In regard to music lessons I have learned the importance of having a teacher with whom I can connect. If you don’t mesh well with your teacher personality wise it will be a struggle to practice and perform for this person. It does not mean you cannot learn from a teacher who has a different style than you, but the student will enjoy lessons much more if he or she has a teacher with whom they can relate. I know this from my own personal experience. I hated practicing piano and I left most lessons nearly in tears. It was very stressful. My desire to play piano made me be persistent in taking lessons even though I dreaded walking through my teachers door every week. I felt I could never succeed. There were many reasons why I had struggles in piano, many of which were not my teachers fault, but because she did not understand me, all I received for my efforts was criticism that I was not doing enough. Communication is a key issue. Students must feel that they can talk to their teacher and express their opinion respectfully. Teachers should try to find the root of the problem by asking the student questions rather than making assumptions.

In contrast, I loved practicing for flute lessons. I never seemed to get tired of it. I could easily practice for hours whereas I could barely stand a half hour of piano. I contribute this to encouragement I received from my teacher. She was very understanding of my demanding schedule and personality. She could relate to my fear of performing and helped my to ease into it by playing duets with her. She also made sure to tell me all the things I did right instead of just the things I did wrong. Lessons were upbeat and light even when we were focused hard on a piece. I never felt stressed in lessons. Instead it was a time when I could play my flute and get constructive criticism.

I guess the bottom line is: Be approachable and make music fun! I enjoyed flute lessons because I felt comfortable with my teacher. I hated piano lessons because I was intimidated by and frustrated with my teacher. As I began teaching flute lessons two summers ago I tried to make sure that I keep all these things in mind. A teacher can make a world of difference and be a contributing factor to a student’s decision to play and instrument.

Over the short ten years that I have been playing the flute, I have noticed that the majority of students who choose to play the flute in middle or high school are girls. Why is this? It is true that many percieve the flute to be a weak instrument because it is small and often cannot be heard above the band like the brass, percussion, or other instruments.

Often young boys will not even think twice about playing the flute because “it is girly” they say. I always speak up and inform them that many of the great flautists are male. I could name ever so many more male professional flute players than female ones. Just look at James Galaway, Julius Baker, Louis Moyse, or Michael Parloff  just to name a few.

Students are also often not aware of the versitility of the flute. They know that clarinets, saxophones and trumpets can play jazz but the flute? Yes, the flute can play jazz too! If you really want to show someone what neat things you can do with the flute, listen to Greg Patillo beat-box on his flute. Yes, you read the correctly! Click on the link below and watch him in action.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=59ZX5qdIEB0&mode=related&search=

It still remains a mystery to me why most of the great flute players of the professional world are men but the majority of students studying flute are females. Did we do something to change the reputation of flutes that now it is not “cool” to play flute if you are a guy because only ditzy or blonde girls play the flute? I say it is time that we change this stereotype! The tension that can develop in a female dominted section in an ensemble can be unreal at times. Instead of making jokes and having fun the flute players are giving eachother looks that say, I could have played that solo better (this is most common at competive festivals and may or may not be the case with your school ensemble). We need to have some male company up in the front to break up the cat fights (or the giggling depending on the group of girls). The odds are pretty good for a guy to find a girl if he chooses to play flute, he will instantly have lots of female friends. It is preferable however that he chooses to play the flute because he recognizes how neat an instrument it is and he wants to carry on the tradition of  great male flute players.