Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I get my flute lessons back tomorrow, im so happy and im going to play a piece for the teacher called Ballade by A. pherilhou, But there Is one thing I hate about lessons some times , I always have to start with the baby pieces like little excersies and stuff I like to play something kool and fast , and when i ask to work on a skill like vibrato the teacher says hold on un til ur tone gets better ( and when is that going to be in like a 100 years my tone is not that bad) Can anyone tell me why teachers do these types of things.

It may be annoying at first, but in the long run you'll see that it's worth it. If you just rush to things quickly without taking a while to work on simpler stuff you'll never improve. It's like that with every instrument.

Kevin, let me answer it this way, first of all it is not babyish to start with exercises, I always want my students to do 30 min of scales, tone exercises, technique, etc before opening up any piece of music.

If you joined a soccer team and had a good coach, he would have you run, go through drills, etc before you play the game, that way you have the necessary skills before you get on the field.

I have played flute for 34 years and still do all my scales each day, tone exercises, technique, etudes, etc etc, before working on any music. This is what pros do.

A little kid says, "HEY, i wanna be a FAMOUS tennis player..wanna be PRO, okay now let me start hitting. GIVE ME THE RACKET!"
Well, you have to learn how to properly hold it first and learn the right forms of hitting shots..uh..rules?..etc.

The other example here was good too...

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i used to be confused when my teacher would spend the WHOLE 30 minutes of just BORING tone excercises. i mean we would just sit on one note forever!..i know what you mean. I LOVE fast moving technical stuff. I realized that was the only thing i was concentrating and i didn't think about tone^^ The REALLY boring lessons really helped me. patience:)

I was confused when i went to my lessons today , Okay I only have been playing the flute for like 4 years And when she went threw my music She pull out the Henri Dutilleux Sonatine And asked me to play some of it for her. when i was finish she siad that it would be a good piece to play for the wind emsemble recital , but the thing i dont get is why would a teacher pick something out that hard for me to play?

Uhh..because she probably thinks you could do it..and of course you can.
doesn't anyone like a challenge? You need hard music so you can grow more as a musician. ppl that stays in the same comfort level..how do expect to be better?
this is just my opinion

Kevin, a challenge is always a compliment, that is how you grow as a musician. As far as tone studies go, I gave an entire one hour lecture several years ago in Taiwan just about long tone studies, the students kept figuring out what the study meant to them in poetic terms, we managed to turn long tones into birds soaring above the beach, or fish moving in the water, or a sailboat crashing through the waves, etc

make your exercises music and they cease to be just exercises

My Teacher dose not make do long tones we harmonics .

Ooh! That's a really good advice! I'll definitly try that too^^..NICE!

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THere's SOOOOO much to music that i never knew about! That's really cool.

so Kevin, you only do harmonics, not long tones?? I did not understand your last post

Its almost like long tones but we just use harmonics insted, I have to hold out each note as long as i can, Its suppose to clear my tone , and it dose. The last time i did long tones was in band and thats when you go to one note like a B to a b an octave higher right?

Isn't long tones basically notes that are held LONG?

not necessarily sg, it is what you DO with the notes that matters.

For ex, if you play a low g to ab to g, holding each note for 4 counts at 60, it is more interesting if you drive your tone to sound like a bird swooping dramatically through the sky, or you can crescendo on the notes to make it sound like waves

use your imagination, make it anything you want to

One of my former flute teachers used to instruct me to play long tones that reflected different colors. For example, she would have me start on A and make it red, then play the A yellow, then blue, etc. Then I'd go on to B and play through the rainbow. Each note has its own color range.

At first I thought she was just stupid, but I quickly began to understand how the slightest alteration of air pressure, vibrato speed and depth, embouchure placement (etc, etc) could dramatically alter the listener's perception of the note.

you were lucky to have such a teacher Tim