It’s back-to-school season!
Whether you’re a student, teacher, or professional, it’s a collective experience that we want out-with-the-old and in-with-the-new come Autumn!
Enjoying new stationary, planners, and school supplies to stay organized during the busy school year is a given, but what about all the niche products we all require as flutists?
Below I’ve shared my TOP 5 favorite back-to-school essentials for every flutist!
Let’s get started!
Artist Series Flute Cleaning Cloth
https://store.sempreflute.com/collections/the-artist-series-flute-cleaning-cloths
The classically essential cleaning cloth that NEEDS to be in your flute care arsenal this Fall.
I want you to look in your flute case right now.
What’s the current state of your swab? Your polishing cloth?
Do you know what your current flute swab, or polishing cloth, is made of?
Most of the options on the market are polyester–a.k.a PLASTIC. It’s a common conversation nowadays about the negative effects fast fashion has on our planet. Polluting our oceans and forests at the expense of the communities which inhabit areas affected by first-world countries' addiction to cheap clothing products.
But the same goes for musicians’ accessories made from these same materials.
It was, and will continue to be our mission to provide flute care accessories that are the opposite. Slowly handcrafted with materials that are biodegradable, with a minimal carbon footprint.
Sempre Crewneck
https://store.sempreflute.com/products/embroidered-logo-crewneck
Cool, crisp Autumn mornings. Misty, rainy Fall days spent in a practice room or lesson studio with a slight chill in the air…
Staying cozy with one of our Sempre Hoodies is an ESSENTIAL for your practice sessions and lesson days this fall! Made from 100% cotton!
Pneumo Pro*
This back-to-school essentials list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning every flute teacher’s favorite tool, myself included, is none other than the Pneumo Pro.
It is arguably the best visual tool for beginning and advanced students alike to resolve any confusion surrounding air direction and support when playing the flute.
Metronome Tuner*
This recommendation is not just for flutists, but an every-musician-essential.
Having a physical device that acts as both a metronome and tuner is an absolute necessity for ALL musicians.
You might be thinking, “But I have a metronome and tuner app on my phone? Why would I need a physical one? That’s just one more thing I’d need to carry around…”
Let me convince you otherwise!
You’re practicing. You’re thinking about how you’re tired and aren’t really motivated to practice. You sit down to pull out your phone to turn your metronome app on, but alas, you turn to social media instead.
Doom scrolling ensues.
You receive a text message from a friend or family member about something.
Distraction, after distraction, after distraction.
And before you know it, 20 minutes of wasted time later, you still have yet to begin practicing.
Sound familiar?
If yes, you’re definitely not alone, and I can confirm that I have also succumbed to this exact scenario many, many times.
But what if we challenged the narrative of constantly being connected with our phones? During our practice sessions, it needs to be a time of complete productivity, sans phone distractions.
And that is exactly the beauty of having a separate device from your phone to provide you with a metronome and tuner during your practice and teaching sessions.
And you may be surprised at how much you can accomplish without your phone being out as a temptation during your practicing!
Practice Journal*
Probably one of my favorites on the list, and the final essential on the list, is having a dedicated Practice Journal.
It is extremely useful to have a dedicated notebook to keep track of your progress with exercises, tempi, etudes, excerpts, and other necessary assignments week-by-week to make sure that you’re on the right track to attaining your goals.
From writing down specific exercises you practiced in which tempi, and with what articulation, and on which day, to writing down constructive and thoughtful commentary in your practice sessions for you to reference back to if you had a really good playing day, having a specific encyclopedia of all of your thoughts and progress is invaluable!
BONUS! iPad Pro*
https://amzn.to/3EtNUc0 (iPad Pro 12.9)
Bonus recommendation! Now, I need to preface this by saying that you can obviously get by without an iPad. But that being said, it is an absolute worthy investment for more organized music storage. Allowing you to carry around your entire music library in a compact tablet and can be wonderful for freelance performances, I have yet to meet a musician who regretted investing in an iPad.
It completely changed the game for me after I had the privilege of purchasing one back in 2019 whilst completing my MM at UCLA. No more printing out sheet music, no more lugging around technique and exercise books everyday, no more frustration with misplacing said music on seldom occasions, and no more back-ache from a heavy backpack carrying around etudes and pieces!
The frustrating thing is that because we need it for storage and reading purposes, it is definitely worth getting the largest model (12.9in) with a large internal storage (at least 256GB). Lucky us that we need one of the more expensive models!
By far the best app I have personally used, and recommend to all of my iPad using colleagues, is ForScore. It is an essential music storage app allowing for maximum organization and ease-ability of notation and edits in your own music.
Having an iPad can also be a wonderful tool to use in teaching settings as well!
My second favorite app, Notability, allows for staff paper templates so that you can create exercises and teaching tools mid-lesson, essentially working as a whiteboard to assist your students in any way possible. I also enjoy using this particular app to create tailored theory assignments for my students–it’s really fantastic! Not to mention that if you’re a student, this app is outstanding for customized note-taking.
And that concludes my Top 5 Back-to-School Essentials for Every Flutist!
Which one was your favorite? Or do you have one, or several, already prepared in your shopping cart? Leave us a comment below if there was a specific back-to-school essential that you love but wasn't on the list! Let's share your favorites below!
Warm regards,
Elizabeth L.
owner & maker
sempre|flute
Elizabeth LaCoste is the owner & maker here at sempre|flute. She is also a professional flutist located in Southern California. To learn more about Elizabeth LaCoste, visit https://elizabethlacoste.com
Products marked with an asterisk (*) denote an affiliate code where a small commission will be received upon purchase of the product to sempre|flute. Product prices are not inflated to accommodate this small commission; they are the same prices compared to the same products with or without the commission.