I'm going to try to make it in region band this year, but I feel like I'm getting absolutely nowhere with the music! I got it about 1 or 1 1/2 months ago, and have been practicing nearly every day for at least 30 minutes. I can play them fine, but when I try to speed them up I start stumbling in almost every measure. Right now I'm playing them slower than practice speed and I need to get it up to concert speed by early december. I wouldn't be worrying if I was seeing at least a little progress, but I'm seeing none at all. I have another problem; in some parts of the song, I have to go from, for example, a low F to a high F fairly fast, and my high F sounds REALLY airy. Can I do anything to help this? Besides doing it over and over? Anyway, back to the main problem, should I just master the song at the speed I'm at now and very slowly speed it up? I can't really think of anything else, but I'm just really frustrated right now. Thanks.

You've got the right idea with the slow practice and gradual increase in speed, so stick with it. If you take it up, but start stumbling, it means you haven't really got it down yet. Try breaking it into smaller chucks too. One good way to practice tough passages is to take a measure, and learn it perfectly. Then the take the next and learn it perfectly. Then put the two together. Then work on a third, etc. etc. Taking small chunks rather than just playing through the whole piece will really let you focus on the small stuff. As for the F question, there are two possiblities that come to mind that might explain the airiness. You may either be expelling more air than you need in an attempt to get the high F to sound, or you are aiming too high with your air. If it's the first, keep your airstream focused, and just aim it upwards slightly to get the high F to sound. It should provide a much purer sound, as well as let you get the F3 more easily. If it's the later, just make sure that when you are doing the jump, you direct your airstream downward more than you have been. I hope that helps!

For your 2nd question just keep concentrating on supporting 100% and keeping a fast air stream and it should sound really clear. Flutist06 has described the air stream part of it much better than I ever could.

my band teacher is a really visual person and i have been going into a lot of high notes this year that ia m not used he told me to picture my air stream as a laser goin directlly to the mouth piece and then making a pergfect split down the middle oof the laser when it hits.. that is what it should be llike when you blow lol i hore this helps

one mistake many students make is that they try to become a better flute player by playing through pieces. If you were on the tennis team, you would spend a great deal of time practicing your server, backhand, etc, before you play an actual game.

So my question to you would be, how much time do you spend on tone, technique, scales, etc, before you open your band music?