The New year is coming and most of us tend to reevaluate our life choices, our career, our... everything. It gives us a perfect occasion to change something and to improve. We usually promise to ourselves to start a healthy lifestyle, to lose weight, to get up 2 hours earlier in the morning, to practice a lot, etc. I have made many flute-related promises to myself at the New Year's Eve as well and then after two weeks, I have realized that nothing had changed at all. Why does it happen so? Why is it so hard to change something significant? 

  How to become a better flutist? Here are 40 important tips!

1.   Remember that you can overcome every obstacle.
2.   Practice flute everyday – no matter how much time you have.
3.   Always play with your best sound.
4.   Set a goal for every practice session — and stick to it.
5.   Learn to record yourself, and do it whenever and wherever’s possible.

    I love this time of the year. The summer holidays are here and that means more time for relaxing and practicing! I think we all have our practicing methods and routines, and we all try to find what works the best for us. But there is one thing I find really important: the feedback that we give to ourselves.
 
     1. Every time we practice we should be honest about our strong points and about the problems. There is no need to be overly enthusiastic or too humble as we don‘t have to impress anyone. When you‘re honest about your playing it is much more easy to do the next step.

     We are living in a digital era. Whether you like it or not, there is a constant presence of technical devices in our lives. 15 years ago I couldn’t imagine going around with a smartphone or laptop which keeps me constantly connected to all and everything. It can be a good thing of course, but is it really?

     Often we have to find some practicing time between school, homework, sports, work and house cleaning. Every minute of complete concentration for playing has a value of gold.  So what happens if your smartphone is always at arm’s reach while you practice? Have you ever counted how many times you get notifications about the newest Facebook posts, Whatsapp, Twitter? Maybe you get a lot of phone calls too? Or maybe you are a virtual farmer and you have to gather your pumpkins every 10 minutes?