Hi, I'm Todd, the music coach, and welcome to the instrument buying and setup guide for the flute. Now, if you're interested in playing the flute, there are many different ways you can go in terms of buying or renting and different types of flutes that you can get into playing. A question I get asked a lot by my students is should I buy or rent first? And this is an excellent question. If you're not sure about how committed you are to playing the flute, if you're new to it, and you just want to try it out, definitely go ahead and try and find something that you can rent. Almost every major music store that sells instruments will have some sort of a rental program, and usually rentals run in about the $30 per month range.

You get a price discount as you rent for longer periods of time. But I definitely recommend renting something before you buy it when you feel ready to purchase it. flute, there's a few things to consider. There are three main price points with almost all instruments. There are student level instruments which are on the bottom, intermediate level instruments above that and then professional level instruments above that student level instruments for the flute, start in the $400 range and go up to about $600. And within that range, there are different quality you know, you'll you'll find a variance in there.

And with any instrument purchase, I definitely recommend, if at all possible, don't buy right at the bottom. Because any cost cutting that's been done by the company that's making it you'll notice that the most right at the bottom and some things that can happen when a student horn is very inexpensive. Sometimes the metal is really soft, it's not as durable. And also the sound quality will usually not be great. When you get into the intermediate level, things like durability get a little bit better. The sound quality will get a bit better.

And the intermediate price point for flutes is going to start in the five to $600 range and go up towards 1000. And then professional level flutes are going to start in the eight $900 range and go up into the many thousands. One of the main features on a flute that's different on a professional one than a student is, this is a student flute and the tone holes are completely covered. So my finger isn't actually doing any of the covering of the hole, and on professional level flutes on many of them. A lot of the tone holes are open, more like on a clarinet so your finger is actually doing some of the work of covering hole. This makes it sound a little warmer and more woody sounding than a student flute.

But definitely when you're starting out, that's not something you also want to be dealing with. So student flutes are always made without the open tone horse. Some things to think about when you're playing a flute are that the keys and The rods themselves are very delicate. The flute is a very light instrument, which means that it's very susceptible to being bent and damaged. So you want to be very careful when you're setting it down. I definitely recommend if you're going to set it on a flat surface, set it along the rods like this, because there's a key that sticks out here that you don't want to set it on that and bend it.

Any wind instrument is going to be really relying upon all of the keys closing properly to allow the air to pass all the way through. So as soon as things get dented or bent or they aren't closing properly, you're going to have a harder time playing. Now someone in your family may already have a flute and have said to you here you can take my my old flute and just play it for free. And this can be a really great thing. One thing I recommend with that is definitely take it in to have it looked at by a repair technician. Because sometimes if a flute has been sitting for a really long time, the pads will get dried out They don't close quite properly.

And this doesn't mean that the flute is not going to be able to be played later, it just means that it might need maybe a few hundred dollars worth of repairs done to it to make it play really well. You're going to want to plan to have your flute repaired by a proper technician about once a year if you're playing regularly. And usually the cost for this for a basic tune up on a flute will be somewhere between one and $200. And like with any instrument, it's really important to make sure that it's in good playing condition so that you feel good about playing it. You're happy with your sound. And you know, you're just looking forward to playing it rather than feeling like it's frustrating to play with all the time.

If you're having trouble finding a good technician, music stores like big music stores are a good place to start. If they don't have someone on the site that actually does the repairs. Often they can refer you to someone who will who does repairs outside for them. When you're playing the flute. It's really important To maintain good posture, which means that your back has to be straight and you don't want to be slouching. Because the air is being delivered through your body, the column of air has to be as straight as possible to let the airspeed really flow through.

If you're playing seated, a couple of things to look out for is to make sure that your arms are keeping the flute in level with your with your head, so you don't have to turn your head sideways or do this. A common thing as you get playing the flute more often is if you play for long periods of time, even though the flutes not heavy, your arms are going to start to sag a little bit because even if you just had to do this for 10 minutes, your arms would get tired just holding them out in position like this. So good thing with flute is just be mindful of how the angle of the flute is being held. A good technique that I always recommend is playing in front of a mirror. It's a great way to just keep your eyes on your posture and your technique.

So you're keeping the horn balanced and keeping your back totally straight.