I recently wrote a combined book review on the award-winning Blocki Flute Method Book One (3rd Edition) and the accompanying Teacher’s Manual. As the book review covers aspects of teaching applicable to all instruments, I thought it would be helpful to include it for all readers. Enjoy! (And by all means, check out the site at www.blockiflute.com!)
—Debra
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As a flute teacher who has taught beginning flutists for over thirty years, I am aware of the many challenges that face young flutists as they lay the groundwork for a lifetime of enjoyment and success as musicians—as well as the challenges the teacher faces in enabling them. I have looked through many different beginner methods—and have tried several over the years—but had finally settled with using multiple books and many personally written handouts to cover the initial hurdles that meet these eager musicians. However, I now find in the Blocki Flute Method Book One (3rd Edition) materials that will cover all the bases in one volume. And the Blocki Flute Method Book One Teacher’s Manual (3rd Edition) by Kathryn Blocki and Rebecca Hovan not only gives the teacher a review look at each page in the student method, but also incorporates within the reach of a glance all the “behind the scenes” information and understanding necessary to enable full use and implementation of these materials. Hooray!
A young flutist faces many challenges just getting started. First off is tone production. Where clarinetists have a mouthpiece to grip and direct the air, and trumpet players feel the air buzz between their lips into the mouthpiece, flutists have no such concrete parameters to lay hold of. Flutists must blow into open space and hope that their aim takes the air where it should go—and then maneuver that air stream to create octave jumps! This first step was often a very abstract process, that is until the Blocki Pneumo Pro (really an inspired invention!) solved the problem by giving the flutist immediate and accurate feedback through its spinning wheels. Fortunately for the beginning flutist, the Blocki Flute Method Book One Teacher’s Manual shows the teacher just how to implement the Pneumo Pro into the regular lesson assignments and get best use out of this ingenious tool.
A second challenge that all beginning (and some more advanced) musicians face is developing a good tactile and aural connection between their physical efforts to produce pitched tones and rhythms and the musical structure and mood of the notes on the page. Real music exists in the ear, and then secondarily in the hands, and finally on the page. Beginning methods reverse this process to some extent. The music begins as notes on the page, the student puts it into their hands (blowing and fingering the instrument), and then finally hears the music. This reversal often creates a mental disconnect between what is happening physically with the struggling student and what the written music is trying to convey, and the result is a technical but very wooden, lifeless performance. The Blocki Flute Method solves this problem taking the student back to the initial route in several ways.
In the Blocki Flute Method, The student first plays the tones, and then sees them interpreted on lines (not yet staves). They first hear the aural highs and lows and then see them written on paper. This puts the flutist in a listening mode right away, and they learn to listen not only for accuracy but also for beauty and mood. This aural awareness is an extremely important aspect of musicianship, especially in our visually oriented world!
Also, the flutist learns to develop a fundamental sense of key center in the Blocki Flute Method through playing the various Five-Note Patterns. First, the student begins by seeing these patterns written simply as mere letters with accidental symbols (with their proper spellings). Because of the minimal distractions, the student is able to listen carefully and develop a tonal sense for each tetrachord even before they have memorized the note names. Then, the flutists’ tactile sense (fingerings) of each pattern is developed (for accuracy and speed) along with the note names. Finally the connection is made with the actual musical notation, pattern recognition within musical measures is stressed, and the patterns are stacked to produce scales. This process follows the same pathway as a child learning their native language: sound, speech, sentence structure, letter and word recognition, reading, and finally grammar and writing. This connected approach lays the groundwork for the flutist to progress quite rapidly not only with technique and sight-reading but also with composing (see the composition exercises) and improvisation.
Similar steps are taken in the Blocki Flute Method to teach the basic structures of rhythm in a logical and methodical manner. And the students are given enough exercises in all these musical aspects—tone, music form and theory, rhythm—that the slowest learner can continue to repeat concepts as necessary while covering new musical territory and learning fresh pieces to show off for mom and dad! And, the Blocki Flute Method Teacher’s Manual gives even the inexperienced teacher the insights and ideas to put these concepts and exercises to best use for students of varying abilities.
There are some great “extras” along the way. I especially like the “Finicky Fingers” idea. This approach to problem solving meets the challenge of separating the child’s feeling of identity and worth from the musical frustrations that they will inevitably face. Finicky, unwilling fingers (resulting in poor technique) are not viewed as the deficit of an untalented or “bad” musician, but are likened to unruly children who must be disciplined and trained to do what is rightly expected. Not only does this teach the student to discriminately isolate and fix problems (and quickly develop and improve technique), it teaches them to approach problems in a very practical, logical and matter-of-fact mind-frame, the ability of which is extremely important to the child’s confidence and hope of continual improvement.
Additional teaching helps are also included in the back of the Blocki Flute Method Book One Teacher’s Manual. “Theory Note Card Games” complete with playing rules and cut-outs, standards for the “Blocki Ribbon Reward System”, and hints for setting up a teaching studio and collecting fees are waiting to aid and assist the flute teacher with the peripheral but all-important aspects of teaching that bring about success.
The Blocki Flute Method Book One Teacher’s Manual is a well-thought-out, complete and comprehensive manual for the teacher of any level of experience to use in teaching beginning flutists from the youngest ages and up. Buy it, soak up the concepts, and use it diligently, and your flute students will develop strong musical foundations to anchor and propel them to the greatest progress possible.
Copyright © 2011 by Debra Youngblood. All Rights Reserved.
