I've been teaching beginning flute for over 30 years. Within the first few lessons, you'll be able to assemble your instrument, make a sound on the head joint, and know where your fingers go. As time goes on you'll be able to read music and play simple songs. Any beginning flute book will get us started. In addition to your flute and book, you will also need a cleaning swab. As you progress, a a metronome may be helpful. I love working with students of all ages and experience levels and I can't wait to meet you!

Learn about rhythm, melody, harmony, and dynamics, and how they apply to the flute. Explore the range of your instrument through various scales. Build solid skills through understanding the mechanics of how your body and instrument work together.

I believe in teaching strong fundamentals so that we can have a solid foundation to build on. Good tone and an understanding of embouchure are most important, and we will develop technique. I enjoy helping students achieve their goals and develop their talents.

My flute studio is based around setting a strong foundation to achieve the student's goals. Each flute lesson is tailored to the individual students needs and adjusted as they progress. Whether you are picking up the instrument for the first time, are a student auditioning for all-county orchestra, or just want to improve your playing, I can help you achieve your ideal musical self! For beginner students, lessons will focus on tone production, breath support, reading skills, rhythm, and technical development to form a strong base for continued development. Intermediate students will continue developing basic technical skills and music theory knowledge. They will begin applying their knowledge to standard repertoire. By focusing on musical context, students will begin to learn the more advanced concepts surrounding interpretation. Advanced students will continue to refine these concepts and artistry. Lessons will focus on applying and interpreting the musicality of advanced repertoire from the common practice as well as preparing for auditions and advanced performances. All students will work on achieving their individual goals whether they are playing for pleasure or working towards auditions. I am happy to work with whatever method book the student is comfortable with but I will recommend materials based on the student's level. Some of my preferred books are the Blocki Flute Method books, the Flute 101 books, and Trevor Wye's series of books however, I am comfortable working with band books or any other material you may have. If you would like to begin playing flute and have not yet purchased one, I do have some recommendations on what to look for. Instruments to look for are carried at any reputable store. Some of these brands are Yamaha, Jupiter, Gemeinhardt, Armstrong, Pearl, Trevor James, Artley, and many others. While these are costly if purchased new, it is fairly easy to find a very good deal at a similar price if you do a little searching. Additionally, many of these brands make modified, smaller instruments for young children or people with disabilities. For very young children, starting on a fife may be something to consider. If you are unsure what to purchase, please send me a message and I will help you with the purchasing process or even recommend some instruments that are for sale online. I am an experienced music teacher and musician. I have been playing flute since 2009 and teaching for nearly as long. Lessons are catered to each individual's needs and goals. Send me a message to see if I am a good fit for you!

I am always most concerned with meeting you where you currently are as a musician and building you up from there. So whether you are an out right just starting out beginner, a budding prospect that wants to continue to grow into a knockout musician, to a more advanced individual that wants to achieve their greatest potential and kill it on your next audition, solo or even recital. Each person has their own distinctly unique reasons for learning to play an instrument or how to sing and I like to work with the individual at that base level to meet your needs. For example if your only goal is to be able to pull out your instrument and play for church on Sundays I can help you get there. Or if you are someone who just wants to be able to say I learned how to play I can also help you. No matter what your individual goals and purposes are I can help you make it happen!

A Masterful Flute Player is already inside of you; get in touch with yourself and your creative spirit ! With over 30 years of experience and 12,000+ fun-filled flute lessons taught, don’t miss the wonderful opportunity to achieve your dreams! My students rehearse with me for an average of 8 years, and flute beginners quickly achieve musical and technical artistry ! Over the years of my 3-decade career in Classical Music, I have crafted a teaching style that minimizes practice time, maximizes progress, and allows my students, ages 7 through adult, to have fun while practicing. Here is what I do in the first lesson: - Assess the student’s level for interest and progress - Understand the student’s goals - Design a custom path of study for lasting achievement By getting in touch with yourself and your Creative Spirit, the sky will be your limit. We will develop your technical style in such a way that your technique becomes effortless, uniquely yours, and then your musicality will have the tools to blossom. There are three (3) distinct levels of self-mastery to Flute Technique and several areas of specific skills within each level. I explore each level separately and then combine them into one truly integrated technique. My online teaching methods and techniques have reached students in over 30 states in the U.S. as well as Canada, England, Australia, Belgium, Italy, France, Spain, South Korea, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Germany and South Africa. “The sculpture is already inside the rock; all you have to do is remove the excess stone”. – Michelangelo Success Stories: -Many students have won $5,000/year in scholarship money for 4-year colleges (even while majoring in fields such as medicine, engineering, architecture, and the sciences). -A recent student (taught between the ages of 7 – 17) submitted an audition recording to Brandeis University and was awarded the prestigious Leonard Bernstein Fellowship amounting in $20,000/year for 4 years. -A former high school student went on to music college to major in music therapy with hospice patients. She loved the field so much that she is going back to graduate school for a degree in Social Work. -Several students have achieved a perfect score in the level-6 category of the NYSSMA competition and went on to perform in the ALL-STATE WIND ENSEMBLE and ORCHESTRA (who select the top youth performers in the state).

