teaching flute in korea

I have a little time this morning because I don't start teaching camp this week until after lunchtime, so I thought I would write a short post on teaching flute in Korea.


For those of you who don't know already, I have the opportunity to go each month to an orphanage here in Gumi and teach flute to one of the boys there (as well as tutoring in English to another student and playing with some of the younger kids). It has been such a blessing. Music (and dance) really does transcend language and mere words. Much like music..."dance is the hidden language of the soul" (Martha Graham). I don't know very much Korea...and especially not terms necessary for explaining flute playing, and he doesn't know much English or really even talk much at all, but something beautiful happens when two minds are set on creating something real with mere notes on a page. Even without many words, it is so encouraging to see his progress during these past few months. I never really know if he is enjoying the lessons or not, but he still does it every week ...

A few times in the past, I have been able to teach/rehearse with the flute students at our elementary school, too. This past week, they came for an hour every day, and I was able to work with them on Pomp and Circumstance, which they will be playing tomorrow at the 6th grade graduation ceremony. Above that, I enjoyed teaching them new practice strategies such as related scales using different rhythms and tone work in order to improve their overall playing. I could tell a difference by the end of the week with their improvement, and I hope they realized the same thing. My desire is that they put these warm-up techniques to use in their daily practice and continue to grow.

The way we are taught flute in America is different in some ways from the way they are taught here in Korea. One stark difference is that they learns notes based on "fixed do." For you non-music people out there, let me explain. In the USA, we learn music based on the note names: A,B,C,D,E,F,G. Koreans do not. If I say, "Play F," I am met with blank stares. In terms of a scale on "do," there is what is called "moveable do" where the first note of the scale is "do." (C scale= C is do, D scale=D is do....etc....) In "fixed do," "do" is "C" no matter what scale you are playing. This is still hard for me to think in, especially when I am used to note names and "moveable do," but I think there are many positives to using this technique. My bet is that they have a better sense of the pitch of each note since they are learning this from a very young age. No wonder pretty much all Koreans can sing so well!

"Praise him with tambourine and dancing,
   praise him with the strings and flute..." ~Psalm 150:4