It’s always exciting to pick up a once loved skill or hobby. Here is some really great advice to a relearning adult flute player that will help get you on the right path, and speed your improvement.
Learn how to celebrate your successes.
It’s safe to bet that a good portion of you reading this article will still have the flute you started on years ago. Unlike fine violins, flutes do not age well. In fact, flutes do the opposite. The pads and special mechanism on a flute dry out and gum up so much that your instrument won’t sound nearly as good as it did years ago. So, you’ll need to take it to a reputable flute technician to be checked out thoroughly.
It is common for these technicians to tell you that you need a total re-pad and adjustment which will run you a couple of hundred dollars (or more).
My number one advice is to only go this route if you really feel you have a quality flute to start with. Otherwise, purchase a new one and start fresh.
You’ll then need to work on the basic flute skills such as holding and balancing the flute properly. This will make all the difference in regaining tone. You may think you remember, but it’ll be well worth your time to spend a few weeks or even months moving through the basics correctly. Use a credible system.
Learn how to celebrate your successes.
Since you aren’t in a situation where you have a peer group watching your progress, it’ll be important to take note of every small achievement. Take good notes before and after your daily practices, and then pat yourself on the back when you feel completely competent on a skill you have been striving towards.
Of course, I could write novels on the exact skills and exercises that would be the best advice to a relearning adult flute player. Instead, I’ll just give a plug for my online program here. It is fabulous for relearning adults. Really. Come join us!
i played for about 2 years, been maybe an year since i played, doubt i need a new one, but found a piece i want to play but can’t want to relearn most things, well see if i do…
Oh yes, it’ll be fun to help you relearn and get even better this time around. Let’s play flute! Wahoo Rebecca
“Unlike fine violins, flutes do not age well.”
This is false, but easily understood as the violin speculative market severely misrepresents how violins actually age. Violins and bows age like bananas. Violins and bows need constantly skilled upkeep to be kept in playable condition, and the finer the violin, the more critical and expensive this is. And there is a lot more to maintain on a violin and a bow. Strings and bowhair need to be replaced regularly, strings costing around $100-450 a set, and probably being replaced at least once a month.
Fine violins are completely made of wood and organic (horse based) glue. The strings, on all violins, exert over 50 lbs across the body and down on it. The necks are set with glue.
A violin will, if strung, require its neck to be reset and refit every few years. The tension will pull it out of alignment no matter what. The glue can loosen and separate under the right environmental conditions across the entire instrument. The wood can crack under the same.
Fingerboards can warp and need planing. Pegs and their holes can wear out and need to be refit. A traditional design is a wood peg in a wood pegbox and they are just friction fit and tuning a string requires very fine control of the pegs so it will wear no matter what. Bridges will need to be replaced as well as soundposts.
Violin bows require rehairing on a regular basis and the bows themselves can need maintenance, with many things that can need to be done. The bow might be considered a separate instrument: they have a range of costs comparable to instruments and their maintenance requirements are high.
The finest violins (most expensive) are seen as fine everlasting examples, but in reality they are constantly being rebuilt, with cracks patched, finishes touched up, and entirely new necks and fingerboards being refit. The Strad (and the like) that people play is not the one built by Antonio! The wood select and body shape was made by him, but not the final product being played. They don’t have the original necks or fingerboards for one.
I would suspect the violinst pays a lot more often (and more) each year as a serious student of their instrument than a flutist of similar seriousness and level. Their instruments are organic nightmares seeped in tradition…horse glue, horse hair, delicately carved woods, and friction fit pieces under high tension on a material that swells, contracts, and cracks by its nature as humidity and temperatures change at all.
I suspected, based on the article, that a flute is less costly to maintain than a fine violin assuming the violin never needs service. Checking what appears to be a high level flute service…service, the highest services are over $2000 and they recommend sending a flute in once a year for optimal performance. Compared to the regular string costs of a fine violin once a month (low for a professional violinst) with strings that cost $100-400 a set and the regular bow hair changes, a flute is likely a bargain.
And this is why I am switching to flutes, besides liking the sound I make when playing a flute better than my own violin playing.
Right – there are components to each instrument that have to be upkept (even pianos, guitars etc). The flutes really do depend on their make. If they are high quality, the ‘bones’ of the flute can last for a very long time. The pads will never last etc. I’m glad you’re having fun playing the flute and hope you will enjoy our Learn Flute Online community. 🙂 Rebecca
I am interest in relearning the flute. I played for eight years when I was a young teen and now that I’m retired I’m thinking I would really like to start again. My flute pads are complete dried out so I would imagine I need a new one. I just don’t know where to begin.
Hi Kathy,
Welcome back to flute playing! What a wonderful choice to come back to learning how to play the flute. I am so excited to help you begin this journey again. If it has been many years since playing your flute, take your flute to a technician to have everything checked (and probably pads replaced). Then you are ready to begin! Please send me an email and I would love to help you find where to begin again as you are relearning. Best of luck! -Rebecca
I appreciate how you suggested making thorough notes before and after your daily practices and giving yourself a pat on the back whenever you feel entirely proficient in a skill you have been working on. My aunt wants to relearn how to play the flute because she wants to join the neighborhood musical team and she was given the instrument. I’ll make sure to share this post with her in light of this so she can take your advice by that time.
Hi Elle, I’m so glad you found this information and thought of your aunt. I would love to help her! I have taught thousands of returning flutists how to play and would love to teach her as well. Hope to hear from her soon! -Rebecca