What is a Flipped Classroom for Music Teachers?

You may have been hearing the term “flipped classrooms” - but what is it exactly?

Traditionally, a student goes into the classroom to learn, then practices the newly learned skills at home. With a flipped classroom, just the opposite happens. The student learns the material (to the best of their ability) at home through instructional videos, then the teacher reinforces the concepts in-lesson with exercises, discussion, and working through individual problem areas.

The more I looked into flipped classrooms, the more I thought, “Why aren’t all of us already doing this?”

Flipped vs. Traditional: A comparison in the eyes of a music teacher

Traditional: If a student misses something said in lesson, they miss it. If you teach them a lick, maybe they can play it back perfectly at the moment - but as soon as they’re out that door, they may go straight to another activity or go home and not practice for another 2 days. And what they learned is then just totally, completely lost in the void.

Flipped: All of your lessons are online - so students can go back and rewatch lessons at any time. This already helps reinforce concepts and remind them of what they learned. I personally would have loved something like this - especially for music lessons, where the norm doesn’t include avidly taking notes as the teacher speaks. All of the teacher’s teachings are expected to be mentally noted - but for someone who’s easily distracted, it was tough to do. ......................................................................................................................

Traditional: Going through method books and teaching the same lessons, in the same songs, in the same books, over and over, forever. It gets old.

Flipped: I’ve always struggled to use method books but with a more personalized approach for each child. With a flipped classroom, if I do all of the work up front in making short video lessons for each song, then the student is introduced to those concepts at home. Then, every lesson I have with the student is more focused on the student’s unique problem areas. It makes for a much more individualized lesson. ......................................................................................................................

Traditional: If a student perfects a song or concept mid-week, during their practice, they still have to wait until the next lesson for more.

Flipped: Quick-moving students can move even quicker, especially if they can send recordings mid-week to confirm they are moving in the right direction! If you see they’ve already aced the new concept and want to move on, you can just point them to the next lesson video. Basically, a week is saved and more productive practice can occur in that time span. ......................................................................................................................

Traditional: Larger studios with multiple teachers end up being more of a collection of different people teaching under the same roof, rather than a cohesive school.

Flipped: With one set of videos for the at-home part, there’s consistency across what’s being taught. It feels more like one school working toward a common goal. The teachers can still use their individual teaching styles and skills to help the students through the real meat of the lesson (problem areas, exercises, etc.), but the path they follow is able to be more unified.

2 Things to Consider With Flipped Classrooms

1. The work to make this switch will be mostly front-heavy. You’ll have to create a lesson plan and instructional videos for each lesson. You can make them as you go for the first student you test this with, make a couple a week, or all at once. Either way, once you’re done and the system is implemented - there’s not much extra work for you to do! Another option is to leverage the many instructional videos already on YouTube. If it is appropriate, you can use them as lessons too.

2. You’ll need to provide incentive for students to watch the lesson videos. It could be a point system, a quick online quiz on the topic to be completed mid-week, recordings of them practicing the concepts, etc. Students can easily see the flipped format as an “easy” class where the video lessons are “optional”, so they basically have a free week. To make sure the stay on track and are watching the lessons, you can use an app like Better Practice that tracks when videos are watched and have them send recordings of them practicing the material.

In an upcoming post, we’ll go into how to turn your studio into a flipped classroom.

You’ll need tools to help make a seamless transition to a flipped music classroom. Better Practice gives you all of that and more to make your classroom a modern one.