Learn to Play the Flute: Beginner Basics to Intermediate (Udemy.com)
Learning to play the flute is incredibly rewarding, but getting started is a challenge. Let MusicProfessor help!
Created by: MusicProfessor Online Music Lessons
Last updated July 2022
What you will learn
- Assemble and care for a flute
- Form a correct, strong flute embouchure
- Read and interpret music notation
- Play dozens of popular melodies and songs
- Perform multiple Major scales
- Recognize and play nearly every note on the flute
How it compares
Against the other 270 rated Udemy courses in Music on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.6 out of 5higher than 40% of them
- Reviews1,968#23 of 271 by number of reviews
- Length5.8 hourslonger than 71% of them
- Last updatedJuly 2022earlier than 61% of them
Course Description
|| COURSE DESCRIPTION ||
Learning to play the flute is incredibly rewarding, but getting started is a challenge.
That's where MusicProfessor can help you make the most of your practice. Start from opening your case for the first time and progress all the way to playing your first melodies. Master all of the techniques necessary to become a great flutist. On the way, you'll also learn music theory and musicianship skills.
And save money while you study with us! Private lessons are expensive. Each MusicProfessor Flute course provides an entire year’s worth of lessons, for a fraction of the cost, and at your own convenience.
Join over 1200 students and begin your studies today!
|| COURSE FEATURES ||
- 100+ video lessons
- Downloadable sheet music
- Animated fingering charts
- Flute-specific troubleshooting tips and advice
- Flute equipment recommendations
- Dozens of melodies and songs
- Technique-building exercises
- Major scales and scale exercises
- Music Theory basics, including how to read music
MusicProfessor's curriculum is used in nearly 100 schools and school districts throughout the United States and by more than 18,000 students and music teachers throughout the world. Nowhere else can you find the level of detail and professional instruction of MusicProfessor's curriculum.
|| NOTABLE REVIEWS ||
“I think the instructor is excellent. Great presentation and sense of humor during the lessons.”
-Ted Petit
“I love the warm, friendly presentation style of the teacher.”
-Clare Lynch
“The lessons are taught with patience, humor and considerable knowledge. This brings confidence to the student and in my case makes feel at ease with the course and the instrument. The detailed explanations and friendly tone gives the feeling of one on one student/ teacher relationship. Though I am only part into the course it has introduce vital techniques that will be the foundation to correct flute playing. Thank you!”
-Paul Ward
|| A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT TRADITIONAL WOODEN FLUTES ||
If you are looking for instruction on how to play traditional wooden flutes, please know that our course is intended solely for classical Western type flutes. Wooden flutes can vary greatly in tuning and fingering which means it's likely that all of our content will sound totally different than what you're producing on a wooden flute. However, you can also learn a ton of important foundational flute elements from our Beginning Flute course. With that in mind, please proceed with caution.
|| THE INSTRUCTOR ||
Lisa Garner Santa currently serves as Artist-Performer and Professor of Flute at Texas Tech University where she enjoys a diverse career as teacher, recitalist, soloist, and chamber musician. Performance highlights include the world premiere of Mike Mowers Concerto for Flute and Wind Ensemble and a Carnegie Hall debut recital featuring Chamber Works for Flute.
As an active member of theNational Flute Association, Dr. Garner Santa recently served as Program Chair for the 2011 convention in Charlotte, NC, and continues to serve as a member of the NFA Executive Committee. She has been a featured performer at the Boston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas, Nashville, Kansas City, and Las Vegas conventions as well as an adjudicator and/or coordinator for many NFA events and competitions including the High School Soloist Competition, the NFA Newly Published Music Competition, the NFA Professional Flute Choir Competition, and as the NFA General Competitions Coordinator.
As a pedagogue, Lisa Garner Santa presents masterclasses throughout the United States and abroad. Recent international exchanges include masterclasses at the Royal College of Music in London, England and Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. Presentations and performances at various regional and national conventions include invitations from theTexas Music Educators Association, the Texas Music Teachers Association, the National Association of Wind and Percussion Instructors, and theCollege Music Society. Her research and pedagogical articles are frequently published in The Flutist Quarterly, Flute Talk, and The Instrumentalist.
In recognition of her creative teaching, she was awarded the Texas Tech Big 12 Fellowship as well as the Texas Tech Alumni Association New Faculty Award and is also an elected member of Texas Tech University’s prestigious Teaching Academy.
With co-authors Matthew Santa and Thomas Hughes, Lisa Garner Santa developed theFlute/Theory Workout, a method that efficiently introduces full-range scalar and chordal flute technique while introducing music theory fundamentals at the same time. The Workout, which comes with an entertaining accompaniment CD, is available throughCarolyn Nussbaum Music Co., and Flute World.
