Hi,
I'm an advanced high school flute student, and have recently taken on two flute students of my own: a 1st year and a 2nd year. I was wondering if anyone had feedback on repertoire and technique/exercise books to use for teaching young flute studens that have proved effective. Right now, with my 1st year student I have her working throught the "Accent on Achievement" band method book and we just began a piece in the "40 Little Pieces Book". Is this the right way to go, or should I be using other, better, books. --which ones??
I want to make sure that my students improve as quickly as possible while learning to love and respect music.
Thank you so much in advance!!
I do not know the band book you speak of, but often times band books for flute focus only on the flat keys. Show a newer flute student something in e major and they freak out! So the whole flats/sharps issue is something to watch out for. There are probably better alternatives that others on the list can mention.
Why not follow the traditional methods based on well known books? I studied my first two years with Trevor Wye's book 1 and 2. On the second year I also worked on some studies from Henry Altes book 1 Altes strats with the medium to higher range, contrary to Wye approach.
After that my teacher, switched to studies taken form different books and later to Bánthai Koóvacs books.
I did the blue Rubanks books. I found my old Rubank Elemantary book from about 30 years ago. It has a melody by lesson 3 and by lesson 7 you are introduced to F major, lesson 8 Bb major and lesson 9 G major. It appears as though the book goes up to 4b's and 4#'s. It has some duets. I remember that it was fun.
I've seen 'Accent on Achievement' and it is really more of a whole-band lesson by lesson series, and doesn't get anywhere very fast.
Do also play from, for example, the yellow Voxman (easy to intermediate) duet book. This should be fun and let your students begin to learn to listen for pitch while playing with another instrument.
I like some of the Voxman easy duets for (more advanced) work on the piccolo, it is in a less taxing register and boy, if you can match pitch on a piccolo (or learn to), you're way ahead of the game.
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Trevor Wye would be excellent, too.
I have his "Practice Books for the Flute" in the compilation of 6 books.
It is a little overwhelming, but will give you great daily excercises for practice time. If your student needs to focus on articulation, tone, or something else you will find some great help here.
Essential Elements 2000 is a really great book. It starts out simple, and comfortably introduces new keys(sharps and flat key signatures), new time signatures, and techniques. This is the book I used and I loved it!
I still use Rubank because they progress through most of the keys, and have companion books such as the duet books, pares scales, concert/contest collection etc. That said, there are other good books out there that have been recommended in previous posts.
the good thing about Trevor Wye books is that you can use only the first points and exercises for a beginner student, use it mainly to demonstrate the point you want them to learn and become familiar with the concept. As they become more advanced, you can go back and do exercises that are harder.
Some people knock the rubank but I used it and in hindsight, I think it was very thorough. The advanced book one is stuff up to 4 sharps/flats and the advanced book two are the harder key signatures, but the material itself is about the same level, just more sharps and flats.
You can pair Rubank with Practical Studies (Guenther).
The Guenther studies are just a bunch of basic bread and butter musical exercises, which doesn't ever get too advanced, but introduces musicality in a well paced non-threatening way.
The Wye books are not beginner books and they are not standard flute methods, they are written like teacher's manuals and contain much verbiage, but little actual practicing content. The Wye books are probably good remedial exercises for an advanced player who has always avoided taking private lessons or perhaps could be a revelation for someone studying from a teacher who really should not be teaching (The first 5 books can be found on Amazon bundled in an "omnibus" for $26, don't buy them individually $$).
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