DITCH THE NOTES! Why Teaching Without Choreography Notes Elevates Your Class

As an UpBeat fitness instructor you know how critical flow, energy, and confidence are in your classes. Yet, one small habit can quietly undermine all three: teaching with your choreography notes or phone out.

Here’s the truth: teaching from notes may seem like a harmless safety net, but it creates a disconnect between you and your class. Let’s talk about why ditching the notes is not only an UpBeat branded necessity, but it is essential to becoming a more effective, engaging, and professional instructor.

Connection is Everything

Your participants are not just following your moves—they’re watching your energy, reading your cues, and feeling your vibe. Eye contact, facial expression, and body language, and freestyle, awkward dancing or hip sways help build trust and motivation - it's where the class magic truly happens - when they connect with YOU.

Real-Time Responsiveness

Great instructors read the room. Are your participants struggling with a transition? Are they vibing with a certain song? You can't notice these things if you're stuck in your notes. Teaching from memory frees you up to be present, adapt in the moment, and guide your class with intention, not just routine. Sure, it requires more preparation work in the beginning to master the choreography - but once you've got it down, muscle memory will kick in and you can start noticing the little things within your class.

Confidence is Contagious

When you lead without looking at notes, you project mastery—even if you're still working on nailing the choreography yourself. Your participants pick up on your confidence and mirror it, ultimately adding to their feeling of success and enjoyment of the class. On the flip side, if you're visibly unsure or checking your notes, it can create doubt and confusion, especially for beginners who rely on you to set the tone. Here's the hard truth - everyone messes up - and no one cares except you.

You Can’t Coach From a Crutch

Teaching a choreographed format isn’t just about doing the moves—it's about leading the room. That means reading your people, layering in cues, connecting and having fun with them - it's all about creating a magical experience. When you’re relying on notes, you can’t fully coach because you're distracted. The crutch keeps you stuck in survival mode, not leadership mode.

Great instructors don’t just teach choreography—they teach people.

Your participants feel when your focus is split. They need your full attention—not just your feet moving in time, but your eyes, voice, and energy present in the room.

The notes become a physical and psychological wall between you and your people.

Using notes might get you through class, but it also prevents deep learning. When you teach from memory, your brain engages differently—you’re internalizing the routine, not just remembering it. That process makes you a better instructor over time, improving not just your recall but your ability to coach, cue, and pivot mid-class.

If you always fall back on notes, you never give yourself the chance to fully learn the choreography or strengthen your delivery.

How to Break Free from the Crutch:

• Rehearse with intention. Don’t just practice until you get it right—practice until you can’t get it wrong.

• Use muscle memory. Practice moving to the music until it’s instinctive. Your body will remember more than your brain.

• Start small. If going cold turkey feels scary, commit to teaching just the warm-up or standing core track without notes, then expand from there.

• Trust yourself. You’ve already done the work. The crutch isn’t holding you up anymore—it’s just in the way.

• Use the UpBeat Cheat Sheet (see below)

  
  
  
  

The UpBeat Cheat Sheet

Use what we like to call our "UpBeat Cheat Sheet". A small single sided paper on the floor that has your playlist written with a few notes. Perhaps you need to write down a tricky formula, or you need to remember a filler, or precue. Or maybe you need to remember what type of track the specific song is, i.e., Bi/Tri SS.

Writing out a playlist like this actually helps your brain remember it. This type of concept is taught to children when learning their ABC's - they write the letter, say the letter, learn a sign, a song, etc - it's a scientific concept called the whole brain approach to learning and it can help you too! Plus the added bonus is you quickly look down during a transition to see where you're at within the class and then quickly move on - no disconnection, no pause, no floundering - just quiet confidence that takes your class to the next level.

Every instructor has used notes at some point. It's not about shame—it's about growth. Recognizing the crutch is the first step to letting it go. When you teach from memory, from confidence, and from connection, you don’t just lead a workout—you lead a room. This is the UpBeat way. This is the UpBeat magic.

You’ve got this. Step away from the notes. Step into the magic of UpBeat.