Flute
My Knowledge of the Instrument
My History
How It All Began
I didn’t play flute at all whilst in the army band, and only started to learn it upon leaving in 2005.
Whilst working for the Music Service within my first year, I was given two flute pupils to teach (even though I had never played the instrument before). What ensued was me buying a flute and being approximately 3 pages ahead of the pupils for the first few months until I became more competent as the years went on.
To this day I am not a flute player as such, but do play and teach the instrument up to Grade 5 (GCSE) level.
Lessons
What is involved
As with the clarinet and saxophone, I use a series of books called “Look, Listen & Learn Method for Flute” by Jacob de Haan (published by DeHaske). These books are a guide from absolute beginner through to about Grade 5-6 standard and have fantastic backing tracks that make the playing of the instrument with accompaniment, fun! They also help to teach the basics of improvisation and allow the student to develop their skills, something that I have not seen elsewhere in other study books.
The lessons are focused on notation reading and good technique, as well as the basics of improvisation.
Exams are taken using either ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal School of Music) or Trinity College, whichever is preferred.
