Little Kids Rock is a nonprofit organization based in the United States. Little Kids Rock encourages, supports and enables children to learn, play, improvise and create popular music at no cost. Little Kids Rock donates necessary instruments and curriculum to promote highly inclusive and culturally relevant music education. The Little Kids Rock program and curriculum guides students through their Zone of Proximal Development by providing scaffolding structures allowing students with little to no musical experience the ability to improvise and create their own music. Based on the Constructivist Theory and Sociocultural Theory, students externalize and articulate deep, meaningful musical experiences.

Using genres including rock, pop, Latin, and rap, Little Kids Rock empowers teachers to build music programs as diverse as the kids they serve. Students see themselves reflected in their classes, which strengthens their connection to their school, their peers, and their community.

Modern Band is a new school-based music program that utilizes popular music as its central canon. Modern Band teaches students to perform the music they know and love and to compose and improvise. Styles that are studied include rock, pop, reggae, hip-hop, rhythm & blues, electronic dance music and other contemporary styles as they emerge. Modern Band utilizes the musical instruments that are common to these genres: guitar, bass, drums, piano, voice and technology.

Modern Band is the newest instrumental and vocal music program to expand the horizons of school music instruction and is spreading quickly through public school districts across the country.

I had the opportunity to see kids in action using Little Kids Rock curriculum and instruments while teaching in Florida. I saw firsthand how this program changed kids to become more confident and creative. Watching their faces as they unwrapped new instruments, watching their creativity shine as they crafted their own music to perform for friends and the whole school. It's awesome.