If you’re like most musicians, you’ll have awesome days of practice many times, and then sometimes it’ll just be… not so good. So, how to deal with a bad day of practice? Well, first of all it’s important to determine that things are just ‘off’ for you that day and not decide that this is the new reality that will be true foreverrrrr. There are a host of reasons things may not be going your […]
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Many students beginning on an instrument have hopes and dreams that they will discover they are a natural and learn rapidly. If you are one of these students, it’s a good idea if you take notes here to find out the tricks to learning how to progress quickly on the flute. 1. Start with a really good instrument that is in really good shape. Take this advice from someone who learned on subpar instruments for
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What are considered to be bad habits for flute players? I think it’s safe to say that most instruments have a little list of ‘bad habits’, but what are they for flutists, and how can we avoid accidentally learning them? First of all, it’s important to recognize what the habit in question is exactly and then it’s even more imperative to understand what the ‘correct’ way is so that we can adjust it. These little
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How to use a metronome is an interesting subject, and a very important one at that. When we flute players graduate from blowing our lips off to get those first few tones, using a metronome is probably very far from our minds. Learning how to use a metronome in the earlier stages of flute playing will really help our chances of becoming a well-versed musician. So, the sooner you can get one in your hands
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Playing fast is one of the great loves of all flute players. The problem is that often we like to play fast right away, before the music is even learned all the way. We sometimes expect to go faster than we can, so we get angry, embarrassed, frustrated, or we lose confidence. All of these hurt our playing so much more than they help. When learning how to have faster fingers for flute playing, two
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Can I learn to play by ear, or is that something I need to be born with? This is more of a common question than you think. And the answer is yes, yes you can learn to play by ear, and no you don’t need to be born with this ability. You CAN learn to play by ear. What is playing by ear? The ability to play by ‘ear’ means that an instrumentalist can just
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I was asked about how the brain creates memory links with the pieces we are playing, and what that means for learning how to remember music even better. Some people call this practicing When we practice our flute it’s best if we have mapped out the special skills or parts that need the most help. I talk about ‘repetition’ quite often in my teaching. This isn’t a concept I made up.. it’s called practicing. The
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Alright! Your big day has finally come! All of the hard work you have been doing is about to pay off. Its performance time, and you have butterflies spinning all over your stomach. You tighten your grip on your flute and find that it feels cold and slippery to the touch. Oh boy…..here we go….. Whether its performing in front of family friends, or at large concert somewhere, having the spotlight on you can be
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I have students ask me questions along the lines of “Why should I practice scales?” or “Why should I practice arpeggios?” It’s possible that it may not be as exciting as your new shiny solo, or as they say in German “langweilig” which basically means possibly tedious and repetitive, but scales and arpeggios are not only important, but super-duper CRUCIAL. Let me use some analogies to put into perspective. “Scales are brick foundation for your flute playing.” When
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There is a time in every musician’s life when they really just want to be better than they are. It happens to everyone. There seems to be an sixth sense in a flute-player’s bones that is always striving to be better. This article will help you get your flute playing to the next level. Perhaps you are a newer or returning musician and really working on your flute-playing skills right now. You may find that
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