Tired of being frustrated by the pace of self-teaching or is your child bored with the progress in school band class? Are you an adult who never played an instrument but are really interested in learning a wind instrument? Not able to express yourself creatively or don't really understand why your favorite songs or styles of music work? Do you want a more hands-on way of teaching with personalized plans just for you? Learn how to play the Flute with Michael! Michael teaches a variety of instruments and subjects in the woodwind family: - Saxophone - Clarinet - Flute - Improvisation - Music Theory - Jazz Studies Michael creates versatile and fun lesson plans that incorporate learning your favorite music while teaching theory, improvisation, note reading, songwriting, or any other interests! He has an easy-to-follow, fun, but yet structured and thorough plan designed for results to help the student reach their goals, rather than imposing an one-size-fits-all plan just from lesson books! Michael teaches anyone from kids to adults and seniors and encourages all students to be creative while really understanding the music they play. Michael incorporates classical and traditional music into lesson programs alongside modern styles to create diverse and interesting repertoire!

I am a professional flutist based in California, and teaching flute to kids is my passion. I am constantly refining my teaching skills by regularly attending teacher training courses, masterclasses with renowned flute pedagogues, and performers, as well as staying updated on all the new teaching techniques. Some recent courses that I have attended to improve my teaching have been the "Flute Roots" pedagogy course with renowned flute educator Dr. Katherine Emeneth, as well as the "Music minus Pain" course for teachers with Body-mapping expert and flute teacher Dr. Lea Pearson. When you enroll your child in lessons with me, I can guarantee that making sure that your child not only makes progress in their playing, but also enjoys the process will be my top priority. Not only do I strive to provide the best lesson experience possible, but I will go above and beyond to help your child learn, by providing detailed lesson notes and assignments after every lesson, recording videos of their repertoire/exercises for them to listen to throughout the week, as well as letting the student send me little audio recordings of their playing mid-week, and giving some feedback, so that they can feel supported and completely on track in between their weekly lessons. In my flute lessons I aim for helping the student to achieve good technique, and learn to play with a beautiful tone, and to make steady progress in learning the flute, but I also aim for making sure that the student is enjoying their lesson experience: I create a positive, and encouraging atmosphere in lessons, consider the student's learning style, as well as their musical interests. Though most of the repertoire studied in lessons is selected by me, to best fit the student's level, I always give the student several options of musical pieces to choose from, as well as encourage them to bring music which they are interested in playing. I want my students to learn from me all the necessary skills for being a good musician, but to also develop a love of music, and to enjoy the process. A little bit about my own experience as a flutist: I have played flute since the age of 10, and went on to study Flute performance in college: I attended the "Saint-Petersburg Music College named after N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov" in Russia. It is one of the best music colleges in the country. I have been lucky enough to have amazing teachers, while studying there: Natalya Zaznobina--an "Honorary worker in the arts of the Russian Federation", Dr. Alexander Kiskachi--a wonderful flute professor, and expert in child music education, and Olesya Tertychnaya--the first flute of the Saint Petersburg Philarmonic Orchestra. They have taught me a great deal about not only being a great performer, but also on being a good teacher, and I channel the knowledge I gained there into my lessons. During my studies in Russia, I have also extensively attended masterclasses with such "stars" of the flute-world as Emanuel Pahud, James Galway, Denis Bouriakov. I have also performed with various orchestras, chamber ensembles and as a soloist. I have been performing with "Apollo Arts", a California based non-profit organization for years, and even performed as Principal Chair Flute with my college orchestra in a performance at the world-famous Mariinsky Theater. I had to leave and go back to the US, due to family circumstances shortly before graduating, so I have transferred to the Sacramento State University music department, and will be completing my BM in Flute performance under the guidance of Dr. Katherine Apple. I believe in slow but steady progress, guided by the system and curriculum which I create individually for each of my students. All of the lessons which I teach are not spontaneous, but carefully crafted and planned out by me, according to what the student most needs to work on at the moment, and structured around what will be most beneficial for the student. I build my lessons on a ladder system: ensuring that the first level is completely understood and absorbed by the student, before moving on to the next level of difficulty, constantly deepening and widening the knowledge and skills of the previous levels, as we move up. Besides learning the basic technical and musical skills needed for playing their instrument, I make sure to teach my students about music theory, music history, music form and structure, spending some time in each lesson to offer them some knowledge in these areas. I believe that positive reinforcement should be at the core of all musical education, and that is something that I practice daily in my teaching career. The materials used will largely depend on the student, but, generally, with beginners I use either Blocki Flute Method Book 1, Flute 101, or A tune a day for flute book 1 (the book used will depend on the student, and how they learn--after a few lessons I will decide which one will work best for them). Often I will use a combination of 2 books. There will also be supplementary material, which I will send out prior to the lesson, which the student can then print out or have on a computer screen. For intermediate students I use Flute 102, A tune a day for flute Book 2 (or a combination of both) + supplementary materials, such as etudes and excerpts from standard flute repertoire. For advanced students, we will probably not use any method book, but we will use a combination of flute repertoire, etudes, and studies, which will be selected by me. ***I encourage students to bring music to lessons that they have a personal interest in working on--whether it be classical, or contemporary music, music from movies , etc. I am always happy to support the students' musical interests. However, this will be supplementary material, and will not replace the usual work with a method book and repertoire selected by me.