Our Residential Courses
One of our favourite activities at Flutewise are our residential courses. We’ve held 70 of them so far in some fantastic venues. The first course was at Corsica Hall, Seaford, East Sussex in 1997. Corsica Hall was the home of Flutewise courses for many years until it closed. We then started to go to Abbotsholme School in Staffordshire, near Alton Towers. There are many happy memories of courses there. Ovingdean Hall School in Brighton hosted many courses and we also had them at Taunton School, Lodge Hill in West Sussex, the Purcell School in Bushey and Woldingham in Surrey. All of these venues have been superb.
Residential courses came to an abrupt halt due to covid. Hopefully we will restart them in 2024.
If you are interested in coming to one as a young flute player or a teacher or a keen flute player wanting to become a Flutewise Apprentice, please become a member and you will be kept up to date about what is going on.
Click on this link to see lots of great photos from a course at Woldingham
A little bit more about residential courses
If you are a really keen flute player and want to improve your marks in your next exam, whether it is a Grade exam, diploma, GCSE, AS or A level, a Flutewise Residential course is for you! You will receive expert tuition with lots of opportunity to work on all aspects of your performance skills to really build confidence.
Traditionally the courses last for 3 nights and most people stay at the venue during the course. It’s a bit like having a flute sleep over. They are huge fun, we work really hard and everyone is always extremely friendly and supportive.
We all eat together and at all the venues we’ve ever used we’ve found the food superb with all diets catered for.
What We Do On The Course. A Typical Day Might Be:
08.00Breakfast
09.00Warm up followed by massed ensemble playing
10.30Break
11.00Workshops
12.30 Lunch
13.15 Small ensemble groups and/or working with our pianist
15.00 Break
15.15 Outside game (Flutewise Rounders is famous!) or a walk
16.00 Concert (course members or staff or visiting guest)
17.00 Scale game (devised by Abbie Burrows – and, yes, everyone is more than willing to play their scales at this, or any, time of day if it is the Scale Game!)
18.00 Dinner
19.00 Concert (staff or visiting guest)
20.00 Game or other social activity
We aim to keep everyone very busy! There will be emphasis on this course to really improve your playing standard and confidence in performing.
All course members are encouraged to bring a piece of music they know well and they have the opportunity to work on it with our pianist and a member of staff and then perform it in a student concert. This is an excellent way to build confidence.
