Flute Lessons: Tips for Flute Teachers
As a flute teacher, you might opt to teach different levels of students. Each level of learning requires a different method of teaching, and a completely different approach to handling the students. With advanced students, you can just help them with the techniques and let them work on their music in peace. With students who are appearing for grading exams, you need to be sure that you are covering whatever the course demands in detail. But beginner students are the toughest to teach because you need to be an excellent teacher and have a lot of patience and be aware of different teaching methods. You can also find some more tips for teaching at http://flutelessonssingapore.com/read-this-if-you-are-a-new-flute-teacher/.
Assembling the flute
When you are associating with beginner students, especially young children or teenagers, it is best that you begin the flute lessons by showing them how to put the flute together and how to take the different parts of it apart safely. If you don’t do this, impatient students might try and do it themselves and end up damaging their instruments after their very first lesson. You would then not get very far with your lessons if your students’ flutes are not in good condition! Have them practice for a while and then impress on them the need to be patient and delicate when handling their instrument.
Correct posture
The correct posture for playing the flute is actually not a natural posture. So students often lounge about and take a stance which feels comfortable to them at most times, but is not always conducive for their long term health. It is very important for the posture to be developed at the very beginning before the student slips off into bad habits, which can be quite hard to correct. So make sure that you are concentrating on the posture of the students during the first lessons until it comes naturally to them. Explain the difficulties that can arise with a bad posture, such as muscle pains and chronic joint problems, and encourage them to develop a good posture as early as they can.
Fingering chart
Get a fingering chart and insist that your students use it. Many beginners don’t like using fingering charts, especially if its importance has not been brought to their notice. It is also very difficult to decipher for newbies. The first thing to do is to teach them how to read the chart and how to implement the instructions in their playing. Pictographic fingering charts are the best option for beginners as they can just see what key is where, and when to use which one.
Method book
Method books are essential for the flute teacher in order to prepare their classes in an organized manner. While you obviously know everything that is to be taught, following a method book can bring more structure to your curriculum. It becomes far easier to prepare lessons based on this structure than to randomly teach whatever you want to. This way, you could also be sure that you are not missing out on any specific technique that must be taught. This is especially important in the beginning stages since certain things need to be taught before other things. With a method book, life becomes easier for both teacher and student.
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