As a teacher who specializes in working with adult amateur musicians, I HAD to create a list of intermediate flute solos! You guys ask all the time about this.
My belief is, if you're playing from the "intermediate level" Rubank book, or know a handful of scales and can keep up with about 50% of your band music, you're at the intermediate level! Congrats!! When learning flute, I think it's super important to play scales, etudes AND solo pieces to challenge yourself and diversify your practicing. So when you're looking for some solos and etudes to play, here are my favorite ones for intermediate flutists.
Etudes:
Melodious and Progressive Studies book 1: This is a classic, and I think it's a great place to start after you're getting tired of Rubank. A lot of teachers recommend this one, probably because it was the same etude book we played from at some point. It's a classic! The first 12 pages are great, and then the book gets a less awesome after that (just my honest opinion). If you want help learning these, I have an entire playlist on our Ana & Amanda Youtube channel where I walk you through how to practice them, and I play recordings of them at a reasonable tempo. If you want to save that to use as you're working through the etude book, you can bookmark the Youtube channel playlist here.
Etudes Mignonnes by Garibaldi: Similar in difficulty to the melodious book, I find that these etudes challenge us on a stylistic level. The emphasis is on phrasing and musicality, with a mix of technique and tone challenges as well. This book is a little harder to find for some reason, but I recommend it all the same!
Köhler Romantic Etudes: Another amazing one! These are more technique-focused than the Etudes Mignonnes.
Donjon Etudes: These etudes are more challenging, so I would save them for last on your "intermediate" journey. They are great for practicing octave jumps and smooth phrasing, as well as runs and quiet notes.
Solo Pieces:
24 Short Concert Pieces by Cavally: This is another classic book. The first solo I usually have students play from this book is Sicilienne, followed by 2nd Menuet. I usually pair it with Melodious and Progressive Studies.
Syrinx by Claude Debussy: After playing Pan from the Cavally book mentioned above, Syrinx is a natural second! It's an absolute classic in the flute world, so you should learn it at some point. The key signature and rhythms can feel a little tricky, but listen to recordings and get help from a teacher if you need it!
Schumann Oboe Romances: These are for oboe, so you'll need to take a couple notes up an octave. But they're BEAUTIFUL, and you can't go wrong. Give these a listen if you need something that will put you in a calm, relaxed mood!
Telemann Fantasias: I absolutely LOVE these pieces, and I was lucky enough to take a Telemann flute fantasias class at Peabody through their historical performance department. I learned so much about how to play them in a "stylistically correct" fashion, which actually brought me to realize that most people play these fantasias way too FAST. And fun fact, Telemann was inspired by birds and you can see the evidence all over these wonderful pieces! He was also one of the first composers to mass-produce his music with a printing press, making it accessible to flutists everywhere. The age of Telemann was also the rise of the amateur flutist - people started playing music at home just for fun and Telemann helped make that possible! I can ramble on and on about Telemann, can you tell?
Sonata in A Minor by CPE Bach: I love this piece. It is comprised of three movements, each one incredibly beautiful on its own. CPE Bach has a different writing style than his father, J.S. Bach. The C.P.E. Sonata is more free, and more similar to Telemann in its styling. It's also less harmonically dense than music by J.S. Bach (making it easier to play). For this piece, and for Telemann or other Baroque era composers - make sure you get an urtext edition! I recommend the publishers Barenreiter or Henle. Lastly, in addition to having lots of scales and challenging pieces to play, it's helpful to have a practice plan! You can download our free personalized practice plan to get started on your goals today. It's got a practice checklist to make sure you're getting everything done you need to, as well as a goal setting exercise to make your practice more intentional! Have fun, and reach out to us via email if you need a flute lesson or anything else at all!
Comments