by Stephanie Castongia

Welcome! The purpose of this website is to present methods of practice that flutists can add to their list of techniques. I will use text explanations and provide musical examples from the flute repertoire to demonstrate how to use the practice methods. I would like to note that while this website is directed toward flutists, I hope to offer musicians new techniques applicable to their repertoire.

Flutists and other musicians spend hundreds of hours preparing for a single recital. While any flutist might consider him or herself a performer, we spend more time preparing for a performance than actually playing the event. Surprisingly, even though so much time is devoted to practice, sometimes we are still unsure of how to effectively practice. This uncertainty is the basis for Practice Methods for Flutists.

Each of us may be at different stages in preparing a piece. This site, however, is designed with an order to consider when first beginning a piece. For instance, you should be able to play through a phrase before definitively deciding where to breathe, play the correct pitches before tuning them, or practice the correct notes and dynamics before memorizing them. Of course, the site can be used at any point in the learning process, in which case you may visit the sections that you most need. Below are links to all the pages or you can use the list on the left to navigate the site.

Home
About the Creator
Pre-Practice
Tone
Rhythm
Notes
Articulation
Dynamics
Intonation
Breathing
Beginning to End
Memorization
Breaks
Goals
Electronic Devices
Beyond the Flute
Further Reading