The Flutist’s Progress

The Flutist’s Progress, by Walfrid Kujala, Published by Progress Press.

Walfrid Kujala, the author of The Flutist’s Progress, comments about this book:

“l have always enjoyed working with junior high and high school instrumental teachers and students. The eagerness with which they welcome professional guidance at flute clinics and seminars is highly stimulating. I find, however, that too many of these young flutists have an insufficient grasp of fundamentals (breath control, basic embouchure formation, tonguing), and regrettably, this slows down their musical development. The needlessly high incidence of these deficiencies is due partly, I believe, to the shortage of comprehensive reference sources on basic flute techniques written especially for students.

My own concern for this problem was, in fact, one of the things that influenced me to write The Flutist’s Progress. To achieve optimum usefulness, I aimed my book primarily at the students who might logically benefit from it the mostthe beginners. But I took care also to organize the book flexibly enough to permit teachers and more advanced students to use it for remedial work and reference. Thus, it should be helpful at almost any grade level. Teachers who plan to adopt The Flutist’s Progress as a method for their beginners (it can be used as an independent method book as well as an adjunct to a standard class method) should allow themselves enough time to get well acquainted with its scheme, for it is so designed that the sequence of topics and music can be conveniently rearranged to suit the special needs of the individual student. The text is supported through the inclusion of 46 drawings, 15 photos and 10 charts and graphs.

34 of the 178 music examples (exercises, folk-songs, popular songs, duets, selections from 24 master composers) are recorded as a teaching aid for the student to recognize model rhythms, phrasing and tone quality. You can listen to the recording on this website by going to the homepage, then clicking on “Music Examples”.