BackgroundThis paper explores data that was collected as part of a mixed-methods study examining how children with hearing loss progressed in group flute lessons compared to their typically hearing peers. It tracked the progress of eight children, four with hearing loss and four with typical hearing as they engaged in nine months of group flute lessons. The primary aim of this study was to compare the musical progress of both groups. However, over the course of analysis, an unexpected secondary finding emerged: the children with hearing loss consistently demonstrated better behaviour and engagement than their typically hearing peers in flute lessons.This pattern is a “material actant” (Taylor, 2013, p. 691), calling us to examine the data usually discarded when reporting is limited to the primary aims of a study; reminding us that there is much to be learnt from discarded data (Cooke et al., 2022).AimsThis paper aims to lift the veils of academic convention and explore the hidden questioning that happened behind the numbers and focused analysis pertaining to the primary aims of our study. We interrogate our data and the literature to understand why children with hearing loss might demonstrate better engagement and behaviour than their typically hearing peers in flute lessons, taking the audience with us on this journey.Mode of inquiry This exploration uses writing as a method of inquiry (Richardson, 2000) to listen to the question posed by our data and follow its “insistent invitation” to embark on “nomadic theoretical journeyings” through the literature as we try to make sense of it (Taylor, 2013, p. 691).Summary of findingsSeveral factors may have led the children with hearing loss to demonstrate better behaviour and engagement than their typically hearing peers in group flute lessons. These include the interplay between executive function and language skills in children with hearing loss, the influence of early intervention, the additional listening challenges that hearing loss causes, the location where flute lessons occurred and the encultured understandings inherent to that environment, and the skills of the teacher.Implications for music educationThe factors influencing behaviour and engagement in music lessons are many and varied. Having a greater awareness of these will allow music educators to more effectively respond to the needs to their students.