Meet the Sacramentan behind Music Science Group, a program teaching kids the robotics behind music

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Flip Kirby is like a mythical creature. He isn’t very public, rarely gives interviews and “Flip” isn’t even his real name.

But he is well-known for his musical talents, his involvement in Sacramento’s arts education, and his impact in the local Black community. 

Kirby has played drums with the greats – Stephanie Mills, Troop, Bobby Brown – and now he runs a technology infused music education program in the Sacramento region’s schools called the Music Science Group. 

Flip shows students in his program where to put screws on the guitars they are building at the Rosemont High School library.Jabari Rahotep/The Sacramento Observer

At his summer program for middle school students at Rosemont High School, the sounds of power drills and guitar chords both echo off library walls. 

Cam One, the program’s director, explains what participating students can expect. 

“We started off with building drum machines and then we moved into the electric guitars that we’re doing here today,” he said. “And then we also have a music production. They look like small arcade music stations where kids are able to make beats and record themselves.”

A Sacramento native, Cam One said this program is unique and is only possible because of Kirby. 

“This is Flip’s brainchild,” he said. “The opportunities are starting to be really more accessible and that's what's so cool about it.”

Kirby grew up as a foster kid in Del Paso Heights and discovered his love for the drums during his time in Sacramento’s public education system. He made the decision to pursue drumming professionally as a high school student at Grant High, but knew his end goal was to put musical instruments in the hands of young people in the region, so they could benefit from the same transformative opportunities he once had.

While he spoke to CapRadio, middle school students sat around him, putting screws into guitars that they would later learn to play.

At a time when only 1 in 5 schools have a music education program in California and students living in lower-income neighborhoods are less likely to have access to arts education, his program is meeting a crucial need. 

The name Flip describes another inimitable quality that he possesses — the ability to flip the ideas his young students might have about themselves, and the hands-on skills of his program have really struck a chord with the students. 

When she was in 8th grade, student Taraji Breazell said she had not touched a guitar before coming to the program.

“I like music because I sing and rap,” she said. “I wanted to learn how to [use] instruments in case I wanted to produce my own music."

Experiences, like the one given to her by the Music Science Group, show her what it takes to pursue her dream. And those experiences can have positive effects beyond the classroom.

“It distracts me from what's going on in the outside world,” said Breazell. “When I sing or I listen to music, everything stops and I'm just there.”

(Left to right) Students Riley Tillis and Taraji Breazell building their guitars at the Rosemont High School library.Jabari Rahotep/The Sacramento Observer

Kirby’s program started with a mobile recording studio in 2006, and when the pandemic hit, he revamped the program with a robotics element. In the nearly 15 years since its conception, the program has served 3,000 students in Sacramento City, Folsom-Cordova, and Natomas Unified School Districts. 

CapRadio’s education reporter Srishti Prabha sat down with Kirby to talk about the inspiration behind the novel music education.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

Tell me about the first time you saw someone play music and you felt like this is your calling.

My grandfather. He was a professional jazz drummer and I was told when I was a little baby I used to crawl up to the drums, stand up and pat the drums. So, my grandmother said, “Ok, Flip, make noise like Flipper the dolphin.” 

A lot of people in the music industry don't know me by my real name. They know me by Flip. So if you say my real name, they'd be like, “Who's that?”

What about your musical education growing up in Sacramento?

I grew up in Del Paso Heights. A lot of the music, musical influence started when I was younger. I had a music teacher in elementary school. He saw something in me that nobody else saw. I found out probably in the ninth grade I wanted to do it for a living. 

That's another story [about] getting discovered in L.A., playing at the Rocky on Sunset Boulevard. Somebody came in and said, “Hey, you want to go play with an artist named Stephanie Mills?”

To be honest, I didn't even know who she was. So I did my first audition in Nashville, Tennessee [for her]. Some of the band members, they saw me backstage crying because my life just changed right there too. So after that, I was blessed. I never had to audition with nobody else. I played with Stephanie Mills for 10 years.

You were living this really cool life touring everywhere — that's what people envision as a musician. So what facilitated you coming back to Sacramento and starting this program? 

When I first started [the Music Science Group] in 2006, I went back to when I was a little kid and how my foster parents bought me that drum set from a yard sale and I never forgot that. So once I got out of the industry, I wanted to come back and give back to the neighborhood that I grew up in, the underserved communities. I've done work in Del Paso Heights, Oak Park, the south area. 

Why are you bringing music and technology together?

When I was a little kid, I used to take my drum set apart and put it back together again. I didn't know what I was doing, I was kind of just teaching myself. It made it more personal — it was more of my drum set now. I just went back and [started] thinking about the things that I taught myself — a trade. Let me come back and do it with the kids. Let me teach them how to build these guitars and drum sets. And then I said, let me add science into it. Let's do the robotics.

Students can program these tabletop launch pads in Music Science Group, as pictured at Bowling Green Elementary School.Srishti Prabha/CapRadio

What kind of impact do your classes have on those students?

Well, we see the change in the kids when they first come in because you build their confidence up by teaching them, “Hey, you can play this instrument.” My staff, they all are professional musicians. So I kind of bring them in to let [students] see these professional people who worked hard to get where they needed to get to. If they can do it, you could do it too.

How does it feel to see students in your program pursue music and succeed?

Oh, it's a great feeling. Because even with me in school, I had challenges. I wasn't the smartest kid in the group. I try not to get so emotional but I'm passionate about what I do. I see a part of them as being a part of me too.

Are there any songs that you've played on that you showcase to your students?

Funny, half of them don't really know what I've done. No, I just want them to come in and enjoy the program. I just want them to just know me for who I am. That’s it.