Beginners with a new skill: let yourself be bad at it before getting sort of good at it
Beginners: you have to let yourself be bad at something before you get sort of good at it.
I cannot stress enough that learning a new skill takes time, and you need to be comfortable with being bad at it for a good while before you get sort of good, and that the journey of bad to sort of okay varies from person to person - and that is okay and very normal.
From what I have observed in my experience with life as well as in my work, the beginning stages of a skill are the most difficult. It’s the biggest hurdle to get over because you’re going from not having anything to do with the skill, to suddenly getting your feet wet.
Take knitting for example - the first few things to learn are how to hold your needles, how to hold and maneuver the yarn in your hand, and the movement of making a stitch - and the stitches will be messy and it can be disappointing. But we have to keep going, because it will get better.
You’re starting from not knowing the skill, then having all of this information thrown at you and trying to do it - of course it’s gonna be a bit of a hurdle. But it gets better.
Pictured: my very first serious knitting project from 15 years ago - the scarf from the Fourth Doctor on Doctor Who. It took me a very long time and is a very clear timeline of my practice and progression in knitting.
Now when it comes to a musical instrument like flute, it’s the same. You go from nothing to suddenly having all of this information thrown at you and you need to have it all work together to do the thing, but it’s not going to be pretty at first.
There’s where to stick the headjoint on your face, the act of blowing air into the instrument, how to get the sound out of the instrument, how to set your lips to get the air to get the sound out of the instrument, how to separate the sound of the notes, the finger placement on the keys or holes, how to hold the instrument, the fingerings of actual notes if you go forth and try to learn notes, the notes on the staff and learning to associate them with the fingerings and the sound of them.
That’s a lot at the beginning. That’s why we start on the headjoint only, and why myself and other instrument teachers will break down this information into manageable steps and spend a long time before moving on to add the next.
So just because you might want to learn like 5 notes all at once, and you’re still on the headjoint only practice, trust that your teacher has planned it so you’re not absolutely discouraged later on. We know what it’s like to be discouraged, and we know the ins and outs of the instrument we teach that we know what will be hard to someone who’s never done it before.
This is why I truly believe being a beginner at something is the hardest stage of learning something, but it can also be so much fun.
So here are some common problems that we all go through as beginners, to reassure you to not worry about it, it will get better. As any skill it takes time, consistency, and mindfulness.
Feeling like you don’t have enough air
This could be described as breathlessness as well. We’re first learning how to use and focus the air to get sound out of our instrument. It’s a different feeling than just breathing, or blowing out a candle.
It’s different for other instruments too - I hear from reed players that the flute is really hard for breathing, and on the flipside - when I first started learning clarinet, the breathing was the absolute worst thing for me.
Not making the sound I want, or any sound
Good tone is a thing we practice and strive for even as professionals. It’s not going to sound super refined when you first start on the instrument. You might not even get any sound for a while at first.
I started flute in September when I was in grade 7. We got to try every instrument’s mouthpiece before we picked one. I chose the flute partly because it was the only one I could not make a sound on. I was a challenge seeker even back then at the tender age of twelve.
I did not find a sound other than wind and the echo inside the instrument until late May of that school year.
And then looking back on it, what I did was something I now recommend against because it creates tension in your playing and restricts your ability to adjust the sound. Many years later in undergrad, my flute teacher had her whole studio spitting grains of rice out in the woods out of the back of the portable classrooms of the music department to practice embouchure, tonguing and air flow.
Not remembering which keys to place your fingers on the instrument
Not super intuitive. We only have 10 fingers, 9 of them function to play keys on the flute, and there’s more keys than fingers. The first one doesn’t cover a hole, skip one and the rest do on the left, and on the right place your pinky, and then the rest are one after the other. But this can still throw us because there are more keys than functional fingers.
*I say functional because the right hand thumb doesn’t press a key, but it still functions as a balance point in holding the flute.
Not remembering note fingerings
This takes time and practice, and is nothing to worry about. Some super duper high notes I still have to look up when I get music that utilizes anything above super high D, and then some that we use often enough I have to keep a sticky note reminder whether or not they get the pinky finger or if they get a gizmo key (often because I’ve gotten used to the wrong fingerings and gotten away with it without getting corrected until way later.)
Not being able to recall notes vs fingerings vs reading the staff
Again, this is normal. We’re combining multiple sub-skills for this one: knowing the note on the page, associating it with the fingering, and then making the sound. EESH. Then we have to think about rhythm if we’re actually playing something other than long tones? It can be intimidating and a lot. I get it (we all do.)
Learning any instrument fresh is learning a new skill. The hardest part is the beginning because we have to build our foundation from scratch. Allow yourself to be messy, have fun, and go with it. That’s the only way we’ll get any better.
As always, keep going, you’re doing great!
If you’re looking for a flute teacher, wanting to try music lessons, or looking to add more tools and mindfulness to your practice I have space available in my online studio. I have a lot of options to choose from, so if you’d like to work with me, but would like to chat about your interests and goals, let me know by clicking here and we can see what’s a right fit for you.