Practice Junkie
Practicing is where you find out who you are.
Free Flutist Resources
Click the links below to be directed to each resource!
The Aspiring Flutist's Epic Inspiration Course
A comprehensive 19-video course featuring more than 12 hours of in-depth instruction on topics ranging from tone, technique and phrasing to practice strategies, musicianship, performance anxiety and more. Dr. Sánchez explores a wide variety of concepts for flutists, combining practical techniques and exercises with encouragement to become more curious, self-aware and engaged in the learning process. Throughout the course, the goal is not simply to tell you how to play the flute, but to help you discover your own musical potential and become a more thoughtful, independent and inspired musician in the practice room.
Sometimes cranking up the tunes helps wake up your musical spirit and makes warming up and working on rhythm and intonation so much more fun. Download these Pop Flute Best Hits and play along with Adele, Pharrell, Katy Perry, Sia, and “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman. Put on your best pair of headphones and play your heart out!
Flute Books & Play Along Accompaniments
Explore Dr. Sánchez’s Aspiring Flutist practice books along with free play-along accompaniments and exercises you can use immediately in the practice room. Resources include guided long tones, scale and tuning exercises, piano accompaniments and creative approaches to developing sound, technique, musicianship and artistry. You’ll also find information about all three books in The Aspiring Flutist’s Practice Book Series, designed to make practicing more engaging, thoughtful and personally meaningful.
In less than 15 minutes, the Epic Flute Warm-Up takes you systematically through the entire range of the flute, beginning with a solid low-register foundation and carrying that core and richness of sound upward through every register. Along the way, harmonics, flutter tonguing, singing and playing, exaggerated vibrato pulses, varied rhythms, articulations and keys keep you focused, challenged and entertained. By the time you finish, your sound, technique and body will be fully engaged and ready to face the practice challenges ahead.
Try playing the complete Epic Flute Warm-Up every day for a month, then send Dr. Sánchez a message and share how your flute playing has transformed!
The Mini Epic Flute Warm-up (& Backing Track)
Dr. Sánchez created the Mini Epic Warm-Up for days with shorter attention spans and a stronger need for some easy-peasy, kick-in-the-pants motivation. Just press play on the backing track and jump into this five-minute version of the skills found in the full Epic Flute Warm-Up. It’s quick, engaging, and designed to give you an energy boost that can carry through the rest of your practice session. Click HERE to download the backing track.
The Diva Flute & Piccolo Warm-up
Have you ever noticed how challenging it can be to switch between flute and piccolo? The Diva Flute & Piccolo Warm-Up helps you practice that transition while developing greater versatility and flexibility on both instruments. The exercises are systematically designed so that the skills you develop on one instrument transfer to and strengthen your playing on the other. The complete warm-up takes just a few minutes. Incorporate it into your routine for a few weeks, and you’ll begin to notice a tangible difference in your ability to move comfortably and confidently between flute and piccolo.
The Badass Low Register Exercise (& Backing Track)
So many flutists have been trained to play loosely and without enough embouchure support in the low register, consequently struggling with their lowest notes. Dr. Sánchez believes that a beautiful B above the staff is a wonderful embouchure home base for developing a stronger low register. In fact, she considers the low register to be two octaves and believes the key to transforming the challenging “middle register” (which she doesn’t believe in!) is training your ears and embouchure to play consistently clear and beautiful from B above the staff all the way down to low C or B.
The Badass Low Register Warm-Up trains your ears, embouchure and mind to maintain that clarity and consistency all the way to the lowest notes of the flute. Pay special attention to the harmonics and let them teach you how to connect with the heart of the upper pitches as you develop a stronger, more reliable low register. Click HERE to download the backing track.
Breath Ignited (& Backing Track)
Have you ever done a guided meditation? This beautiful piece for solo flute can function as a warm-up, a guided meditation, or even a piece for performance. Let the words inspire you as you play beautiful long tones and expressive phrases, connecting your sound with the thoughts and emotions behind the music. Dr. Sánchez enjoys incorporating this piece into her own warm-up routine as a way to not only wake up and invest in her flute playing, but also to nurture her emotional state as she practices. Click HERE to download the backing track.
When you’re in the middle of performing flute music, you don’t have time to “figure out” what the rhythms are. Guessing, stressing, or BSing not only creates busy brain, but completely distracts you from the music you are playing. It is essential to internalize rhythm math and understand rhythm at the feeling level, not just the thinking level.
