How can insights from neurodiversity-informed pedagogies benefit ensemble leading and individual instruction in musics beyond the Western canon? Ethnomusicologists, music therapists, and music educators have explored the role of music in supporting circumscribed neurodiverse clinical populations (Carrico 2023; Bakan 2014 and 2016), while scholarship on neurodiversity, accessibility, and universal design has tended to focus on teaching outside the realm of performance (Carrico and Grennell 2022; Costa 2026). And although some ensemble directors and instructors have worked to make their performance courses more accessible, they often lack the institutional support (including time and funding for coursework on neurodiversity) that would enable them to ground and share their approaches more widely. Based on International Coaching Federation-accredited training/experience in coaching neurodiverse students and 25+ years of teaching Irish traditional music in academic, ensemble, and lesson contexts, this paper connects practice-based research and scholarship in music, education, and psychology. From a strengths-based and specifically ethnomusicological perspective based on teaching beyond the Western canon, this paper discusses some of the ways ADHD, autism, and other forms of neurodiversity can show up in performance instruction and offers strategies for helping students thrive in our classrooms and studios. This work is part of a larger project on Irish traditional music pedagogy: intended as both a resource for instructors and an intervention in Western music-based teaching approaches, it will join work by Thomas (2025), Dor (2014), Clendinning (2020), and others in articulating the value of so-called “world music” performance instruction in fostering community and critical engagement.