Most people that start learning an instrument for the first time are children, so most beginner music books are aimed at children. If you’re an adult beginner, you might find learning from a book designed for kids a bit grating. I had a look at the books you can use as an adult beginner that are not directed towards a younger audience. I’ll list some here and talk about what’s good about them.
One of the best books for adult beginners who want to progress quickly is Trevor Wye’s “A Beginner’s Book for the Flute Part 1”. “A Tune a Day” by Ned Bennett is also a good option, and both are available with a backing CD or download.
There is not a single book that is suitable for every beginner flautist – a lot of it is down to personal preference. Not all beginners will have the same needs – some may already know how to read music, for example, or play another instrument. Some may have no musical experience at all. It’s important to make sure you pitch the book you want to start with at the right level – too easy and you’ll get bored, too difficult and you’ll get discouraged.
In my opinion, choosing the right book is one of the more important things about learning an instrument. It can often be the case that adults get put off by beginner books, because they’re aimed at children and they feel like they’re being treated as children by whoever is teaching them. In some cases, a book aimed at children can work well for adults, though. It just depends on what you prefer. This post will mostly focus on books that are designed with an older audience in mind.
Some of the popular beginner flute books for adults are:
- Trevor Wye – Beginner’s Book for the Flute Part 1
- Trevor Wye – The Adult Flute Student
- Ned Bennett – A Tune a Day for Flute
- Heather Hammond – Play Flute! A Course for Adult Beginners
Two of these are designed specifically for adults, and two are designed as general beginner books, but without being aimed towards children. I’ll talk about each of them and how they all compare.
Trevor Wye – Beginner’s Book for the Flute Part 1
This is a book that most flautists will be aware of and many will play either this or a later book in the series. It goes from the very basics of fingering and learning to read music, so is designed for complete beginners. Progress through the book is pretty quick – by the end, the player will be able to read and play well over an octave in range, and pieces include dynamics and basic articulation. As it suggests in the title, there are two parts, so if you get on with the book you can carry on with the series after finishing the first part.
The book has duets and exercises as well as pieces, which give it a bit of variety. From about 2/3 of the way through, though, pretty much all of the pieces are duets, so it gets a bit more difficult if you’re learning on your own at home. The exercises are still single line, but it does start to become more focused on playing with another person. This can be really useful to get timing right in pieces, but can be frustrating if you don’t have another person to play along with, although there are backing tracks available.
Trevor Wye – The Adult Flute Student
Unlike the previous Trevor Wye book, this one is designed specifically for adults. It assumes that understanding will be a bit easier than for young children and can move on a bit faster. The book is split into three sections, each one getting progressively more difficult. The sections are called starters, main courses and desserts. The level is quite well pitched for adult beginners.
This book is not really designed for an absolute beginner in some ways. It doesn’t have a fingering chart included, so that’s something that you’d need to buy alongside it if you hadn’t yet learnt the fingering. In that way, it isn’t completely self-contained, like the Beginner’s Book for the Flute, but is definitely more focused towards adults, so some might prefer to learn from this.
Ned Bennett – A Tune a Day for Flute
A Tune a Day is definitely one of the most widely used beginner flute books. Lots of children use it to learn, but it is also the book of choice for a lot of adults. Unlike the Trevor Wye books, this series exists for most instruments, and is adapted to fit each one. This can be really good if you’re learning with someone else who’s playing a different instrument to you, as you can still learn together, if that’s what you want.
Similarly to the Beginner’s Books for the Flute, this also has a second book that’s part of the same series and can be bought with backing CDs or downloads. It’s a very general book, with no specific audience, designed to be suitable for anyone and doesn’t assume any knowledge of how to play the flute beforehand. The progression through the book seems to be the appropriate pace for a lot of people and it’s pretty self-contained. It has some duets and a lot of fun pieces to play.
Heather Hammond – Play Flute! A Course for Adult Beginners
This book is quite an interesting take on learning the flute as a beginner. There is a book for the teacher and a book for the pupil. The teacher’s book has some accompaniments so that the adult can learn to play along with someone else from the start. This can be great for people who are learning with the intention of joining a band later.
The book teaches the player fingering and how to read music, so is again very self-contained. It comes with audio CDs with the backing parts, but it’s definitely more for use with a teacher than for someone who’s trying to learn on their own. It’s designed specifically with adults in mind so progress can be quite rapid, if this suits the player.
Summary
To sum up this post, there are a lot of different books you can use as an adult beginner on the flute. The most important thing is to choose one that you enjoy playing and is at the right level for you. The ones above are my suggestions and some of the most popular ones, but there are loads more around if you find that you don’t get on well with any of these. Some adults might also prefer to work with children’s beginner books, if they suit their playing style better.