03/26/2012 – Seminário de Pesquisas em Educação – Seminar text by Clarissa de Godoy Menezes

Use of the Sweet Flute (Click to see the original text)

“Considerations on the use of the Sweet Flute in the school context”

After that day – graduation. When I attended the discipline of the Flute Teaching Methodology (UFRGS), I had the opportunity to perform along with my colleagues, a survey and analysis of books and methods for the flute. During the study and the analysis of this material, we don’t find a book or method that referred to the use of the instrument in music lessons at school. Knowing that the practice of the flute teaching in school exists, I began to wonder if there was available teaching materials that propose to use the tube in elementary school as part of the music curriculum. At the end of the course Undergraduate Music – Degree during the stage of practice, I decided to propose a flute workshop for students who attended the 3rd and 4th grade of primary school. In this period of classes and preparation of teaching materials to be used with students, again came across the discomfort that the use of “my” instrument in class caused me. Concurrently with the preparation of the material, also consulted several music books and realized that there are few textbooks available for the flute teaching in the school context. This shortage can also be found in Souza (1997), who made a survey of textbooks aimed at pre-school students to the 2nd degree (now middle school) in order to teach music. In that annotated bibliography were listed only three the flute books: the Mario Mascarenhas. Playing with the recorder: easy melodies; the Nereide Schilaro Santa Rosa, The Flute: Teaching Method For Children; and the Helle Tirler, Let’s play the flute. The Mascarenhas book is defined as a “national and international tunes album of child folklore arranged for the flute” (Souza, 1997, p. 67). The Rose book is a method where “the child will acquire the first lessons in music theory, through the instrumental practice” (ibid., P. 67). Already the Tirler book is classified as a “collection of Brazilian children’s songs” (ibid., P.68).