Doctor Flute Blog
Musings on the Flute
How to Practice Triplet Scales
Technique practice is one of the most fun parts of practicing for me. I could practice technique all day. It really suits me to work on agility and speed. One of the best methods for scale practice is triplet scales. Let me teach you how to practice triplet scales....
New Years Goals
We all set personal goals in the new year, right? But do you have flute goals? What are your flute goals for 2018? What are you dreaming about doing, performing, achieving? My Flute Goals: Fill in my performance schedule. You have to work at scheduling gigs. They...
The Left Hand Position
Let's talk about a couple of little issues with the left hand. First let's clarify an aspect of the flute that will affect your left hand position [it's not open/closed hole]: In-line G Offset G Half Offset G I don’t believe that open/closed hole makes a difference on...
Right Hand Position
Do you know if your right hand is properly placed on your flute for optimal performance & health? The right hand should be comfortable when on your flute. When playing, you want your wrist to have no tension and in order to do that, you need to have a good hand...
Quiet Breath
I’ve heard competition judges at the NFA convention discuss with the audience how competitors need to learn how to take quieter breaths. Their estimation of the competitor went down simply because the breath was too loud and distracting. It especially took away from...
Does Your Current Teacher Teach Differently Than Your Past Teacher?
I'm a flute teacher and I have a method and style that is all my own. You could probably say I'm a mixture of all the teachers I've had in the past with some of me thrown in. Isn't that what you are? Every teacher has their own style. But sometimes our teaching style...
Practicing Technique
If you're not doing a steady diet of practicing your technique for a good part of your practice time, you need to start now. You need to add as much variety as you can in your technical practice, such as: Taffanel one, Taffanel two, four, and five. I like to combine...
Is it time to upgrade?
That is quite a question isn't it? Really, when is it time? Is there ever an "absolutely must" time or is it only an "I really want it" time? Then again when you have decided that it is time to upgrade, what flute do you get and how much do you spend? Here are my...
Low Register Tonguing to Benefit Your High Register
Here’s a tip is on how tonguing in your low register can benefit your high register. If you do a lot of exercises, tonguing, slowly and carefully in your low register, you'll be amazed at how much that can help your high register. Everything above it benefits from the...