Effective Practice for Online Flute Students

It’s no secret that online flute lessons can be tricky for the unmotivated as they require a certain level of self-sufficiency and the ability to work independently of a teacher outside of lessons. This goes for all flute lessons, but particularly those in the online realm. For those who are taking online lessons, you’ll find a lot more success if you’re able to practice regularly, manage your time, and adequately self-assess your progress.

Remember that even if you’re feeling less than motivated or like your progress is stagnating in the beginning, there are lots of ways to boost that stagnation right back into progress. Read on to find out how!

The Benefits of Online Flute Lessons

Online flute lessons can be hugely beneficial for students! They give you access to teachers and styles of teaching that you may not have had access to locally - they also tend to be more flexible than traditional lessons and offer the student the ability to save time on traveling and take their lessons from anywhere in the world (including the comfort of their own homes). As a teacher, it affords the ability to teach much later or much earlier in the day, reaching students all over the world. Virtual flute lessons can connect you with a teacher that works with your style, your needs, your timeline, and your budget in a much simpler way than finding someone locally.

Setting Goals

Setting goals is one of the most important things you can do while taking lessons, especially online lessons. Using a tried and true method like the SMART method can help you build your goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Based. Specific, meaning not broad. Saying something like “I want to improve my tone” won’t help you, but something more specific like “I would like to stop cracking notes in my middle register” or “I would like to eliminate airiness from my sound” is much better. Measurable can be tricky in the music world however finding creative ways to measure your progress (such as using a decibel meter for loudness, a metronome to measure speed, or a recording device to assess tone quality - but more on that later) is a great way to keep yourself accountable to a goal. If you can’t measure or assess it somehow, it’s not a good enough goal. Attainable and realistic take a little bit more self-awareness. You have to be very well aware of where YOU stand in relation to your goals and how long it might take you to attain them. So, if you’re playing Twinkle Twinkle, you might not want to set your yearly goal to play a Mozart Concerto, because, for most people, that’s not attainable or realistic. Time-based is the final and most important step because if you don’t have a timeline for your goal, you’ll have very little need to work hard towards achieving it. So, make sure you have a good timeline for your goal, be it a year from now, a month from now, a year from now, or a single practice session. Set long-term goals, then break them down into small parts to achieve over time. If your goal is to play and perform an entire Mozart Concerto, in a year, great! Let’s break it down by movement for the first 6 months, then work on playing the piece in its entirety, building stamina, then work on playing it with accompaniment (recorded or live), schedule your performance, and perfect.

Time Management

It’s no secret that time management is important for all musicians, but particularly for online music students. Going into each practice session AND lesson with notes, questions, and your goals are important. It’s easy to get off-track in lessons, especially online lessons. So, make sure you have some written notes from your practice session handy so that you can address what YOU hear as well as what your instructor hears. Remember you won’t work on everything that you’re assigned in each one of your lessons, so if there’s something specific you’d like to work on, be sure to ask.

During your practice sessions, it’s also important to manage your time well. Try setting timers for the goals you set at the beginning of your practice. 20 minutes for tone, 20 minutes for technique, and 20 minutes for etudes and repertoire is a great way to begin. You can tweak this based on the amount of time you have or your goals, but be sure you’re sticking to your priorities and try to hit those small goals during your practice time.

Regular and Efficient Practice

Alongside time management during your practice, you need to be sure that you’re able to practice regularly, at least a few times a week outside of your lessons. Practicing efficiently is equally important. Try isolating the spots that you’re struggling with. Make sure that you’re working on the things that coincide directly with your goals. If your technique needs work, then spend time working on technique. If your tone is the main focus, be sure to spend time daily on that. Don’t practice without direction and make sure your direction coincides with your goals. Turn off your phone, remove distractions from the room if you must, and be sure your practice space is quiet and conducive to concentration.

It’s important to make sure that you have some dedicated time throughout the week, letting your family and/or housemates know that you need time and quiet space to practice without disruption. Some students find that they need to leave their flute and music out so that it’s easy to access. Make sure you’re wiping your flute down daily if you choose to do this.

Self-Assessment

Take some time to self-assess. While your teacher will certainly make notes about your progress, it’s important for YOU to be able to log your progress as well. For instance, recording yourself using your phone to confirm improvements in posture, tone, articulation, technique, and really anything else can help you compare and see where you are. You can also use a decibel meter to measure loudness, a breath builder to measure lung strength and a metronome to measure speed (with technique and articulation). It’s important to make checkpoints for self-assessment at regular intervals. Once a month or every other month can be useful, but remember that if you don’t see immediate improvement, it’s okay. It may take more than four weeks to improve towards your goal.

Self-assessment is extremely important when it comes to online lessons. Again, your teacher will help guide you, but you’ll still be expected to move forward in your assignments independently. Much like all online education, there’s less accountability when you’re taking lessons online, so make sure that you’re doing what you need to do to ensure improvement.

Conclusion

Online flute lessons are not for everyone, but there are tons of great benefits to learning online, so if you’re able to dedicate the time and be self-sufficient, it’s a great way to learn from an instructor who wouldn’t be available to you in person.

• Set goals using the SMART method.

• Manage your time adequately. Use timers to stick to your time management.

• Practice regularly and efficiently, setting time aside for your goals.

• Self-assess at regular intervals. Use tools such as recording devices, dB meters, and metronomes to check your progress against your starting point and goals.