Woodwind instrument
In flute lessons you learn breathing, embouchure and a clear, bright tone – for classical music, folk and making music together in an ensemble. Cuxhaven Music School is a public, non-profit music school in Cuxhaven-Ritzebüttel, run by FeMiC e.V. Lessons are open to children, teenagers and adults – whether you are starting out or coming back to music.
Beate Steffens studied flute with piano as a subsidiary subject in Hamburg and teaches with attentiveness, creativity and a great deal of experience. She offers flute from around age 8, recorder and project work, and piano from around age 4 – individually and in groups.
View Beate Steffens’s profile →Most pupils can start from around eight years old, once their arms are long enough to hold the flute comfortably. Curved head joints are made for younger children, shortening the reach to the embouchure hole. The recorder is often good preparation.
Beate Steffens teaches the flute from around age 8.
Whether flute lessons are also possible in pairs is something we are happy to discuss when you get in touch.
Individual lessons cost from 69 € a month (children and teenagers) or from 83 € (adults). You will find all fees – including 45-minute lessons and lesson blocks – on our fees page.
The easiest way to request a free trial lesson is our contact form – choose “Flute” as the subject. You can reach the office by phone on 04721 666868 on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 12 noon; the office is closed during the school holidays. You can also contact the teachers directly – their details are in the profiles on our teachers page.
You will find us in the historic Ritzebüttler Schule building:
Cuxhaven Music School · FeMiC e.V., Grodener Chaussee 11, 27472 Cuxhaven
The flute sounds clear, bright and agile. Although it is usually made of metal, it counts as a woodwind instrument – and its tone is produced without any reed at all.
The flute is blown across a hole at the side and held transversely. Although it is nowadays usually made of metal (often silver-plated), it belongs to the woodwind family – historically it was built of wood, and it produces its tone in the manner of a flute. Its sound is clear, bright and extraordinarily agile.
Transverse flutes are ancient and found in many cultures. The modern flute owes its form to Theobald Boehm, who developed a new key system between about 1830 and 1847. It improved fingering and intonation decisively and remains the standard today. With it, the flute became one of the most nimble instruments in the orchestra.
The flute comes in three parts: the head joint with its embouchure hole and lip plate, the body and the foot joint. A system of keys and pads closes the tone holes (the Boehm system). The tone is produced without a reed: the airstream is split at the edge of the embouchure hole and set vibrating – much as when you blow across the neck of a bottle.
Pitch depends on which holes are open and on overblowing into the higher octaves. Fine tuning is done by drawing the head joint out slightly. The range is around three octaves, and the sound reaches from a soft, dark tone in the low register to a radiant brilliance at the top.
The flute is held horizontally to the right. What counts is the embouchure – the shape of the lips that directs the airstream – together with good breath support. Rapid runs, clear articulation (tonguing) and a fine vibrato are all part of the flute’s characteristic expression.
The flute is as much at home in the symphony orchestra and the wind band as in chamber music and as a solo instrument. It also appears in folk, jazz and popular music. Its agility makes it a brilliant melodic voice.
Besides the usual concert flute, the family includes the small, high-pitched piccolo and the lower-sounding alto and bass flutes. In a flute ensemble these sizes together produce a full, well-balanced sound. The concert flute is the standard size on which nearly everyone begins.
After playing, the flute is dried inside with a cleaning rod and cloth so that no moisture collects on the pads. When assembling it, handle the joints gently so as not to bend the delicate mechanism. A specialist workshop should check pads and mechanism regularly, so that every key seals properly.
The flute is light, handy and easy to carry – ideal for joining an orchestra or ensemble early on. Its bright, agile tone suits fast, brilliant melodies just as well as calm, singing lines. That first note of your own comes from nothing but the right lip shape and a little practice – a lovely moment, and one that spurs you on. Anyone who has played the recorder before will quickly feel at home with the reading and the breathing. Breathing and phrasing together in an ensemble is a pleasure too, and it trains musicianship. With a little practice the first short pieces soon succeed, and the flute’s silvery, bright sound carries effortlessly across a room.