This is a continuation for both Book 1 and Book 6 of The Young Flute Player Series (or a great second year student book, in general). The book is laid out logically, with few items to review on each page which allows it to progress at a steady pace. The book doesn’t overwhelm you with new concepts and provides ample material to help reinforce them sufficiently. What’s also helpful is the book is spiral bound for ease of use!
It begins with a review of items from Book 1 (or 6) and then moves on to new material. A new flute buddy is introduced to help visually demonstrate and explain concepts like dynamics and tempo markings. There are also text explanations set apart in boxes to supplement the visuals. Scales and arpeggios are mostly in the one-octave range, with the addition of minor scales and exercises on scale variations using an expanded range of notes. Tone development and articulation exercises are found throughout the book, as well as some exciting musical puzzles! These were simple activities at first (word scramble, word search) and then shifted to more complex activities like sums of rhythms and putting music in the correct order which caught me off guard! It’s okay if you get stuck because the answers are available at the back of the book, along with additional mini etudes, longer musical pieces, and “Festive Music” for the holidays. There is also a glossary of scales/arpeggios and musical terms as a reference item at the end of the book and, lastly, a useful practice chart for students to show exactly what they practiced and for how long each week.
From the Author:
The second book of The Young Flute Player offers students and teachers a huge
amount of repertoire presented in the same progressive and easy-to-follow method of
the beginner book.
With over 100 pages of pieces, studies and exercises, the music covers a wide range of
composers, with everything from Bach to Scott Joplin, as well as many traditional tunes
from around the world.
In the second year of playing, it’s still really important to focus on tone development, so I
have included a number of exercises to encourage students to improve their sound and
there’s an additional section of 12 studies to further develop technique.
As in the first book, I like to relate the exercises and scales to the pieces and introduce
new notes gradually. In this book, I also introduce dynamics, as by the second year the
student has enough control of their sound to modify it without losing the quality.
There are little cartoons to help students remember the meanings of Italian words for
style and tempo, plus fun music puzzles throughout the book. As with all The Young
Flute Player books, there are free recordings and backing tracks on YouTube for
students to play along with, which can be particularly helpful when students are
preparing a performance.
I will be offering a free online workshop to teachers in March, called “Second Year
Skills”, which will be based on this book, and we will discuss in more detail the skills we
teach students in their second year of flute studies. Registration:
https://www.theyoungfluteplayer.com/workshops
Hope to see you there!
Karen North
Highlights:
Range of notes: D1 to D3
Order of notes (new): G#1, G#2, D1, C#2, Bb2, B2, C3, C#3, D3, D#1, D#2
Rhythms (new): dotted eighth, triplet
Time Signatures: 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 6/8, 2/2
Key Signatures: no flats/sharps, one flat, two flats, one sharp, two sharps
Other: Breath marks, dynamics, slur, legato, staccato, repeat sign, accent, fermata, tenuto, d.c. al fine, 1st and 2nd ending, Trills, Grace notes, D.S.al Coda
Fingering Chart w/ range C1-C4
Continues idea of one new (or reviewed) concept per unit
New character – flute person! To help demonstrate concepts
Scales and arpeggios start in one-octave range
Brief explanations of new concepts in boxes
Musical puzzles throughout book!
Tone development exercises scattered throughout
Always takes time to explain a concept then give several opportunities to work it
Addition of harmonic and melodic minor scales/arpeggios, as well as chromatic work
Exercises with articulation variations scattered throughout
Practice charts (for student) at very end of the book
Words for some songs for phrasing and breathing
Comments