Beginner Tips for Playing a Flute

Heidi Scott is a highly respected Illinois attorney and land title business owner whose industry experience spans more than two decades. Managing her private practice specializing in real estate and tax, she owns Schuyler Brown Land Title that handles real estate deeds in Illinois. Outside of her professional duties, Heidi Scott enjoys playing the flute.

The flute is a beautiful and versatile wind instrument that consists of a tube and a series of keys or fingerholes that produces a high pitched sound when blown across a hole. For beginners playing the flute can be challenging but with the right strategies, it can be accomplished.

One key tip when playing the flute is to start with the head joint. The flute is divided into three parts, but the head joint is where the sound is produced, making it a vital starting point. When a flute is fully assembled, many learners struggle to hold and balance it appropriately which interferes with the sound quality. However, using the head joint alone trains students to first learn how to produce a consistent sound before proceeding to the fully assembled flute.

Another key to successfully playing the flute is learning the proper posture and positioning. Young children have challenges because of their small sized hands which makes it more important for them to learn the correct position. The right posture is to stand up straight or sit upright with eyes looking straight ahead and the chain raised. This relaxes the body enabling a player to produce a longer, clearer and consistent sound.

The Competitions of the National Flute Association

A graduate of the Southern Illinois University School of Law with a CPA designation, Heidi Scott operates her own private law offices and land title company in Mt. Sterling, Illinois. A skilled amateur flute player who taught students how to play the instrument in the late 1990s, Heidi Scott ranked in the annual competitions of the National Flute Association (NFA) as a young woman.

The NFA is dedicated to inspiring flutists and provides resources to anyone who is interested in flute music. Each year, the NFA holds 20 different competitions to reward outstanding accomplishments in a range of areas and fields.

Sixteen of these competitions involve musical performance while four are dedicated to non-performance matters. NFA performance competitions include solo events, such as Baroque Flute Artist and Junior Soloist, as well as flute choir events at a variety of age and skill levels. The NFA’s non-performance competitions consist of Flute Choir Call for Scores, Newly Published Music, Graduate Research, and the CREATE (Creating Resources through Engagement, Artistry, Teamwork, and Entrepreneurship) Project.

Some Interesting Facts About the Flute

Attorney Heidi Scott prepares real estate deeds and other related documents through the Schuyler Brown Land Title, a firm she operates in Mt. Sterling, Illinois. She also provides estate planning and tax law services through her private law firm in Illinois. Outside of work, Heidi Scott plays the piano and the flute. She has appeared in numerous orchestral appointments as a flutist since she was a teenager.

The flute is one of the oldest musical instruments invented. The earliest flute was found in Swabian Juri (present-day Germany) believed by scholars to be 35,000 years old. Here are other interesting facts about the flute:

1. Although flutes belong to the family of woodwind instruments, they are made from different types of materials, such as bone, glass, plastic, brass, resin, nickel silver, nickel, silver, and gold. However, most flutes today are made from silver. Depending on the material used, each flute creates a unique sound.

2. There are five different types of flute: piccolo, alto, tenor, bass, and contrabass. The piccolo creates the highest pitch, while the contrabass creates the lowest pitch. The tenor flute, which is considered the concert flute, is pitched at the key of C (the universal key) and has a range of up to three octaves.

3. The modern design of the flute is attributed to Theobald Boehm. Between 1831 and 1847, Boehm improved the design of the flute by changing the sizes and positions of the holes, and by creating a mechanism to allow the holes to be covered and uncovered. He also created a fingering system which was adopted by flutists since the 19th century.