I'm glad to hear that you found some of the information useful.

A degree in Flute Performance does not come without learning the appropriate standard, and alternate, flute fingerings, along with knowledge about when it is, or isn't appropriate to use them. But a flute performance degree usually doesn't provide a solid basis in How to Teach Flute. Some degree holders will be fantastic teachers, but a Flute Performance degree as such may not require any coursework geared toward teaching.

I'm not assuming that your 'Flute Mom' is a poor teacher, and it sounds like she's probably the appropriate one for a first teacher. The 'wrong fingerings' problem is more likely to come from a Brass (or Saxophone) playing Band Director with little to no flute experience.

It's great to hear that your daughter is enjoying her lessons, has a flute that won't hold her back anytime in the next several years, and also that playing in a group will happen maybe next year.

To play in the High School Band, I never 'needed' lessons. But I would have been able to continue with my flute at University (I was a science major) if I had. I arrived at an informal audition with mediocre to bad tone, an terrible sight reading skills. (And I was first chair in my high school during Junior and Senior year!)

With two or three years of 'serious' flute lessons- like your own daughter would be ready for in another couple of years- I would have probably got a LOT more out of my college tuition money.

Tibbiecow wrote: "The 'wrong fingerings' problem is more likely to come from a Brass (or Saxophone) playing Band Director with little to no flute experience."

Please don't generalize based upon your experience. The director you learned from may have been less than optimal, but most are extremely qualified to teach all of the instruments with the correct fingering.

Every band director that I know (myself included) has been through college/university music education courses covering all of the band and orchestral instruments. The curriculum for music education normally includes at least a semester course in each family (woodwind, brasswind, percussion, and strings). Many universities go even further with a full semester in clarinet or flute and another semester covering the other woodwinds; likewise for trumpet and the other brass. In my own case, saxophone was my major instrument, but I was quite fluent in flute and clarinet as well. That means, for example, that I taught my beginning and middle school flute students to finger F# with the RH ring finger rather than the middle finger used on sax. In my experience (and here I'm speaking about beginning and middle school band directors), even the brass majors knew the fingering differences between the various WWs. At the HS level, the band directors have a different emphasis (marching band, concerts, festivals, etc.) and so they are less likely to be extremely familiar with the nuances of all the different instruments (even though they once learned those differences, they have have different objectives).

BTW, if you happen to be in VA next February, I'll invite you to come hear a saxophonist (and former band director) play the Poulenc Sonata (on flute, of course...) at our local flute fair.

"Every band director that I know (myself included) has been through college/university music education courses covering all of the band and orchestral instruments."

Hi musicman_944,

I'm curious, how much education did you experience on each of these instruments during college?

I had a full semester on each family of instruments. For the woodwind methods class, the class was tailored to every music ed student's experience and major instrument. Since sax was my major instrument and a semester was about 16-18 weeks long, that meant that I had about a month on each of the other WW instruments (clarinet, flute, oboe, bassoon). For brass or percussion players, they were usually started on clarinet for 4-6 weeks and then the reamining time divided among each of the other WW instruments. Certainly not enough time to master each, but enough to get the basics of the fingerings and embouchure. Percussion and string classes were similarly structured. Each student was required to pass a proficiency test of playing each instrument before moving on to the next. So altogether, a music ed student devoted four semesters/two full years to learning all of the common band and orchestra instruments.

Today, there seems to be a trend toward a full semester devoted to the clarinet and another semester for the other WWs. To me this seems to be a good idea since it provides a better foundation for learning the entire WW family, especially for non-WW majors. WW majors with sufficient clarinet skills could be exempted from the clarinet class by testing out of it. Similarly, many universities now have a one semester trumpet class (for non-brass players) followed by another semester for the other brass.

Hi musicman_944,

I do agree that generalizing is a tricky path to follow.

I believe that generally in the US your education is a fairly standard requirement then. That is to say that they haven't changed it much since I grad. in the late 70's. Of course your experience on the flute is probably a bit more than some other band teachers out there because of your Saxophone/WW experience but I had always felt that this rudimentary amount of immersion regarding the various families gained me a starting point for myself in understanding each individual instrument's pedagogy. Of course our techniques of teaching evolve as we go though our careers. I, as an example would disagree with my original concepts of the teaching of tone an finger placement from my 30 years of teaching experience on this instrument and at that time when I began teaching, I had already been playing for 15+ years on the flute.

~bilbo
N.E. Ohio

Regarding the capabilites of "band" teachers or whatever term we wish to use.
I dis agree that MOST know what they are doing regarding fingerings and techniques on all instruments.
Perhaps we should use the term, MANY do.

Most, if not many, colleges that offer and teach music education do cover many aspects of teaching most of the instruments. My college not only required taking classes in all the instruments but also required proficiency exams which included concert performances. In fact, my percussion exam was playing tympani and a xylophone solo in a real concert with a professional Orchestra (talk about being nervous).

In my personal experience I would say "band" directors are a 50/50 shot on wether they know and/or have retained what they might have learned in their college instrument classes. Of my friends who teach, almost all of them know their stuff pretty well for any instrument. But,of my private students there seems to be serious lack of knowledge coming from their teachers. And I think it shows in their passion for what they do. My friends who teach, when they have concerts it is a separate concert for each group. However, these other teachers (of my private students)when they do a concert they have all the groups play at one concert and each group will play only one or two songs. I can't imagine being in High School Advanced Band and playing two short pieces for my spring concert.

Without getting into a debate over semantics, to me there doesn't seem to be a great difference between many and most. Both are indefinite quantities, greater than 1 but less than all. The only distinction is that most usually implies a majority or greater than 50%. In that context, I don't think our opinions differ significantly.

At my university, the proficiency exams were simply done in class rather than in a concert. However, after I passed my percussion proficiency exam, I was quite enthralled with playing percussion and joined the percussion ensemble for a couple of semesters. That was quite a blast and some of the four-mallet technique needed for some of the works we played proved to be quite challenging.

With respect to the differences between some band directors, I certainly agree that there are some duds out there. But, that's true of all teachers. Some are more motivated and try harder, others just want to make it to the end of the day. After all is said and done though, I believe that there are more good band directors than poor ones. That has been my experience and I don't think it is that different elsewhere.