better serve young people and communities.

You don’t have to wait for the book to start thinking differently about your curriculum.

Join your peers and take that next step to design, update, expand, or transform your music program.

A Plan Forward

Ready for the next step? 

Here’s How We’ll Do This Together

1. Join the Newsletter to follow the book’s progress and join your peers in rethinking curriculum.

2. Try the questions and frameworks with your own students. 

3. Build your program with clarity, imagination, and confidence.

Step Into Your Role as a Curriculum Maker

Imagine a music program built around your students’ needs and possibilities—not just someone else’s plan.

I’m writing Imagining Possibilities for Music Learning & Teaching in the open. No fluff, no spam. Just my process, challenges, and useful ideas along the way.

Start now, for free.

Get early frameworks, a look behind-the-scenes drafts, and first access when the book launches.

You’ll even have opportunities to share your experiences and perspectives.

Want to go deeper?

The Book Progress Hub shares draft ideas, videos, frameworks, and questions from the writing process.

Explore the hub when you want to see the book taking shape.

Join the book-progress list when you want the most useful updates delivered to your inbox.