ASL Musicality · Self-Paced
A Course by Rosa Lee Timm
Language
Between
the Beats.
A study of rhythm, timing, and meaning in American Sign Language.
Where language lives not only in the signs, but in what happens between them.
Be among the first to enroll
Sometimes the most important moment of a phrase is the one just after it ends.Rosa Lee Timm
One song, many voices
Six artists.
The same opening.
Six ASL artists were given one challenge: translate a short excerpt of “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman, and carry its musicality into a visual language.
Not one of them made the same choices. That is the whole course. Their work runs through every module — not one artist to a module, but wherever their choices show you what that module is about.
You will learn to see what each of them is doing, why it works, and what it means for what you do.
Five modules · and a bonus
What we work through.
Where rhythm lives before the first lyric arrives — pacing, breath, anticipation, and the weight of a movement.
Breath as punctuation. Where you gather, where you hold, where you release — and how that decides what lands.
Word-for-word is a place to start, not a place to stay. Finding what a song is actually about.
Inhabiting a space rather than signing at a camera. Stillness, gaze, and the rests between phrases.
What all of it becomes once it moves through you. Not imitation, not technique — identity.
Two details that can change how a performance comes across. Mouth morphemes, English mouthing, mimicry, and the relationship between gaze and expression — and how to recognise the habits you want to revisit and the choices you want to develop.
Six artists · one song
The Artists.
Their full biographies, and their translations, live inside the course.
What you get
Everything included.
Watch & Notice
- Five modules of video with Rosa Lee
- Six ASL artists translating the same song
- What to notice and key takeaways in every module
- Captions and transcripts throughout
Practice & Create
- Practice work in every module, and a final translation of your own
- A workbook inside each module — write as you go, save a PDF anytime
- A place to share your work and see what others are making
Move at Your Rhythm
- Self-paced — no deadlines, nothing to fall behind on
- One payment, not a subscription
- Your place is kept, on whatever device you open it
A discounted Studio Session rate with Rosa Lee. One-to-one, whenever you want another set of eyes on your work. Yours to use, never required.
Your teacher
Rosa Lee Timm is a Deaf ASL artist, performer, and educator from a multigenerational Deaf family, with ASL as her first language. Her work moves between stage, film, and screen, and keeps returning to one question: what does music look like when it lives in a body instead of an ear? This course is her answer so far.
Enrollment is open
Your way of seeing music already exists.
This course is not here to hand you one. It is here to help you find it, name it, and trust it.
Self-paced · One-time payment · Captions and transcripts included