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How to Play Flute With Less Tension and More Ease
Physical tension in flute playing can accumulate in various areas of the body, often without awareness. This tension arises for many reasons, but fundamentally, it's the body’s response to challenging situations. When faced with difficulty, the subconscious may brace for failure or push the muscles to strive for success. It's crucial to recognize that tension is the body's attempt to assist. However, this can lead to tight grips in the fingers, hindering quick movement, or rigidity that affects proper breathing
5 Essential Tips for Beginner Flutists
Flute is such an incredible instrument, so first of all, yay! You’ve chosen a fun instrument that can do a variety of things - classical, jazz, even rock and metal. The possibilities with flute are endless, but we do need to make it through the basics to get to the really fun stuff. So, I have five essential tips for you to fly your way through the basics and become an incredible flutist. Proper posture, breath control, finger placement, a great practice routine, and the ability to seek guidance are some of the most important things to keep in mind when beginning your flute journey on the right foot.
Serenading Adulthood: Why Your 20s Are Ideal for Learning the Flute
Wondering if you should pick up the flute in your 20s? Here’s a compelling argument that it’s the BEST time to begin learning an instrument.
Jingle All the Way to Virtuosity: The Ultimate Guide to Gifting Flute Lessons this Christmas
Thinking about gifting flute lessons to your loved one this holiday season? Click to read why that’s a GREAT idea!
Haunting Harmonies: Spooky Halloween Flute Pieces to Send Chills Down Your Spine
Spooky halloween flute pieces!
How Flute Lessons Enhance Cognitive Skills and Brain Development
Why Do My Slurs Sound Sloppy?
Flute Facebook Groups You NEED To Join
Breathing Exercises for Flutists
Flutists’ most significant asset and adversary is often the breath. It takes as much air to play the flute as it does a tuba, so we need lungs of steel to make it happen. Breath is also a key factor in anxiety control and stage fright management. I deal with high levels of nerves, so breathing exercises not only help me build my lung support and play my instrument, but they also help me deal with performance anxiety and nerves. Here are a few of my favorites.
Intermediate Flute Etudes
Do Musicians Take Medication for Performance Anxiety?
Remember that stage fright and the occasional jitters are different from anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders cause pervasive and invasive anxiousness at a much higher level than simple stage fright. Again, these are things to discuss with your doctor to know whether or not you’re dealing with simple pre-performance jitters or if you have an anxiety disorder that may require a different type of treatment.
Best Beginner Flute Brands Under $1000
Are you on the hunt for a beginner flute? Well, look no further. I’ve tried hundreds of different flute models, and having started on a $100 eBay no-name flute, myself, I’m here to tell you which brands will get you the most play-time without spending thousands if you don’t know that your beginner will stick with it. Not only will these flutes play well, meaning your flutist will be able to grow with them, but they will also hold up for a long time and stand up to a little bit of abuse (for the younger player, although we encourage teaching your younger virtuoso flutist early on how to care for their flute well. See my Flute Care and Maintenance blog post). So, let’s get going!
Is Is Too Late to Learn Flute?
When I began teaching flute, I heard a lot from adults that would say, “I would love to learn (or re-learn) the flute but I’m just too old. This is SO far from the truth. We spend so much of our time being worried about being “too old” for something for a few reasons - one, we’re afraid we will look silly doing an activity that children often do in school, and two, we are concerned we won’t have enough time to get good. But, here’s the thing - enjoying a hobby and enjoying your life isn’t about “being good” and you will never, ever look silly if you’re enjoying something!
How Do I Get Better at Flute?
I know, I know, we all want to get better at this thing that we love. Sometimes it’s tough to figure out exactly how, especially if you’re a self-taught flute player. I’m so excited that you’re here, though, because I’m going to give you my best tips to getting better at the flute!
Why Is My Flute Tone So Airy?
Oh, the struggle of every flutist, ever. From the complete beginner to the professional flutist, we have all struggled with our flute tone at some point or another. So, to make sure your tone isn’t airy, let’s try a few tweaks and exercises.
April Studio News
Most Famous Flute Pieces
I get this question a lot with students starting out or wanting to build their musical libraries: What is the most famous flute piece? Well, that’s not as easy to answer as it might seem. At the end of the day, there’s really no data on the matter, but in my own personal research, it seems that there are two pieces that flutists and non-flutists are most familiar with.
Three Tricks to Improve your Flute’s Middle Register
It’s not abnormal to struggle with your middle register - from the beginner airy notes to intermediate note cracks to advanced intonation - this is a tricky spot on the flute. While it doesn’t seem like it would be, the second octave C natural through E natural can give flutists of all calibers difficulty over the course of their careers. Here are my top three tricks to improve that middle register and avoid some of the frustration that comes with the middle register of the flute.
Three Fun and Interesting Solo Flute Pieces
How to Play Staccato Notes on Flute
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