How to Sound Amazing with Beginner Flute Music 

You might think that playing beginner flute music well is a task that everyone could accomplish. But for anyone who has spent some time with the flute knows, this is not the case. Sounding great as a beginner can be just as challenging as sounding great as a professional. However, it’s not an impossible task, and there are plenty of ways that you can help improve your playing. Below, you’ll find some of the most useful tips for sounding amazing when starting out with beginner flute music, and while every tip might not work for every person, you’re sure to find a few that will have you playing like a pro in no time.

Tip 4 - Think About the Physical Layout of the Music

There’s nothing worse for a flute player than opening up a new piece of music only to find that the publisher has decided to cram each page full of tiny, barely readable notes in order to save space and paper. These sorts of publications can put a real strain on your eyes and take up valuable practice time with you trying to decipher what all those tiny squiggles might mean. Instead, when searching for a beginner flute book, look for pieces that are printed large enough and clear enough for you to read. Try holding the music out in front of you about the same distance it will be when it’s on your music stand. If you can read the notes quickly and easily from there, then it shouldn’t give you any trouble. If you find music that you want to play that doesn’t meet this criteria - don’t fear! There are ways of working around it, although it might take a little work on your part. If you’re unhappy with the size of your score, then take matters into your own hands and create your own. All you need is a pencil and some blank staff paper. By transcribing music that’s unreadable, you not only open yourself up to a work that might otherwise be inaccessible to you but you also learn a lot about the piece in the process. This is because you have to move through it note by note, rhythm by rhythm.

Tip 3 - Go with What You Know

There is a wide variety of great beginner flute books out there. While expanding your horizons and playing new and unfamiliar things is an important part of developing as a flutist, choosing pieces that you’re already familiar with has its benefits as well. By choosing melodies and songs that you already know, you’re able to cut down on the amount of practice time you’ve got to spend on them. Sure, you will still have to learn the correct fingerings, how to phrase it, etc, but you won’t have to spend near as much time learning the contours of the melody or how a good performance of the piece should sound. Thankfully, when it comes to flute music, there are lots of familiar tunes already in the repertoire. From folk songs, to excerpts of popular classical pieces to holiday music, you’re sure to find some favorite childhood songs that you may already know by heart.

Tip 2 - Practice Makes Perfect

Just because you’re playing “easy” flute music doesn’t mean that you won’t need to practice! Thankfully, if you’re just starting out, you won’t need to devote much more time to it than about 20 minutes per day. However, practicing is not just about punching the clock. All the things you do within your practice time are just as important (if not more important) than the actual amount of time you spend practicing. If you want to make solid improvements to your playing you’ve got to be practicing conscientiously. Conscientious practicing means two things. First it means that you go into your practice sessions already knowing what you need to work on. Always have a plan as to what problem areas you’re facing in your music and what practice techniques you can use to resolve them. Secondly, conscientious practice means you’re staying focused and detail-oriented. It’s not enough to just mindlessly play through your music. Break it up into sections, play it slowly, and really focus on getting even the most minute details of the music just right.

Tip 1 - Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

It might sound contradictory, since I just told you to focus lots of your practice time on the finer details of your beginner flute music, but it’s important that you strike a good balance between dedication and enjoyment. While playing the flute undoubtedly takes lots of hard work on your part, you can’t completely forget about the most basic reasons why humans create music - for fun and to build social and emotional bonds with one another. If you’re not enjoying everything from practice to performance, then something is going wrong in the process. While we are constantly striving to be better, we can’t let that desire stress us out or overtake us. A missed note or a bad rhythm in a performance is not the end of the world. Even the best among us make mistakes. And that’s the great thing about good beginner flute music. It poses new and challenging situations for the starting-out flutist while still being familiar and fun enough to help us remember what the real reasons behind all music making are.