Isabel G  
Instruments: Flute
Styles: Classical, Avant-garde

I started teaching privately when I was in high school. After graduating with my masters from Yale my interest and love of teaching has grown and become an essential element of my career. While at Yale I worked as a Teaching Artist in two New Haven public schools. I taught private lessons as well as coached chamber ensembles and ran sectionals. I worked at a summer music festival for middle school and high school students for the past two summers. These experiences helped me fall in love with teaching again! I have helped a young student succeed in his audition for LaGuardia High School in NYC. This past year I taught a very motivated girl who was applying to college music programs, and did not have a private teacher before me. I was and will never stop being proud of her amazing accomplishment of being accepted to every program she applied and auditioned for! I love watching someone of any age grow through music, and to be there to guide someone through that process is incredibly rewarding. I also find myself always learning something about myself, my playing, and the flute while coming up with new ways to tailor my thoughts to every student.

I believe that technique and musicality go hand in hand. I do not believe that one is more important than the other; instead, you cannot truly have one without the other. The most important aspect of playing music, is that, in and of itself, music! I like to foster an environment with any student where creativity and individuality are top priority. Especially with young students who are still self conscious, if they feel safe with their instrument in hand to create freely, I have no doubt they will be able to perform with greater ease later on in life. With adult students I love hearing what they think the meaning of a piece is. I want to help them gain the technical ability to portray their thoughts through music. My job when teaching young students is to show them that playing the flute should be, above all else, enjoyable. However, it is not something that comes easy, or without effort. Dedication is crucial to success, and consistent practice is something I like to instill in my students. Goals are incredibly important to keep focused. Whether someone is preparing for a NYSSMA exam, an audition of any sort, a performance, or a competition, having a clear understanding of how long something will take to learn and how long you have is crucial! I am an advocate of teaching a student as early as possible how to practice to be successful. I like to use a method book as well as a book of short pieces to get a student started. Because I feel like you can't learn technique without musicality, I think it is important to begin with that in mind and apply the skills we learn in the method book to the piece and visa versa. Some of my favorites are the Trevor Wye: A Beginner's Book of the Flute (there are 4 volumes), as well as the succession of Louis Moyse Flute Series beginning with Forty Little Pieces (these are in progressive order). All flutist should become proficient in Taffanel and Gaubert 17 Daily Exercises (once a certain level and ability is obtained, this is a requirement for my studio). There are many etude books for any level, and etudes are also a requirement (etudes act as a continuation of method books, which focus on specific technical aspects in each etude). Specifically for students who show a clear interest in pursuing music professionally (at least though a collegiate level), and definitely for any adult student, I will recommend these books to read as study material to help truly understand the physics of playing the flute, and how that relates to being musical: Michel Debost's The Simple Flute, Thomas Nyfenger's Music and the Flute, and Arthur Weisberg's The Art of Wind Playing.