Dr. Garner Santa holds performance degrees from West Texas State University, Florida State University, and The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Her teachers to whom she is eternally grateful include Carol Wincenc, Charles DeLaney, Sally Turk, Helen Blackburn.
In addition to her active role as a flutist, Lisa Garner Santa is also a certified Kripalu Yoga Instructor and member of theYoga Alliance. She teaches Yoga for Musicians at the TTU School of Music and Kripalu Yoga classes at various locations throughout Lubbock.
—
Instructor Details
- 4.6 Rating
1,968 Reviews
MusicProfessor Online Music Lessons
MusicProfessor provides pre-recorded, high-quality online music lessons for students who either can't study with a private teacher or would like to further supplement their education. We do so via a massive library of lessons taught by some of the finest faculty in the country.
WOODWINDS: Flute, Clarinet, Saxophone
BRASS: Trumpet, Trombone
EXTRACURRICULAR: Conducting, Percussion
MusicProfessor launched in 2012 with a single instrument series, 'Bassoon 101,' but has since expanded to over 12 instrument series with just over 5000 video lessons. Our curriculum is used in nearly 100 schools and school districts throughout the United States and by more than 14,000 students and music teachers throughout the world. Find more instruments and levels at our website.
Nowhere else can you find the level of detail and professional instruction of MusicProfessor's curriculum. Fulfill your musical destiny by signing up today.
"The videos are great. Really get a lot out of them. We are excited about the opportunity to integrate these videos into our monthly/weekly/daily curriculum."
- R. Lira
"Y'all are amazing! My band teacher introduced me to MusicProfessor, and it has helped me out alot through good and bad times on my clarinet."
- H. Dearman
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Reviews
By Lori Ashby on 11/24/2025
I’m not far into it enough to judge it fairly. What she is teaching now is what I already know and I think she is very thorough in her teaching and explanation. I think it’s worth watching even though I understand the concept already.
By Nathan M on 10/23/2025
Is it good? Yes. Is it what I actually wanted to learn? That's a good question that needs to be discussed. The issue I have here is that whilst it is structured, it's not teaching me what I want to know when I want to know it so I find that this isn't better than youtube tutorials. Here's what I would do, split the course into 4 distinct elements. 0. introductory. 1. Mechanics like how to blow into the flute to get different sounds, this is actually quite a deep topic on it's own as you need to learn to blow different ways to cover the entire dynamic and frequency range of the instrument. 2. Fingering, Teaching notes, scales, and what you fingers are capable of 3. Sheet music, everything sheet music 4. Ear training, 0 might have a couple basic topics that you need to know, 1 would have an entry level folder covering all the topics or it would have a master class on a single element, then it would have additional modules such as grade 2 and grade 3, explaining what you need to know to play the sheet music. Sheet music element could just be a sequence of sheet music, 4, would just be a series of a bunch of long length short form snippets of increasingly harder ear training to match the sheet music level With this format I'm a little frustrated because I don't care about timing or knowing what a quartet is, but teaching me the blowing fast to perform a quartet is important but this video course doesn't separate the instrument into it's different components enough for me. Maybe it's too beginner level for me and I have been playing for only a couple days? Thats kinda how it feels.
By Shruti Mehta on 3/10/2022
I have been fascinated by the flute since I was a child. Finally at the age of 35, I bought a flute and started this course . I found it to be very easy to understand and well organized with practice tunes for every new concept. I absolutely loved the instructor, Lisa. She is fun and engaging. It took me over a year of regular practice to master the concepts in this course. I did several lessons multiple times and slowly my flute changed from sounding like a cacophony to beautifully melodious. I would highly recommend this course for beginners. It takes years of practice to learn a musical instrument, so don’t lose heart if it seems tough in the beginning. Keep practicing and you will get better every day. I have bought the intermediate course of this instructor and am looking forward to starting it soon.
By Vishnu Bajpai on 11/8/2020
Crisply explained
By Nat Rogers on 11/8/2020
Great concise information ??
By Saurabh Kulkarni on 10/23/2020
I love the introductory videos explaining about the different kinds of flutes, what to check when buying a flute and the different parts.
By Pink Flaherty on 9/8/2020
Show the fingerings already...
By Kamal kumar gupta on 9/8/2020
I was always having problem in playing low register E and D but this course has made me to learn to play . Thank you
By Joan Whiteley on 8/18/2020
I learned a few new things. It was worth the time.
By Robert Charlton on 8/12/2020
As someone coming back to the flute after 30 odd years I can say this teacher is much more thoughtful and explanatory than my one on one very accomplished player, teacher all those years ago.
By Francis Sevillo on 8/4/2020
its just perfect for me
By Chandrasekaran D on 7/26/2020
Good
Quality Score
No CourseDuck member has rated this course yet. Taken it? Give each part a thumbs up or down.
Overall Score : 92 / 100










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