Les Dean started Discus Music Education Co. in 1980 while teaching general music and chorus at Senn High School in Chicago. “I wanted to develop musicianship, sight-reading and provide an introduction to composition for students’ first formal experience in music. Most importantly, if students were going to learn, the solution would need to be engaging on many levels.”

Mr. Dean tested prototypes of the Discus Note panels in the classroom and with private piano students. The enhanced learning, motivation and delighted response called for further development. As a result of his teaching and study experience over three decades, the Discus Note Panels and accessories have been expanded and refined to meet a wide range of music learning needs. Mr. Dean developed the Discus Music system with its VELCRO® brand-vinyl notes, colored discs, transparent overlays, attachable resonator bells and other features to provide an aural, visual and ‘hands-on’ experience for music students, young and old.

Teachers and students in classroom and one-on-one settings continue to enthusiastically embrace these learning tools. Discus systems are used in over 5,000 U.S. schools as well as schools in Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Denmark, the Virgin Islands and Europe. The flexibility of the material is summed up by Jack Moran, a Chicago teacher of band, chorus, and general music: “The versatility is phenomenal. Discus overlays provide an endless variety of musical uses.” In an article entitled “Budding Composers,” Karen Rebb of Arrowhead Elementary School in Phoenix noted: “The use of the Discus boards with manipulatives in the pre-writing composition process was invaluable. The students loved manipulating the symbols in varied and creative ways.”

About Les Dean
Mr. Dean’s professional teaching and performance experience includes work in re-writing the General Music Curriculum Guide for the Chicago Public Schools, coaching the tenor section of the Chicago All-City High School Choir and singing with the Chicago Symphony Chorus. In addition to Choral and General Music, he developed and applied a pilot study involving cooperative learning in Senn High’s Piano Lab. He has also sung in several Chicago area temple and church choirs and with the Graduate Chorale at the University of Illinois in Urbana. Mr. Dean earned undergraduate and masters degrees at Roosevelt University in Music Education. He has studied Choral Arranging with Alice Parker at Westminster Choir College and studied two summers in the Kodaly Program at Hartt College. His post graduate studies at the University of Illinois in Urbana include choral literature, conducting, psychology, esthetics and technology in education, research and educational policy studies.

Mr. Dean is an active member in ACDA, MENC, AGO (American Guild of Organists) and OAKE. He has presented the Discus system to state, national and international workshops and conventions. Mr. Dean incorporates feedback from these meetings and symposia as he continues to expand and refine the Discus System.