Jan Olejník (*8th January 1930) is one of the most significant music teaching personalities in the Czech Republic. He has been blind since childhood.
The Studies and Folk Songs for Flute were written gradually over many years as material for the author's teaching activities. They have been designed for beginners and they take their needs into account. The individual melodic-rhythmic exercises are interspersed with blocks of folk songs from Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia which serve as performance pieces. The main advantage of the etudes is the gradual extension of the used range of the instrument with the regular addiction of further notes so that pupils can naturally master the flute's lower and upper registers. The author has also proceeded in a similar fashion with the key signatures which change from the very beginning and therefore help develop the pupils' adeptness at reading music in various key signatures. The first etudes are often without any markings, so that teachers can better adapt them to the needs and abilities of young flautists.