Lessons are either a half hour, forty five minutes, or an hour and you are encouraged to meet with me every week. If you are unable to study weekly, hour lessons bi-weekly are highly suggested since consistency is key to developing your skills.
All students are required to have a flute and you should bring your flute to every lesson. It doesn't matter if you rent or own your instrument, but it should be in good working order: no leaky pads or missing rollers! If you do have a problem with your flute I can offer places to have it repaired.
Lessons are often divided into four sections (warmups/scales, lesson book and/or etude, solo, and sight reading) with specific attention to technique and tone.
Materials may include, but are not limited to, the list below.
Lesson Books (often depending upon band program)
- Rubank Elementary
- Rubank Intermediate
- Rubank Advanced I
- Rubank Advanced II
Warmups and Tone
- 17 Grands Exercises Journaliers de Mecanisme: 17 Big Daily Finger Exercises for the Flute (Taffanel and Gaubert, Leduc)
- 7 Daily Exercises (Reichert)
- Developing Doubtful Digits (Edwards/Flute Gym Workout Series ISBN: 0-9713945-1-2)
Etude Collections
- Melodious and Progressive Studies I, II, II, IV (Various Composers)
- The Modern Flutist
- 26 Etudes (Altes)
Solo Collections
- Rubank Concert and Contest Collection (flute part)
- 40 Solos for the Beginning Flute Player
- Solos for the Flute Player ed. Moyse (Schirmer)
I do request that all students own the below materials at some point. Intermediate students can go ahead and purchase them while beginner should wait until advised to do so. If you need links for companies that sell music, please check out the links page.
- 17 Grands Exercises Journaliers de Mecanisme: 17 Big Daily Finger Exercises for the Flute (Taffanel and Gaubert, Leduc)
- 7 Daily Exercises (Reichert)
- Melodious and Progressive Studies I
Equipment (other than an instrument):
- A flute bag of some sort is suggested to keep all materials and equipment together.
- 3-Ring Binder
- Notebook
- Pencil
- Cleaning Rod and Cloth
- Metronome
- Tuner
- Breath Builder and/or Breathing Bag
- Music Stand
- Staff Paper
- Flash cards (may be needed for young students)
Practice time is essential. The results of Monday's work (for example) will not be evident until Tuesday, so cramming will not really produce results. Practice will take longer at the beginning of the week and move faster at the end of the week if done consistently. Longer sessions can be broken up into smaller sessions to accommodate schedule and to let hands rest. The more advanced the student, the more music required to prepare so the longer the practice time. Here are some guidelines.
- 15 minutes per day (or 3xs at least through each page/exercise per day) for beginners.
- 30 minutes per day for early intermediate students.
- 1 hour per day at least for later intermediate students.
- Longer sessions for more advanced students, with appropriate breaks.
