What to practice when beginning?

[enfanta]

Hello!

I looked through various topics in the forums but I couldn't find any suggestions for exactly what to practice when starting.

I have some of Trevor Wye's books (but I suspect some of them are too advanced for me at this point) and some others I've checked out from the library but I think I have too much information!

I played for a couple years many, many years ago so I think I'm a middling to advanced player. If I have half an hour to practice, what should I be doing? What should I start with? Should it all be scales? Simple melodies? Etc?

Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

[Fox]

What I am doing is practicing the tone exercises in Trevor Wye's book "Practice Book for the Flute Vol 1." and the lessons in "Beginners Practice Book for the Flute Vol. 1".

[MissyHPhoenix]

When I started back, I purchased the Rubank Method books, the Intermediate & Advanced, and those got me going well. They have good scale & arpeggio studies, and the two Advanced books have Etude studies that are a lot of fun. Once you've gotten some of those under your fingers, so to speak, there are a lot of other Etudes & Studies that will be do-able and fun.

Good luck!

[Dirty_Dave]

The Trevor Wye tone book gets my vote, too. I think you need to spend 20 of those 30 minutes on your sound.

[howtopractise]

Perhaps you could think of this another way round. Instead of thinking about pieces/books to start with, try thinking about what it is you want to acheive and work backwards from there.

You might well find out that you end up with the same choice of book, however you may opt for something totally different depending on the style of music you want to play.

Also you'll have an added benefit in that you will know what you are practising is leading you towards your ultimate goal.