Last week, China Central Television ran a story about an education trend that’s gaining popularity: online music lessons from ArtistWorks. 

CCTV’s Mark Niu spoke with a student of Martin Taylor, who teaches fingerstyle guitar lessons online at ArtistWorks. 

"It's just amazing." says Mike Wollenberg, in regards to learning how to play guitar from one of his heroes, Martin Taylor. 

"[You can] look at him playing and dissect it…and with the overhead camera, [and] being able to slow it down, you can see exactly how his hand is moving."

Wollenberg responds to the lessons by uploading his own practice videos directly to the teacher, who then records a video response with areas he can improve on.

“It’s not live" says Niu, "but rather a recorded lesson followed by personalized Video Exchanges.” 

CCTV also spoke with ArtistWorks CEO David Butler, who used to learn from music lesson DVDs himself, but realized they neither provided feedback nor a sense of community; a problem he solved with the concept of Video Exchange Learning.

"The other thing that occurred to me was – wouldn’t it be great if I could see what my teacher told other people?  Maybe they would have questions that I wouldn’t think to ask.  Let’s share and let’s all look at these student videos and the teacher’s response.  In that way, this gigantic body of knowledge begins to emerge.”  - ArtistWorks CEO David Butler

ArtistWorks currently has 14 online music schools, with 10 more still in production, including classical guitar lessons with Jason Vieaux. 

Known as “one of the youngest stars of the guitar world” Vieaux is excited about teaching classical guitar to students around the world without having to see them in person.

“We have the possibility of having actual students in China or Germany or anywhere", says Vieaux. "We can teach a much wider range of students from around the world with this incredible technology. “

The segments ends with a great point: “Artists can teach more students without having to repeat themselves over and over.” Indeed, that’s the beauty of flipping the classroom.