i'm very curious because I'm from Europe and I noticed that you (American flutist) are on very different levels at the same age. Where do most of you learn flute? Don't you have elementary music schools? You learn an instrument in high school? Who prepares you to go to college, a private teacher? That must be very expensive...
Because we have a totally different system...
how do you learn?
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Reply to learning question.
In Canada they teach ukulele in the schools. The same is true in Hawaii. 
(The ukulele is a great instrument. Four strings and easy to learn to play in terms of chord based playing. No requirement for massive lung capacity, and lots of unexplored territory relative to slack key ukulele .)
The tin whistle, my favorite flute, is not taught, for the most part.
Its a shame. Like the ukulele, the tin whistle is easy to learn, and something I believe most people could learn to play, unlike more complicated instruments. It's also very inexpensive, so there are no economic limitations relative to being able to afford it, which is another big obstacle to learning to play an instrument in the United States. (People seem to think the "penny whistle" went out with Dickens.)
(I started two web sites on the ukulele and the tin whistle, to help those interested in learning to play an instrument but finding it hard to get mom and dad to pay for it and the lessons to find resources and links to a related community. I think you can learn to play the ukulele and the tin whistle to some level on your own, and neither instrument is prohibitively expensive at the introductory level....I just picked up a nice sounding, oval, soprano ukulele on E-bay for around $20.00, then I had to set it up, or I would have spent more to make it playable.)
In most of the mainland U.S., learning basic music theory is a matter of private lessons outside of school or after school if a private company offers to provide them at the school for an additional fee after regular school hours. (There was a big scandal regarding such a company years ago.)
Three out of five of my siblings took private music lessons as children before giving up. Two have acquired the instrument on which they began to learn (piano and guitar), but I can not comment on whether they have mastered it. My impression is that they have not. There are "bands" that march for high school (American) football games and play for basketball games. These bands practice before, during, or after the regular school day. Getting into college marching bands is a big deal, particularly colleges like Ohio State University. (I knew someone who tried.)
Piano and guitar are probably the most common instruments that people try to learn as a first instrument in the U.S. Both require private instruction. My father comments on his German grandfather in northern Indiana (which I've lately found to be a flute-making center) and his ability to play the violin, while his mother played the piano at their family Christmas gatherings, as a sort of little band. (She'd apparently also played the organ in a local theater on weekends during the silent film era.)
The introduction of television shifted attention away from musical instruments and related demands for practice in the mid-20th century, and cable and satellite seem to be seeking to expand the trend.
I think the internet is helping somewhat to reverse the music apathy trend, as sheet music becomes readily available for free downloads and on-line communities arise that make it possible to restore some of what was lost from the old Irish, English, and European traditions of music making as a family, community, or (pub based) group. Americans have adopted a habit of suburban isolation rather than group music making. (The tales of garage bands are, in my experience, more urban legend than reality, with some well known exceptions.) Its disturbing.
Some of us are inspired by the Irish tradition of music being passed down informally by informed players. The internet becomes our link to informed players. This may be the most practical way for an adult to learn. I got to the point of being able to play notes in a sequence on the tin whsitle that way.
In my experience, although I am far from mastering any musical instrument, I am farther than I had previously thought possible largely by means of practice that helps me to focus and sight read better. I have a long way to go with regard to timing, but in the few piano lessons I took years ago (given my adult standing at the time right out of college) the instructor simply told me that if my timing ever needed to be better for the purposes at hand, I'd be so informed by someone. (I keep being so informed...
)
Musical education is not as much a part of American culture as it probably should be. Television, video games, and related passivity rule. In the case of some of my nephews, they'd rather go to the shooting range than learn to play an instrument. It's a lot easier to pull a trigger than to play a flute. What a shame...
(The ukulele is a great instrument. Four strings and easy to learn to play in terms of chord based playing. No requirement for massive lung capacity, and lots of unexplored territory relative to slack key ukulele .) The tin whistle, my favorite flute, is not taught, for the most part.
Its a shame. Like the ukulele, the tin whistle is easy to learn, and something I believe most people could learn to play, unlike more complicated instruments. It's also very inexpensive, so there are no economic limitations relative to being able to afford it, which is another big obstacle to learning to play an instrument in the United States. (People seem to think the "penny whistle" went out with Dickens.)(I started two web sites on the ukulele and the tin whistle, to help those interested in learning to play an instrument but finding it hard to get mom and dad to pay for it and the lessons to find resources and links to a related community. I think you can learn to play the ukulele and the tin whistle to some level on your own, and neither instrument is prohibitively expensive at the introductory level....I just picked up a nice sounding, oval, soprano ukulele on E-bay for around $20.00, then I had to set it up, or I would have spent more to make it playable.)
