For a person who wants to learn how to play the flute the question that often comes to his mind is whether he should take proper lessons or learn by himself? The answer is that it could be beneficial to the learner in different ways.
There are two types of learners, one who learns best from personal instruction and is self taught whereas the other type of learner could be a kind of person who learns best from lessons that have deadlines and needs a lot of practice for that.
In the traditional form of learning the learner gets absorbed in the learning process and learns best from his teacher.
As compared to taking lessons, there are a lot of advantages in self learning. In self teaching one does not have to pay or adhere to a strict schedule if that is an issue.
A student has the freedom to form his own time table and have his own pace of learning which is helpful because one may find it difficult to find a good flute teacher with whom you can coordinate well. One may not come across a teacher who is able to teach the particular style of flute playing that you wish to learn or at the required pace, so self learning can be a boon for some.
One can learn to play the flute without formal lessons of any kind. There are many flute players who have acquired international fame who are self taught and have never gone to any music school and it has not affected their learning in the least.
On the other hand, if one chooses to learn from a teacher it is crucial that the student has a good understanding with his teacher in order to excel.
The teacher is able to impart his knowledge in an interesting manner that motivates the student to perform better and learn the flute playing in the manner he wishes to learn.
It is extremely important to find the right teacher as it can make or break the student. Your love for the flute may die forever if you happen to learn it fro the wrong teacher.
For a flute player one must learn to play the instrument by regular practice or playing the flute when one wants to and not necessarily in a fixed time. One has to strike a balance between the two in order to be a good performer.
One can learn best from exercises. They help a student to build his own style of playing. But one has to be careful in not spending too much time in it as it tends to destroy your love for playing the flute and that can be disastrous.
Some flute players feel it is not necessary to how to read music before one can play by ear and that it is a myth completely. Apart from all this, one can make a habit of listening to other players, attend flute performances from time to time, try and play different flutes and absorb everything that helps them play the instrument better.