TPP team had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Lee D. Stockner, Educator/Author/Creator of a New Language of Music, for Season 2 Episode 11.

Mr. Stockner is the author of Occupational Octaves Piano™, a series of piano method books, which hundreds of music instructors across the nation have used to teach piano lessons to special needs in the past decade. He is also the creator of the new and user-friendly language of music/ featured in Occupational Octaves™, which was invented for anyone with basic color and letter matching skills. Using this language allows students, including those with high support needs, can play challenging music such as Fur Elise or exercises like 4-oct scales in parallel.

We covered topics including Mr. Stockner’s experiences of teaching special-needs students, the creation of a New Language of music, the science behind optimal flow experiences at the piano, Mr. Stockner’s entrepreneurial journey. 

[Lee D. Stockner]

Lee D. Stockner is the creator of Occupational Octaves™, which features the most user-friendly language of music available. He is a classical pianist, self-made entrepreneur, music educator, special educator, inventor, publisher, instructor trainer, author, and more. 

Having been diagnosed with attention deficit while also a classical pianist made for an interesting pathway, which led Lee to write and publish the original 8-book Occupational Octaves Piano™ curriculum (through his music publishing company, Music Lee Inclined Guy, Inc.). Having first begun developing the method at age 25, his original purpose was to print, teach, and empower other teachers with the same type of curriculum he used as a 10-year classical piano teacher however, this would be in an entirely new language based on letters and colors. These initial goals have been successful beyond initial imagination. Since then, Occupational Octaves™ has been part of several progressions:

2016 –Newsday: Occupational Octaves presents a recital by special needs kids & Fox 5 NY airs "Playing piano brings focus and joy to Long Island man with autism"

2017 – Launches Occupational Octaves™ in the Cloud on UnitusTI, to bring Occupational Octaves directly into multiple therapeutic and educational environments (press release)

2018 – Public Speaking Event - Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine hosts “Autism and Music.” Student Performance & Panel Discussion 

• Foundation of Special Education Guest Lecture @ Queens College, NY

2019 – “Occupational Octaves” the documentary, is released and nominated for an award at the 2020 Pasadena International Film Festival.

2020 - Manhattan Children's Conference Presenter - Transitions for Young People with Autism

• Lee authors Classical Piano as a Pathway to Flow States for Learners with Disabilities, published in the April 2020 Traditional Medicine Research journal’s special issue on brain science.

2021 – Music Lee Inclined Guy, Inc. publishes “The Stockner Method,” to teach the fundamentals of traditional music notation to people with and without experience using Occupationa