Learn to Play Flute Fast!
If there’s one question I get constantly in my social media accounts, it’s “how can I improve my playing or learn to play flute quickly?” It’s a great question! And while there isn’t simply one answer to it, I think it’s important to touch on some of the things you can do to improve or learn quickly.
Let’s take a good hard look at your practice routine. How often are you practicing and for how long? Are you practicing well or just running through the motions and playing on your phone? What are you practicing, exactly? I’ll dive into all of these things in the next couple of paragraphs.
Practice consistency
If you’re really looking to improve quickly and develop your chops, a daily practice routine is the best way to go, however, sometimes that’s simply not feasible with everything going on. I have students that are in a myriad of after school activities and I’m always blown away by their ability to find time to practice. I constantly remind them that even practicing for 5-10 minutes before bed will yield results. The important thing is finding a routine that works for you, even if it means you’re practicing for 10 minutes a day. Slow growth is better than no growth, but honestly the more you practice, the quicker you will grow.
Good practice
There’s definitely a difference between good practice and bad practice. As someone that struggled for a long time with bad practice habits, I can assure you that you’re not alone. Simply sitting in the practice room with your instrument in one hand and your phone in the other will not give you the results you’re hoping for. So, make a plan! Before you begin practice, write down everything you want to work on. I typically like to work on my warm ups, technical exercises, etudes daily, but rotate through repertoire (including orchestral excerpts if you’re working on them). But, if you only have a few minutes, you may need to rotate the etudes and technical exercises too. Don’t forget that a good warm up is crucial to your success. If you’re unsure of what a good warmup should be, ask your instructor or if you don’t have one, ask me! There will be more to come on warmups later.
Etudes, etudes, etudes
If you haven’t started working on etudes, I highly recommend you start. I’ll be sharing more on good etude books for each level of playing, but finding a good Etude of the Week group is a great place to start! Etude in French translates to ‘study,’ so often there are hidden technical workouts within the piece, or even musical workouts. They’re a great way to work on something specific with a more melodically pleasing feel rather than just repeating patterns over and over in your technical exercises. So, find a good etude book and aim to get through one etude per week (or longer if you’re newer to the practice). Remember, they don’t have to be perfect to move on, but you should aim to get them pretty close to perfect before moving to the next one.
Taking breaks
There is something to taking a break and letting your brain soak in the information you’ve gained over the course of a few days, so if you practice nearly every day, it’s okay to say “Sunday is my rest day.” Not only does this help to prevent injury, but it also gives your brain some time to process what you’ve learned.
Find a good instructor
Finding someone to help guide you through this process will help you move quicker through the beginning stages of flute playing, especially. There are tons of great online courses, including my Flute 101 course (coming soon!), but they simply can’t replace the one-on-one instruction and detailed help you get from a good flute teacher. I highly recommend doing some research, checking out my other posts about how to find a good teacher (part 1 and part 2 here), and finding yourself a good partner to go through this process with. It’s not 100% necessary, but it will help you learn quicker and be a better flute player.
If you’re interested in talking with me about flute lessons (in person or online) check out my Offerings page or contact me! I’d love to hear from you and see if we would be a good fit to partner in your musical journey!
