Category: Teaching
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The Best Flute Tutor Books for Young Beginners
This blog was first written in September 2018 and has been updated for 2022. September is such an exciting time for flute teachers with new young beginners raring to go. Here are our top picks of the books to help them on their way. Kathryn Blocki: Flute Zoo Book 1 The Flute Zoo series of…
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Starting Your Child on Flute: How Young is Too Young?
Playing a musical instrument is amazing. It develops so many skills, and not just musical ones: it can build confidence, patience and self-reliance and can enhance verbal memory, spatial reasoning and literacy skills. It goes without saying that we want the best for our children, and certainly the experience of playing an instrument is an…
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Pieces to Play Before Taking Grade 6 Flute
There’s more to flute-playing than taking exams – these pieces will convince you to make space between the grades to explore new music. Dargomyzhsky and Tchaikovsky arranged Olga Ivusheikova: Two Russian Pieces for Flute and Piano This is a pairing of two very different but lovely pieces. Sweetheart by Alexander Darmgomyzhsky is spirited with a…
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Special music for early grades players
Ring the changes with these great albums that are sure to please. Alfie Pugh: Dioramas Book 1 for Flute and Piano This is a great book for young players just starting to develop their reading and flute playing skills. Each of these four pieces has a completely different character but all are written in easy…
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Finding resonance on the flute
“How do I get a big sound?” is often a question students will ask. Indeed, developing one’s sound and dynamic range is part of a musician’s daily practice. So, apart from blowing more, what can we do as flute players to get a bigger sound? Well, it’s all about resonance. Resonance is the quality in…
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What does “support” mean?
As a teacher, I like to ask questions to my students to get them to think about what they are doing, as awareness is key to improvement and inhibiting bad habits. This could be “Where is the phrase leading to?”, or “What is the character here?”, but also questions about technique, such as “How do…
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Tips on ABRSM Grade 8 pieces: Poulenc Sonata 1st movement
My next few blog posts will be tips on some of my favourite pieces from the ABRSM Grade 8 repertoire lists. Even if you aren’t working towards your Grade 8, I hope these tips may provide you with some food for thought when approaching this repertoire. Poulenc Sonata for Flute and Piano 1st movement: Allegro…
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So you want to be a piccolo player?
Buying a piccolo is so exciting! It may be small in size but it is a powerful instrument, and eventually, you will be able to dominate everything! It can also be a very beautiful instrument and – in the right hands – an utterly magical one.
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Chaminade Concertino – Practice Tips
Following on from my Taffanel blog, here is a practice guide for another great French work: Chaminade’s Concertino. This piece is played a lot, but quite often with some important details overlooked. As I say to my students, “don’t be an overlooker”! I will also give some tips for practising some of the tricky passages.…
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Taffanel’s Andante Pastoral et Scherzettino: A practice guide
Taffanel’s Andante Pastoral et Scherzettino is a gem in the French flute repertoire and one of my favourites. Indeed, I played this piece for my entrance exam at the Royal Academy of Music and I fortunately got in! It’s a piece full of technical challenges, written as a test piece for the concours at the…