Posted by Ian Easton on July 25, 2002 at 08:56:25:
In Reply to: Teaching tuba for trombones/flute posted by James McNeil on July 24, 2002 at 18:10:44:
If the flautist is half decent they'll have good reading skills (albeit in treble clef) and a good sense of tongue/fingering coordination. Therefore, you won't have such a hard task as you would if teaching a beginner. Flautists should have a fair degree of air control too.
Admittedly I've only taught one ex-flute student to play tuba (that I can recall), but this student had no problems embouchure-wise (we've worked a lot on keeping the jaw lower), and had developed a good sense of pitch on an instrument (ie flute) which doesn't suffer the mispitching-in-the-harmonic-series difficulty.
All told, I'd treat it like a beginner's lesson (posture, hold, buzzing/breathing basics, reading in bass clef, fingering etc) with beginner tunes and be prepared to progress at whatever rate the student required. I'd be surprised if any 'un-teaching' (ie overcoming flute-specific techniques that worked contrary to sousa techniques) was necessary.
This all presupposes that the student is half decent. If they've been swapped on to sousa because they were the bottom of the flute section and struggling, I'd worry about the director's credibility. I'd certainly request a hefty fee for teaching them!
Cheers and good luck,
Ian