This handy PDF puts the basic rhythm rules together in one place. Use it for yourself or with your students to make sure rhythm fundamentals are fully understood, internalized, and ready to support playing in time, in tune, and with co-creative expression.
Dr. Sánchez's High-Level Flute Playing Checklist
Flute is a mind, heart, and body instrument. So many elements of great flute playing need to be developed individually and then integrated into a more holistic approach. If you want to feel connected to the music you’re playing and confident in the sounds you’re making, download this PDF as a visual reminder of the many elements worth investing in each day.
If you have questions about anything on the High-Level Flute Playing Checklist, click HERE to send Dr. Sánchez a message. She loves questions!
The Secret Sweet Spot Finder Guide
The Secret Sweet Spot Finder Guide is a map for discovering the sweet spot of each pitch on the flute. Dr. Sánchez calls them “secret sweet spots” not only because they are often much closer together than you might think (and sometimes in surprising places!), but because they can only truly be found through listening.
Use this guide to train your ears and discover where each note resonates most clearly and beautifully. Click HERE to send Dr. Sánchez a message if you need clarification about anything on the sheet. She loves questions!
Expressive Adjectives for Flutists & Other Creatives
Sometimes just a word or two describing the emotion, mood, atmosphere, color, or texture of the music you’re practicing can make all the difference. Instead of starting from scratch every time you explore a new passage, use this front-and-back PDF to quickly find words that spark your imagination and help you make more intentional expressive choices.
With hundreds of adjectives ranging from Love & Light and Anger & Fire to Magic & Mystery, Taste & Texture, Color & Nature, and Sight & Sound, this resource is designed for musicians and other creatives looking for a little inspiration to turn technique into expression.
Moyse Long Tones with Training Wheels
Moyse long tones are the gold standard for flute warm-ups, but sometimes attention spans and frustration can get in the way. Try these Moyse Long Tones with Training Wheels and let harmonics and other tone helpers keep your mind engaged while guiding you toward your best sound. Build the skills, train your ears, and let the training wheels help you along the way!
This long-tone warm-up is deceptively difficult. The lines may look like simple long-tone phrases with a little decoration, but they are specially designed to help you discover that the sweet spots between pitches are much closer than you might think.
Playing each phrase in one breath while moving every half step up or down consistently, clearly, beautifully, and in tune requires remarkable consistency of embouchure and vowel, along with an intense level of focus and listening. Let the exercise teach you just how small and precise your adjustments can become as you move from one sweet spot to the next.
The Fondue Low Register Warm-up
From Dr. Sánchez: "One of my most powerful memories as a young flutist is sitting in a practice room with tears falling from my eyes as I tried to make the first four notes of Enesco’s Cantabile et Presto rich, beautiful, and in tune. The descending intervals, especially the low C, were incredibly challenging for me, and I did not yet understand the subtlety and focus it takes to play these meaningful and beautiful intervals. This Fondue Warm-Up gets its name from Enesco’s marking fondu, meaning ‘melted.’ Read the instructions I’ve included alongside the warm-up and let them guide you through these intervals each day, with more patience and kindness toward yourself than I ever had as a young flutist.”
This Harmonic Wave exercise may remind you of a Taffanel and Gaubert exercise, but these five-note patterns are designed to help you learn from harmonics (our magic teachers!) and train yourself to make a seamless transfer from harmonics to regular pitches. The smoother and more consistent you can make each wave, the more beautiful, clear, and in-tune your tone will become when you return to the regular fingerings.
A Whole New World (Harmonics)
Using the repeated melodic idea from Aladdin, enjoy exploring and studying what harmonics have to teach you. Let the melody guide you as you train your ears to become the primary way you study and develop your tone. It’s never just about blowing random air. It’s always about meaningful listening and letting what you hear guide what you do next.
Practice Junkie Tempo Chart (Printable PDF)
This printable Tempo Chart turns metronome practice into a clear, motivating game. Choose small sections of your music, experiment with different Practice Games, gradually increase the tempo, and earn check marks only when you can play cleanly, clearly, and comfortably. Perfect for tricky technical passages, etudes, scales, excerpts, or any music that needs to become cleaner, easier, and faster, the chart encourages patient repetition, manageable goals, and lots of breaks while helping you build reliable muscle memory and work toward faster tempos with confidence.
Use this chart and fill it in, or just draw inspiration from it and make your own customized chart!