LFP 068 | 4 Things You Need to Know When You Are a Beginner Flute Player

Hi, I’m Rebecca Fuller the host of this podcast and expert of all things flute – especially related to learning how to play the flute. These audios are for all levels of flute players from the very first days all the way up into the intermediate and advanced levels, and today we’re going to talk about the 4 things you need to know when you are a beginner flute player. Let’s get started!

Welcome back! I’m excited about today’s episode because I think it’ll go somewhere you may not expect it to. The reason I say this is because when I was doing my brainstorming session and writing down all of the subject titles of the next few episodes, my husband happened to be sitting nearby and so I told him that I was going to title this particular audio the 4 things you need to know when you are a beginner flute player. I asked him to guess what the four things are.

So… I think before I go on, I should have you take a little moment pause and think of four things a beginner flute player should especially know.

…(pause)…

Ok. Time’s up! Haha I wonder if you came up with any of the same things my husband said. He said, How to hold the flute, how to put it together, how to take care of it, and how to love it.

These are pretty good actually, don’t you think?

Well, I surprised him a little when I said, nope! That’s not at all what I had in mind, but that those are really good too. – No, what I had in mind was more of the way of thinking or mental set we need as we begin an adventure like learning how to become a musician especially playing the flute. It’s a little different than other instruments. 

Now, I’m really not knocking other instruments, but if any of you have transferred from being proficient on let’s say the piano or guitar or something you’ll have already noticed that the flute is a whole new ball game, right?

First if all, it doesn’t just make noise when you touch it like many other instruments do. You have to learn to use your body to get the instrument to respond, and it’s just not as easy as it looks at first.

So,.. enough about that- I think I should just go ahead and share these four things with you that will help you at any stage of the game, but especially as you are a beginner flute player.

Number one!  The number one thing on my list today is that just like any other new language or skill we need to know that it will take time. I mention this because it seems that nowadays especially we are in more of an instant gratification mindset, and that kind of ruins things like this for us.. Where it will take time to learn. 

We have to teach our body new tricks. Our little muscles have to become fluent. It’s a new trick to access little nerves and muscles in your face that you’ve never really needed before, not to mention our breathing and learning the balance it takes. It really does just take some time. So, once we sit back and relax about that then we’re really ready to learn.. And that brings me to the next item on my list which is Patience.

Yup, because it takes time, it will also include patience because as I just mentioned, we tend to get in a ‘I think I want it right now’ mentality. I know I do also. I sometimes think that I can muscle my way through anything if I try hard enough. Haha, well, playing the flute isn’t really one of those. It definitely takes time and patience both to get to where we need to go.

If you asked any professional flutist right now how long it took them to learn to play the flute I imagine they would say something like, .. well, I’m still learning!

So again, sit back and enjoy the ride.

The next thing on my list here is that it takes something that occasionally brings up a negative image in your mind only because of what others may have done to this word. Many, .. and I mean many people have come back to learning how to play an instrument as an adult because something in their childhood messed up their enthusiasm and they quit.. But now they are ready to give it another go because the desire is still there, and they feel it is something that will fulfill a need inside of them.

When I dive deeper into the ‘why they quit’, I often find out that they didn’t enjoy one particular part of playing the instrument. And, that part is the word we’re talking about right now.. Can you guess it?  Yup- it’s p r a c t i c e. Practice.

They for some reason didn’t enjoy practicing. Haha, well- I always find it interesting when someone tells me that they enjoy ‘playing’ their instrument but not ‘practicing’ it. Hmmm… what do you think about that?

This makes me think that they’ve somehow separated these two things in their mind. Playing isn’t practicing and practicing isn’t playing somehow?

Well, we could probably get all scientific and psychological about this, but I agree that to some extent that playing the flute is much more fun than practicing it. Haha that’s only because ‘playing’ the flute to me is doing only what I already know how to do easily, and ‘practicing’ the flute would be the times when I have to concentrate and focus on teaching myself something new that feels unfamiliar and takes possibly lots of repetitions until I can do it easily.

If you fell asleep just now, I invite you to rewind what I’ve just said. It’s pretty important!

Ok, so let’s recap what the first three items are on the list today of things you need to know when you are beginner flute player.

Number one is that it will take time.

Number two is that it will take patience.

And Number three is that it will take practice.

So, let’s move into number four which is my favorite so far today because it’s all about the fact that it WILL be worth it.

Yup. It will.

You’ve had the desire to learn how to play the flute for a long time now probably, and by just getting these four things in mind, AND combining it with steps to follow -perhaps from a book or a live teacher, or my online sequential lessons (for example) then you should be totally unstoppable.

Yes, it’ll still take time, patience, and practice- but within all of that, it will be so totally worth it.

The flute is so beautiful, so cool, and completely unrivaled by any other instrument on this planet. It’s raw, yet refined. It’s earthy and elegant at the same time! How can that be?

Well, it just is. And that’s why we’re drawn to it.

I am, that’s for sure.

When I hear or see a well played flute- it’s mesmerizing… especially when you realize that the person holding the instrument is actually operating it and creating the sounds and tones themselves with their body.

And, it’s impressive.

Again, thank you for being here today for this episode number sixty eight. It’s been a complete pleasure chatting away about a subject we both are interested in and love.

I would really enjoy carrying on the conversation in the comment section here. Be sure to rate this episode and leave a question or thought. It’s so fun to talk about our hobbies and skills. Perhaps playing the flute is on your bucket list, and you’ve found out that it’s super fun and going to stick around for a long, long time.

I hope so too.

We’ll see you next time!