Fluteland.com Flute Message Board

Good for you and welcome back to the flute! It's best to divide your time between working on fundamentals (scales, rhythm, tone, etc.) and actual songs. That way, you build your skills but also get to work on enjoyable and familiar music too. I highly recommend the Trevor Wye beginner books. I've in...

Congrats on the new flute. I see that both of the trill pads appear to have small tears in the pad skins. That may not affect playability at the moment, but they are likely to get worse over time. Save yourself some later aggravation and get those tended to soon.

Gear4Music instruments are made in China by one of many unnamed factories. I have not tried their flute but I bought a tenor sax from them and while it is not quite on the same level with more established instrument makers, I found the quality acceptable with only a few small issues (i.e. a key cork...

Another way would be to use a headjoint with a moveable embouchure hole. You slide it up and down as you blow and the pitch rises and falls. A bit expensive though I expect. You just described Robert Dick's Glissando Headjoint for flute. They are available for sale for around $1400. See the video o...

I believe it is not initially enabled for new members. After making a few more posts to prove you are not spamming the site, the avatar feature should become enables for you.

Welcome back!

Practice time depends upon your current skill level and your goals. Two hours might be a bit long for a beginner but not enough for a professional. If you get tired, STOP. In general, I would recommend devoting half your time to scales and exercises and the other half to actual works of music. Trevo...

Get yourself a real adjustable music stand. If you are not standing up straight while playing, that will make your neck hurt.

Nice find. Thanks!

Send it back to the seller for repair.

Good luck!

Here are a few online resources to help you get started.

Fingering charts:
https://www.wfg.woodwind.org/flute/index.html

General info for beginners:
https://www.jennifercluff.com
https://www.jennifercluff.com/beginn.htm

Yes and no. The basic fingering is the same, but there are a number of preferred fingerings that are different than flute. For the lips, they are similar but on the piccolo, the embouchure is much smaller than on flute.

Practicing getting a good sound on the head joint is a useful thing to do. Many teachers start beginners with just the headjoint, so go for it. Regarding replacing the pads, there is a lot more to it than just pulling the old ones out and popping new ones back in their place. Pads have to be shimmed...

That's quite interesting. Selmer didn't make a lot of flutes with the Varitone pickup. Do you have the electronic units that go with it (controller and amplifier)?