Why Do I Need to Practise?

Frequent practice is crucial if a pupil is to progress.

•  Practice helps a pupil to consolidate and build on what has already been learnt.
•  Mastering scales and arpeggios and similar patterns makes learning exciting new pieces much easier, as music often includes regular patterns of notes which will then be familiar.
•  Playing the flute is also a physical activity. Just as an athlete needs to train their muscles, a flute player needs to exercise and strengthen their finger, tongue, lip and arm muscles. Appropriate practice can help achieve this, while also improving stamina, breath control and tone.

BUT, practice to achieve these goals does not have to be tedious, boring or overly long!

A short period of structured practice most days is much more constructive than a long practice the day before a lesson.

Practice involves working on technique or skills which a pupil has not yet mastered. It is not simply playing through pieces that the pupil can already play well. However, a good teacher can make practice fun, varied and enjoyable by introducing new and imaginative ways of tackling tricky passages and concepts.