I got my essay back today - the one with the really snappy title of - ' Outline those aspects of technique which you consider to be of fundamental importance to the student on your instrument and explain how you would teach and develop these'

Anyway, It was mostly ok, but I need to provide examples of what can go wrong and how to correct such problems.

So far, I can't think of anything that can go wrong with learning staccato.

Any suggestions? What problems do flautists in particular have with learning staccato?

Not completely related to playing staccato, but slightly...

When I first had flute lessons (after having played for some years) I had a very bad teacher who taught me some awful technique (some of which I have not been able to find traces of people even knowing as "oh what bad technique" elsewhere!!) which I then had to unlearn.

One of these things was that he insisted I finish every note with the tongue as well as starting it with my tongue, which my next (and very good) teacher termed "back-tonguing" - though I don't know if she coined the term especially for me. I really struggled to get rid of the habit and while I mostly have, it certainly rears its head when playing staccato, and it also makes it more difficult to sustain light tonguing for a long time.

Another problem that I can think of related to staccato is more of a mental thing, but people thinking staccato=short rather that detached, so staccato can become far too choppy. But I guess that's not really a flute-related thing.

Hmm...its a hard one, as theres many ways you can do it with many different syllables to use.

What about air support and staccato? A lot of people dont support the air when playing staccato notes so the notes are not as precise as required.

This is clarinet related, so I don't know if it applies to the flute, but when I play staccato if I try to make it too 'loud' (for lack of a better word!) I get a tiny little squeak.... Don't know if thats a reed thing or if it happens on flute?

yes, that happens on flute as well when you give a staccato note to much 'oomf'

If you have a crotchet note that is staccato there is always a danger of a student making it short so that it actually sounds like a quaver!

You could talk about how you can do staccato without using your tongue, just breath support - maybe?

Not very original suggestions as they have already been mentioned...oops

Do you mean that it sounds like a staccato quaver?

Lots of staccato can make a piece speed up horribly

I don't think I meant that, I think I meant so that its not detached but its shorter than its meant to be.

So true!! My grade 5 study had a habit of running away with me!!