Summer Flute Fun

Doesn’t this photo feel so carefree and fun? Summer is my favorite time of year, no matter how hot it gets. To me, summer is associated with less stress, vacations and fun times.

After all their hard work with festivals recently, I wanted to provide something fun for my flute students to practice over the summer. I compiled some summer fun flute songs including simple tunes such as Hot Cross Buns and Old MacDonald to My Country ‘Tis of Thee and a bunch in between.

I’m challenging my beginning to intermediate students to learn, transpose, and memorize as many as they can during the summer semester. Learning to transpose is a good ear training exercise. It helps you learn what intervals sound like and after hearing them in your head, learning what you need to do on the flute to make those intervals work. For example, are the notes stepping up or down a scale or are they skipping like an arpeggio? This skill can improve your memorization skills.

I had a student who was working on memorizing a song last year. After I pointed out to her that one section was just an arpeggio, she was able to play it from memory much easier.

Memorizing short little tunes can also help your brain understand the process which you can later apply to harder songs. Like many things in life, the more you do something, the easier it becomes. Print off the music and challenge yourself to have some flute fun by learning, transposing, and memorizing as many as you can.

Sending happy summertime wishes to you and have some fun!