Hacking the music theory lecture

Anna Gawboy

In a flipped or inverted classroom, students acquire a basic understanding of a topic on their own and come to class to engage the topic more deeply in the presence of their instructor and peers. Flipped pedagogy has caught the attention of mainstream media because many instructors use digital technology to disseminate information, particularly pre-recorded video microlectures. Video lectures allow students the opportunity learn the material at their own pace because they may pause the video to take notes, review as needed, and fast-forward through topics they already understand. This heightened user control is attractive to many students. As one of my students remarked, “I never realized before that I struggled in theory because I couldn’t take notes as fast as the teacher was talking.” Archiving videos online enables students to preview the week’s topic over the weekend when they may have more time and re-watch certain videos before a high-stakes exam or project.

There are many music theory video lectures now available on sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. Some feature an instructor lecturing as he or she would in front of a live class, and some are screencasts. While both types of video can be effective at delivering course content, screencasting offers several distinct advantages over a recorded classroom lecture. Screencasts allow the smooth integration of spoken word, written text, musical scores, diagrams, animations, and audio, with the added benefit of higher-quality visuals and often a snappier pace. Free screencast programs, such as Screenr and Screencast-O-Matic, provide a user-friendly interface and basic functionality, while commercial software such as Camtasia and Adobe Captivate enable a user to add annotations, import audio, and edit out slips of the tongue and other verbal “noise” that can potentially distract students.

Since January 2012, I’ve created over fifty video screencasts covering nearly every topic in our first-year curriculum at Ohio State University: fundamentals, species counterpoint, diatonic harmonic idioms, harmonic sequences, periods and phrases, applied chords, and modulation. Here are some lessons I’ve learned:

1. Compress the topic. Aim for clarity and brevity rather than comprehensiveness. Think of the videos as a bare-bones introduction that will be fleshed out and further contextualized in class. I still have to remind myself to not overteach online, but it helps to ask myself what is the least amount of information students would need to know to get started on an activity.

2. Keep up the pace. Online time is different than in-person time. The declamation style I developed for delivering information in the classroom (speaking slowly, pausing to let the note-takers catch up, emphasizing the main points though repetition) sounds lugubrious on the video. It also sounds that way in class, but there it serves a function that is unnecessary online. Students control the pause button, so the actual pace of the videos can be faster than most in-person lectures.

3. Keep the videos short. It is an oft-repeated canard among educators that college students’ attention tends to drift after about 10-15 minutes of lecture, although it’s probably more likely that students’ ability to sustain attention varies among individuals and class periods. Still, shorter is better, and many screencasting guides propose 5-10 minutes as the ideal length for an online lecture. More constrained topics could be covered in even less time, while more complex topics could be broken into digestible chunks.

4. Make the video interactive. Many of my video lessons fall into two parts: a short lecture covering the basics of a given topic followed by a demonstration of selected writing or analysis exercises. During the demonstration section, I’ll walk students through a series of steps, asking them to pause the video and fill in something on their own before providing them with my answer. This emphasizes the procedural sequence and helps keep students engaged. When they see my answer, it gives them immediate feedback as to whether or not they’re on the right track.

5. Provide an alternative. While the vast majority of my students appreciate the advantages online videos offer, there are always some students who feel they simply cannot learn “from a computer.” I usually assign short handouts or textbook readings that everyone can use as a supplement or quick review.

Theory I Sample Module

A Video lecture on writing suspensions in fourth species counterpoint.

A Handout on Fourth Species summarizing the main points and providing some extra topics to explore in class.

A Practice worksheet that students partially fill out while they watch the video and complete on their own before class. I usually spend the first 5-10 minutes of class asking students to self-assess or peer assess selected problems not completed on the video. I might give out an answer key for analysis sections or ask students to develop their own rubric to help reveal partwriting errors. I ask students to circle their errors, correct them if they have time, and write me a note indicating what is still conceptually unclear or self-identify persistent errors they think they need to work on. During this time period, I walk around and check in with everyone, answering individual questions as needed.

The remainder of class time is dedicated to active engagement with the material through mini-composition projects, performance, and listening activities. At Ohio State, the music theory classes are divided into 5-7 sections taught by faculty members or graduate teaching associates. One of the main advantages I’ve found in working with the flipped classroom model is that the videos help unify our approach to course content across sections while allowing individual instructors time to develop and experiment with their own creative teaching strategies.

Here is a link to a folder containing several plans for in-class activities designed by myself and my graduate teaching associates.

The online video lectures and practice worksheets are only a small step stone toward a larger course goal such as the counterpoint composition project, where students are asked to compose a mixed-species counterpoint to a given cantus firmus and perform it as a duet in class.

Further Resources for Creating Microlectures:

Robert Talbert’s excellent blog series “Casting Out Nines” addresses “How I make screencasts: Chapter 0” and “How I make screencasts: the planning phase”. In The Chronicle of Higher Education Blog Network.

Norma Scagnoli’s “7 things you should know about microlectures” is a quick informative guide, as are the Educause publications “7 things you should know about flipped classrooms”and “7 things you should know about screencasting”.

Kris Shaffer and Bryn Hughes provide an overview of flipping techniques relevant to the music theory classroom in ““Flipping the Classroom: Three Methods.” In Engaging Students: Essays in Music Theory Pedagogy (2013).

Stephen Gosden reviews screencast software and techniques for music theory in “The ‘Technology Tools’ session at FlipCamp Music Theory.” In Engaging Students: Essays in Music Theory Pedagogy (2013.)