In most of the mainland U.S., learning basic music theory is a matter of private lessons outside of school or after school if a private company offers to provide them at the school for an additional fee after regular school hours. (There was a big scandal regarding such a company years ago.)
Three out of five of my siblings took private music lessons as children before giving up. Two have acquired the instrument on which they began to learn (piano and guitar), but I can not comment on whether they have mastered it. My impression is that they have not. There are "bands" that march for high school (American) football games and play for basketball games. These bands practice before, during, or after the regular school day. Getting into college marching bands is a big deal, particularly colleges like Ohio State University. (I knew someone who tried.)
Piano and guitar are probably the most common instruments that people try to learn as a first instrument in the U.S. Both require private instruction. My father comments on his German grandfather in northern Indiana (which I've lately found to be a flute-making center) and his ability to play the violin, while his mother played the piano at their family Christmas gatherings, as a sort of little band. (She'd apparently also played the organ in a local theater on weekends during the silent film era.)
The introduction of television shifted attention away from musical instruments and related demands for practice in the mid-20th century, and cable and satellite seem to be seeking to expand the trend.
I think the internet is helping somewhat to reverse the music apathy trend, as sheet music becomes readily available for free downloads and on-line communities arise that make it possible to restore some of what was lost from the old Irish, English, and European traditions of music making as a family, community, or (pub based) group. Americans have adopted a habit of suburban isolation rather than group music making. (The tales of garage bands are, in my experience, more urban legend than reality, with some well known exceptions.) Its disturbing.
Some of us are inspired by the Irish tradition of music being passed down informally by informed players. The internet becomes our link to informed players. This may be the most practical way for an adult to learn. I got to the point of being able to play notes in a sequence on the tin whsitle that way.
In my experience, although I am far from mastering any musical instrument, I am farther than I had previously thought possible largely by means of practice that helps me to focus and sight read better. I have a long way to go with regard to timing, but in the few piano lessons I took years ago (given my adult standing at the time right out of college) the instructor simply told me that if my timing ever needed to be better for the purposes at hand, I'd be so informed by someone. (I keep being so informed...
)Musical education is not as much a part of American culture as it probably should be. Television, video games, and related passivity rule. In the case of some of my nephews, they'd rather go to the shooting range than learn to play an instrument. It's a lot easier to pull a trigger than to play a flute. What a shame...
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flutepicc06
- Posts: 1353
- Joined: Mon May 29, 2006 11:34 pm
Re: how do you learn?
Most people who learn an instrument will start to learn it in the 5th or 6th grades (approximately age 10 or 11) through their school programs. Some parents do start their children much earlier (you can find records of children as young as 4 or 5 playing the flute), but these are relatively unusual cases. Most players will rely on their band directors to learn the flute, but serious students pay a private instructor for lessons, and IMO, tend to progress much further. Of course there are always the people who wanted to play an instrument, but didn't start during middle school, and they may join a band during high school or beyond. For the most part, a private teacher's guidance, along with plenty of practice prepares us for college, though some will enter a university without ever having a private lesson, and will rely entirely on what their band director taught them. The stories (and ability levels) vary widely here, as I'm sure they do where you live.brina wrote:i'm very curious because I'm from Europe and I noticed that you (American flutist) are on very different levels at the same age. Where do most of you learn flute? Don't you have elementary music schools? You learn an instrument in high school? Who prepares you to go to college, a private teacher? That must be very expensive...
Because we have a totally different system...
5th and 6th grade band...
There are a lot of private and parochial schools in the U.S. that have no elementary school level "band" as part of the regular curriculum. That's where those private companies come in that I referenced with lessons after regular school hours. Public schools tend to drop band programs where budgetary restraint is necessary. There was a high school band at my high school, but one had to be able to play an instrument to join it. This makes private lessons central to learning music for many in the U.S.
ok. i understand now. so u have this kind of schools there too. Ours get money from the country and they are really cheap. This is the reason why here most of the people at the same age are on the same level (it depends how much u practice and how much talent u have). We start playing flute at the age 9 or 10. And when u go to high school (15 years old) u can choose a musical high school and there u basicly prepare for college. Very different. We also don't have high school bands, but town's bands.
