Dear Ingrid, My child has been told that they have a "great sound" with the flute and the right lips. They like to play but wont practice especially if left for a while. Should I persevere with the lessons as they are expensive for us, or maybe leave it for a year so they appreciate what they had?

Dear Ingrid, I have been learning the flute for a bit more than a year and am finding it more difficult than I perhaps expected. I’m quite a good pianist so have no problems reading music, but controlling my breath is a real nightmare! So I need all the help I can get!    

I have heard talk about something called ‘throat tuning’ and am not sure what it is exactly or how it might be useful to my playing. I am an adult student and wonder is this something I should be aware of? ...yes, ‘throat tuning’ is definitely something of which you should be aware as a player since working with this concept is very helpful in developing richness and resonance in your flute tone.

I have a new flute which is a silver model. Can you give me any tips on the best way to clean it? ... Thank you for your question, Heather. It is easy to take for granted that we all know just what to do, or not to do, in the care of our flutes – so perhaps this is a good time for a reminder. First of all, keeping the inside of the flute dry after playing is essential. Moisture collected inside the tube can damage the keypads, and it is not so healthy either!

Our regular Puzzle Page courtesy of Owen Auger. Do you have what it takes to solve these?.....

What a player! John Amadio was to the 1930s and '40s public what Sir James Galway is today. Of course, the flute was not so popular then and not everyone had access to a radio or a gramophone, but still, John Amadio managed to record many records of popular flute pieces for the ordinary music lover.

"But the teacher said..." Sometimes advice can be taken too literally...

We continue our consideration  of  this problem, looking to better understand Baroque style and common practices of that time so we can better perform such music on a modern flute....

Our regular Puzzle Page courtesy of Owen Auger, containing a flute fingering puzzle, a notation puzzle and a riddle. Do you have what it takes to solve these?.....

Fish Are Jumping is a 12 bar, Chicago style Blues for flute alone. As in much of my music, the unaccompanied flutist provides the melodies, harmonies and rhythm. When Fish Are Jumping is well played, the audience should feel it has had the experience of hearing a band, a band with a totally happening flute soloist up front. I wrote Fish Are Jumping in 1999 to continue the musical direction that my piece Lookout started ten years earlier. Both pieces are written with an original (I hope!) take on well known popular styles. Lookout is a 1960s- 1970s rock solo, with a dash of Afro-Cuban Salsa. Fish Are Jumping is pure Blues. I plan to carry the series forward with a Metallica type Speed Metal solo as the next installation.

We love this piece. Besides being a real flute piece by one of the best known composers (and not a transcription), this is a wonderful example of French impressionism beautifully written for the flute....

This particular duet is short, cute, and in a jazzy style (a good introduction to swung rhythms), ideal for an encore or one of those ridiculously short talent quest items at school. There aren’t any page turns, and it won’t take up too much of your lesson!

Following last issue’s exploration of internet-related things, I decided we’d branch out in the “How To” column to cover some pieces that one can get, free of charge, on line - if you have access to the internet you can download a remarkable amount of music that is being posted by musicians for sharing with other musicians! ... Cecile Chaminade’s Concertino is a very popular piece for auditions, demonstrating a little of everything and very pleasing melodies. I expect many flutists own this piece, but maybe there are some who don’t, so I found a Russian edition of this piece  

This Baroque-era work is a real favourite with flutists; a beautiful tune that seems familiar, and you can just play the bits you like! ... Marin Marais’ original was published in Pieces de Viole, 2e livre (Paris, 1701). It was also published for other melody instruments, and the solo version for flute, in E minor, is available for free (hooray!)

Many difficult passages are lost due to poor control of the tone when we are preoccupied with the rapid succession of notes. On the other hand, faulty phrasing of slow lines can often be attributed to uncoordinated fingerings. We tend to emphasize sound as an entity unto itself, relevant in the domain of musicality, whereas fingers are the attributes of virtuosity, an unavoidable and cumbersome necessity.  

Dear Mary, I have attached a PDF of the score (2 pages) for "Much Suspicion", which was premiered by Yuri Tamashiro and Eshian Teo at St Johns Presbyterian in Wellington on 12 Dec 2008...

If every flautist would pronounce the ‘Tip-of-the-Tongue Tales’ with a clear ‘t’, articulation on the flute would be a piece of cake.....

Shaina Rush shone recently as soloist with the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony Orchestra. This busy youngster is obviously a talented flutist with the potential to make a career as a soloist. I contacted her and suggested an interview - here is her story!

Doubling on saxophone presents a variety of challenges for flutists. Many find themselves motivated towards doubling for reasons that are either suggested by school band directors or to increase opportunities in the professional workplace. Such decisions are quite often made without properly researching the best course of action...

"When Can I Start the Next Piece?" In the absence of a simple answer, I am going to default to a response that would stand up in court if you had to defend it under cross-examination: “It depends.”...

It is very common for teachers to teach in the way they themselves were taught. We may have had fine teachers, but if we started at an older age, caught on quickly, happened to produce reasonable tone, and read music easily, we may not actually have many skills or tools for teaching much younger children or for solving problems (or avoiding them in the first place).

Most musicians are familiar with Suzuki violin, and have seen media images of tiny tots with even tinier violins. Less wellknown is the Suzuki Method™ applied to the flute, despite more than thirty years of international exposure...

It takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at anything. However, the investment of time is only part of the story; the practice must be meaningful and mindful. The Suzuki Method includes by design a rich variety of opportunities to practise with other people...

As teachers, we want our students to know what to do and how to do it right. Sometimes this gets in the way of helping them learn to think the way a musician thinks. One of the best ways to do this is to ask your students questions rather than giving them instructions.

Something so close to our heart as music we want to teach children from an early age. The development of children's flutes has brought much younger pupils into the flute classrooms than before. Unlike the concert flute, little is known about ergonomy and balancing of these flutes...

As a young student, I would occasionally page turn for the pianist in my teacher’s trio. Within the programme of standard repertoire for flute, cello and piano – works by Haydn, Martinu, Weber and Gaubert – was a collection of short movements entitled “Five Impressions of a Holiday” by Sir Eugene Goossens. The memory of these short cameos lingered and I was very delighted when, years later, I came across a copy and was able to perform them...

FLUTE TRIOS for FESTIVE OCCASIONS - Brian Childers, who is well known for his choral compositions and music for handbells, has taken simple, well known tunes and has developed them into more complex and reasonably challenging ensemble pieces, suitable for intermediate level students...

In recent years there has been somewhat of a revival of interest in the music of British composers from the 1940’s to 60’s – composers such as William Alwyn, York Bowen and Sir Lennox Berkeley are again being performed and recorded after a period of relative lack of interest in their music. I am happy to see this as there are many fine works in the flute repertoire from these composers and others of the era...

Playing related injuries among musicians, including flautists, have been widely reported in the literature. While a clear link has not been established between early teaching and later manifestations of pain, it is reasonable to assume that placing the neck, shoulders, hands, or back in awkward positions for extended durations, especially over a period of years, may result in cumulative trauma (overuse/repetitive strain) injuries.