Musical experience can promote relationships, and new kinds of flourishing that can challenge dominant assumptions about the lives of people with disabilities. Approaching music through organized, developmental and sustained approaches should be available to all, but are often not promoted or considered for those with a disability in school or community environments. The Adaptive Music Bridging Program established in Melbourne, Australia in 2023 engages students aged 8-14 with a disability in ensemble based instrumental lessons, cultivating musical skills, literacies and knowledge through weekly participation. The Adaptive Music Bridging Program is examined as a case study qualitatively analysing voices of students, parents, and teachers to explore how adaptive pedagogies and teacher practice positively impacts learning, efficacy and self-determination of students with a disability. We interrogate participatory pedagogies that foster inclusion and belonging, promoting positive learning behaviours, musical engagement, and the setting and meeting of students own musical goals. The study asserts a praxis that implicates important questions for the field of disability studies and mainstream music education in schools, communities and private studios, regarding the marginalization and exclusion of people with disabilities, the value of pedagogic, relational/ theoretical discourse that allows music teachers to approach their profession with access and equity at the heart of what they do, who they teach, and what they aspire for their students. 

• Social musical settings
• Music education for social justice and equality
• Music and communities

Dr Leon de Bruin is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Melbourne, Conservatorium of Music, and co-ordinator of the Master of Music Performance Teaching degree program (MMPT). He is a staunch advocate for quality instrumental music education and music teacher education in Australia. He is Australian Society for Music Education Past National President and Chair of the ISME Instrumental and Vocal Teaching Commission. His research work spans instrumental music teacher pedagogy and practice, creativity, educational psychology and performance science, community engagement with music, and phenomenological methodologies. He has published over 80 articles, book chapters and edited books, including: Revolutions in Music Education; Music Ecologies- Instrumental music ensembles around the world; Guerrilla Music, and; Disability and Musicking; resistance defiance and innovation.

Dr Anthea Skinner is an ethnomusicologist who specialises in disability music culture and education, organology and heritage archiving. She is currently a McKenzie Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. Anthea’s research into disability music focuses on professional musicians with disability, their creative output and career pathways, as well as adaptive musical instrument design. Anthea is currently the coordinator of Melbourne Youth Orchestras' Adaptive Music Bridging Program providing instrumental music education to children with disability. Anthea is also a member of the all-disabled band the Bearbrass Asylum Orchestra.