Flute Secrets: Advice for Students, Teachers and Professionals

Wye’s practice books and excerpt books are amazing and within those he’s provided invaluable performance and technique advice. Those are fantastic. I’ve separately been looking for more books simply to read and learn more about he flute, so this was a no-brainer. By the table of contents I hoped for an intermediate-advanced look at all these aspects of flute playing.There are generally good tips on Good Taste in playing. I like the practice plan examples. I thought the tips on Teaching were practical; even though I don’t plan on teaching anytime soon, they helped me see things from a teacher’s perspective. Also very interesting was learning about the myriad Intonation problems of the flute. It’s incredible how most flutes/notes have tuning issues and a performer has to dynamically adapt and fix each one of them.The best section is the technical details on the Scale of the flute—tone hole placement. Wye goes into unbelievable detail explaining—down to the tenths of a millimeter— why tone holes are where they are, the calculations behind it, and explains how that interacts with harmonics. There’s also a good discussion on temperament. I bookmarked it for further study in detail.Other sections are weaker. It’s full of enigmatic advice like “A good way to achieve a command of slow tunes is to practise them.” Come on. The Flute Repertoire section, where I was hoping for a catholic overview of flute repertoire and commentary on popular or over/underplayed works, is a mere two paragraphs, and he says “lists of flute repertoire can easily be found online” without suggesting where or tips on how to find good lists. If I were writing a similar book for piano I’d have plenty of suggestions about how Rach 2 is overplayed at concerto competitions and would suggest Lyapunov or Scriabin as alternatives to Chopin etudes.The book is full of great advice and interesting opinions, but it’s somewhat imbalanced and unfocused. Wye should really have written a book just on Intonation and the Scale and the intricacies of the mechanism.

I so enjoy Trevor Wye's books - had to get this most recent volume! So much practical advice, interesting information, definitely worth purchasing for flutists of many levels of interest!

Fantastic book. Covers Everything from what to buy, how to play, how and what to practice, performing, how to tune, and tips n trick DIY repairs.

A fund of wisdom and know how is contained in this excellent book. It contains the most sensible advice about how to choose a flute that I have seen. Mr. Wye offers his particular philosophy of how to set about acquiring a serviceable flute technique, but this will not suit everybody. There is a veritable fund of practical advice on flute tuning. For example, it is simply a fact that many flutes have a sharp C sharp, and two solutions are offered without moving the tonehole to effectively improve this. It is far better than simply putting up with it! Some detail of the section about adjusting the flute is sadly lacking. There is no clear explanation of both over and underadjusting the connections to the 'slave ' keys - only underadjustment is mentioned. The section on double action is misleading as regards to the correct solution, which is usually to do with the rise of the keys as well as the correct adjustment of the connections. The tuning section should be compulsory study material for all music college students. That said, it is a pity that some errors have crept in. The diagram, showing 'octave length', marks the wrong place for the left hand end point of the air column, and the explanation in the summary of the results when open hole keywork is put onto a scale intended for closed hole keywork is the wrong way about. As he explains earlier, that will sharpen the notes under each of the perforated keys, not flatten them. Reading Mr. Wye's book, I could not help wondering if just occasionally, he deliberately sets out to make the reader think hard - and that can be no bad thing.

This book was fantastic with some great tips!

Trevor Wye's - Flute Secrets (2017)I recently ordered this paperback from Amazon in Canada, but they notified me that it is now out of stock and there is no known date when it would become available again. While it is reasonably priced, the shipping can cost as much as the book. So, I planned to purchase the paperback in a brick & mortar store rather than online.Subsequently, I decided to buy the KINDLE format. For all intents and purposes, the eReader format is sufficient for my use (and under $10 at amazon.ca). Therefore, any references in this review are by Location Number - not page number - as assigned by Kindle.The book covers a wide variety of topics pertaining to the flute. The table of contents is clear and the structure is easy to follow. This book has some fine general information and many helpful hints which will be useful to the beginning musician. For the advanced fluter, however, most of the subject matter will be familiar. Not much "new" is offered - nor hidden secrets revealed - which the author readily acknowledges in his foreword. In this respect, I find that the book's title on the cover is somewhat misleading.A couple issues :1. At Locations 348 and 531, the blowhole is also referred to as the "riser or chimney." While, I believe the terms riser and chimney can be used interchangeably, I would consider the blowhole to be neither, but a separate - albeit, related - component.2. Mr. Wye dismisses the use of the G-insert. At Location 634, he strongly recommends its removal from any flute which has one. I am pleased with the one I have in my flute and intend to leave it there. For me, the "pros" of having this small metal insert far outweigh the "cons." Interestingly, at other times, he recommends attaching various bits of foreign matter, such as cork (Location 3385), Play-Doh or plasticene (877 / 1562 / 3333), weights (3391), and the like, to try to improve a flute's performance. Personally, in my opinion, I would consider a professionally-installed piece to be preferred over DIY projects. My own bias, to be sure, but I strongly recommend that even "simple" modifications to a flute's design - especially with high-end models - should be left to qualified and reputable repair persons. An "experiment" gone wrong now could become a costly repair later.Otherwise, in general, this is a good introductory book and worth the $10 KINDLE price tag.

Variada propuesta de cuestiones relativas a la flauta, de utilidad para el músico

Wyeの新刊で期待したが，一般論と概略で全くつかえない．彼の六冊からなるPractice Book for the Fluteの抜粋に近く，実質的有効性はない．だったら，読みにくい和訳だが，Practice Book for the Fluteで丁寧に学ぶ方がコスト的にもめりっとがある．これはWyeのものでもお勧めできない．