Tips

Try not to eat anything before you practice (especially candy, gum and pop). It will make your pads sticky. If you do eat before you play, brush your teeth!

After you are done playing, take a rag through the flute and wipe it off every time. This will also save the pads and keep you flute nice.

When you practice, try to split up your time. If you practice 30 minutes a day, try playing 15 minutes, a break, then 15 more minutes. It will make your practice time worthwhile!

Play with your heart, don't play because you "have to"--enjoy it!

When you practice, always warm up, either by playing scales or long tones on every note (while watching the tuner). Try at least 10 minutes (more if you are an intermediate or advanced player).

Hold your flute at about a 90 degree angle (almost horizontal) to get a better sound. Some flute players have a tendency to let it drop, creating bad posture and bad sound.

If you are having tuning problems, check out your tuning cork. Take out your cleaning rod and find the end with a mark on it. Put that through the headjoint. If the mark isn't in the center, your cork needs to be adjusted.

Breathe with your "stomach" -also known as your diaphragm- do not lift your shoulders when you breathe in! Think of expanding all away around your chest cavity. You can see how this works when you lay on the floor. You may notice your stomach poking out when your breathing. The diaphragm's movement causes this. Breathing deeper will help you with air control.

If you are spitty when you play high notes on the piccolo, you have an embochure problem. Work on many scales/long tones...practice each tone to make it perfect and gradually work your way up the scale.

For auditions or recitals, if you happen to get nervous, eat a banana before you go on stage. It contains a protein that helps calm you down. Of course, brush your teeth after you eat it :-)

Also, for auditions, you should bring some water. This will help wet a dry mouth, which most of us get when we are nervous.

If you are seriously considering a career in flute music, practice the "famous pieces" - "Concerto #1 in G Major and Conerto #2 in D Major for Flute and Orchestra" by Mozart, Faure's "Fantasie", Handel's Sonatas, etc. These kind of pieces are used for auditions.

For piccolo, make sure you know "The Stars and Stripes Forever" by Sousa. Also practice as many marches as possible, since a lot have awesome piccolo parts

More coming soon!