On which level do you usually go to college?
On which level do you usually go to college?
Music and schools
Public education is offered for free to everyone in the United States from kindergarten through graduation from high school (grade 12). The quality of the school infrastructure and the education can vary significantly even within individual counties (small regions of a state, like Indiana).
The Catholic Church maintains a large network of parochial schools that many Catholics choose to attend. They don't tend to emphasize musical education in elementary school as the public schools do, due to funding constraints caused by the need to keep tuition down. (Catholics don't have to attend them, but often do.) Private (non-church funded) schools for lower level grades are available in some places, but they tend to be much more rare.
There are so-called "magnet schools" that strive to achieve some element of economic and racial integration by drawing students from a large area. Their curriculums can be arts and music oriented, but they are also rare.
For the most part, people attend high school, reach their "senior year" in high school (grade 12), when they are 17 or 18, then move on to either college or a technical school. (There's no official acceptance for "pathing" relative to which college you attend or the related curriculum, though students are generally assigned an "advisor" in high school, who is a formal member of the school staff.) Of course, if your SAT scores - somewhat like the German "Abiteur" - are low in math, you probably won't be accepted into MIT. Likewise, low verbal scores might keep you out of Harvard.)
Entry into musical curriculums, particularly at higher levels, can require auditions, so I suspect that by the time the truly talented graduate from masters classes in music, they're all relatively advanced musicians. We don't frequently have "town bands" in the U.S. in my experience, with some exceptions. High school bands tend to become associated with communities from which they are derived. We do have local "symphonies", and in the town where I live there is a group that calls itself "The Band". There are also a lot of church related musical performances, which can employ organ, piano, harpsichord, and sometimes flute, trumpet, or entire musical groups.
The Catholic Church maintains a large network of parochial schools that many Catholics choose to attend. They don't tend to emphasize musical education in elementary school as the public schools do, due to funding constraints caused by the need to keep tuition down. (Catholics don't have to attend them, but often do.) Private (non-church funded) schools for lower level grades are available in some places, but they tend to be much more rare.
There are so-called "magnet schools" that strive to achieve some element of economic and racial integration by drawing students from a large area. Their curriculums can be arts and music oriented, but they are also rare.
For the most part, people attend high school, reach their "senior year" in high school (grade 12), when they are 17 or 18, then move on to either college or a technical school. (There's no official acceptance for "pathing" relative to which college you attend or the related curriculum, though students are generally assigned an "advisor" in high school, who is a formal member of the school staff.) Of course, if your SAT scores - somewhat like the German "Abiteur" - are low in math, you probably won't be accepted into MIT. Likewise, low verbal scores might keep you out of Harvard.)
Entry into musical curriculums, particularly at higher levels, can require auditions, so I suspect that by the time the truly talented graduate from masters classes in music, they're all relatively advanced musicians. We don't frequently have "town bands" in the U.S. in my experience, with some exceptions. High school bands tend to become associated with communities from which they are derived. We do have local "symphonies", and in the town where I live there is a group that calls itself "The Band". There are also a lot of church related musical performances, which can employ organ, piano, harpsichord, and sometimes flute, trumpet, or entire musical groups.
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fluteguy18
- Posts: 2311
- Joined: Sun Jul 16, 2006 3:11 pm
Also, in addition to the info given here, there are dozens of instruments that are rare enough that the majority of schools don't even bother trying to teach them.
Harp, is one of them. Most harpists in the US are privately taught by the harpists that play with the local orchestras. Very seldomly do you find a band program that supports a harp program. So, if someone wants to pursue the harp, then they really have to look hard to find someone to teach them. But, once a teacher is found, and the individual has found that secluded little world, then it isn't difficult to get your hands on an instrument or music [although both will cost a much prettier penny than it would take to get a flute].
This generally applies to other instruments like the hammered dulcimer, the mandolin, and many 'folk' instruments that occasionally find their way into the orchestral scene.
Harp, is one of them. Most harpists in the US are privately taught by the harpists that play with the local orchestras. Very seldomly do you find a band program that supports a harp program. So, if someone wants to pursue the harp, then they really have to look hard to find someone to teach them. But, once a teacher is found, and the individual has found that secluded little world, then it isn't difficult to get your hands on an instrument or music [although both will cost a much prettier penny than it would take to get a flute].
This generally applies to other instruments like the hammered dulcimer, the mandolin, and many 'folk' instruments that occasionally find their way into the orchestral scene.