I have a recorder student (my only one ) who will be taking flute lessons from me as well from next month. She has recently passed Grade 4 in both flute and descant recorder, and will be taking Grade 4 treble this term. She's 11 years old.

For practical reasons (the distance she has to travel to me and my lack of free lesson slots) her lessons will run consecutively, giving her a total of 90 minutes with me.

At the moment I am planning on working for approximately 30-35 minutes on either flute or recorder, then having a 15-20 minute theory/aural slot, followed by the remaining time on the other instrument(s).

My initial feeling is that it would be best to start with the flute lesson, to avoid embouchure problems. Have others had any experience with this combination of instruments, and any suggestions to share? How do other recorder teachers deal with combining work on descant and treble in the same lesson? We started off with spending about 20 minutes of her lesson on each, but then focused more on descant last term and almost exclusively on treble this term.

We will be reviewing the situation in September/October after she starts secondary school, and may end up with separate 45 minute lessons if she finds the 90 minutes too tiring.

You're VERY lucky to have the luxury of 90 minutes'-worth of lesson-time for this pupil. The maximum any of mine have is an hour - and that's for piano, descant and treble recorders as well as theory, aural, musicianship etc. I don't think any of the parents in my area could afford for their children to have longer, unfortunately!

I keep very close tabs on what they're all supposed to be doing - I have a notebook with a page for each child, divided into columns with everything they've been set on each instrument, plus all the extra bits, noted down. I have a mind like a sieve, so I can't rely on my memory! We do everything in rotation, usually covering two instruments plus extras in each lesson. I tick everything off as I go, so that at any given week I know exactly what we didn't do the previous week, and we start with that instrument in the next lesson. It works fine, although I'd love to be able to cover everything in each lesson!

Thanks for that, Jo. I try to keep a notebook as well, but either the next student arrives or I have to rush and cook a meal for the family, and then I've collapsed in a chair for the evening before I've thought about it!

I'll have to be a bit more careful with this student so I don;t get muddled, although she's a very bright and mature 11-year-old who'll soon tell me what I'm supposed to be doing with her.

My normal lesson length is 45 minutes. I really wanted to teach her flute having heard her rehearse for her exam, so I offered her parents a discounted 'scholarship rate' which compared favourably with the school lessons she's been having. She'd mentioned earlier in the term that she might have to give up recorder to be able to have private flute lessons, and I wasn't going to let her go without a fight. She then promptly got 135 for her descant Grade 4 and 127 for flute Grade 4 on consecutive days, so I felt justified in giving her a special rate. Essentially the second lesson is half-price.