One Month of Flute: Progress So Far

After playing and practicing an hour a day for one month, I decided now would be a good time to give some initial thoughts and suggestions for anybody else considering taking up the instrument. First of all, I need to address the importance of posture.After playing for an hour a day for just the first two days, I got a really bad pain in my left shoulder, back, and side of my neck. I did not immediately connect the pain with my flute playing but eventually realized how holding up the flute used muscles I was not engaging regularly.The pain was from the expansion of muscles that pressed on a nerve. I experimented with some sitting posture with my flute and found that there is a huge difference if I use correct posture, more specifically putting my legs towards the right instead of straight in front of me. Although the flute is not really heavy, holding it up for long periods of time may cause some pain. I thought this was important enough to share in case anybody decided to practice 4 hours a day when just starting out. Additionally, it really is best to ease into it and integrate it into your daily routine rather than sacrifice a large chunk of your day at once.

The other major takeaway I have so far is that I found a couple of books that help with organizing your own lesson plan and practice routines. First off is "Flute For Dummies" which is great for learning the very basics and beginning practice. I am now moving on towards the Trevor Wye practice books, which came highly recommended by several youtube flute channels and provides a clear progression of skill building.

I hope my experience is helpful for anyone out there wanting to learn the flute. I would appreciate any questions to help inspire more content from me! 

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