I just wanted to make a quick post applauding my recent student, @Daphne Sasson, on moving forward with improvising through the discomfort... discomfort to the point of tears. Some of us here in Flutarians carry enough baggage in our emotional journey that even just picking up our instrument and starting to make some mistakes we feel like crying. That's okay. I might even say it's normal. It's not normal for all of us, but it has been normal for some of us. It's better to feel the feelings than to squash them down, in my opinion. And we can even use the momentum of those feelings to inspire our creative choices when we're improvising. Perhaps we'll use that sense of tension to create a sense of tension or dissonance in the music that we can then resolve. And I wanted to address this concept of improvising on the piano: Now, when I started improvising, I started on the piano, and I discovered quickly that one of the main differences between improvising on the piano and improvising on the flute is that on the flute you can only play one note at a time! And on the piano, obviously, you can play multiple notes at the same time, which exponentially increases the complexity if you choose to play multiple notes at the same time! So, since my main goal was to improve my improvising on the flute, when I started improvising on the piano, I focused on just playing one note at a time. I would support in the left hand with something like... just let the note ring. But I would explore the interaction between that one note with one finger in my left hand and one note with one finger in my right hand... I discovered that certain notes play better together than others, or play more consonantly together. They get along better, and others have more of a tension to them. So another nice thing about the flute compared to the piano is that we can increase our volume on a single note! On the piano, it's technically a percussion instrument, so you can just strike the note, and that's as loud as it's going to be. It's not going to get any louder. Then it will get quieter.

Hello Flutarians 👋 This is my first post. I was a professional flutist in NYC until I was 27 then I walked away from my flute, my career and NY to travel in my van and never went back. Now settled in Baja Mexico with a new career a husband and a happy life I’m finally ready to heal my relationship with my flute and begin again. And honestly? I’m terrified and sad and I don’t wanna. lol but I do and it’s gonna be okay and I will. I am doing the mini improv challenge and Vic suggested I make 3 30 second videos on different instruments. I made the penny whistle one and then took out my flute played one noted and burst into tears. Had a long cathartic chat with my husband got up and went back in to finish the flute and piano videos. I like how I did it. Next time I don’t wanna cry so much. I included the first try at the flute one because I have a feeling some of you can relate. I want Vic to know I’m grateful to him for stewarding me through this part of my story. Because it’s a tough one 💜

I was talking with @Sheri Hudgins today about the inside shape of the mouth and intonation on the high notes and I mentioned this video with Pavarotti. I think the best flutists also change the inside shape of their mouth according to what works best for each note. Try it out! What effect do you find that different shapes & positions of your tongue & jaw have on your flute sound? Especially on specific notes?

Congratulations @Julie McKenna on your debut as a public improviser!! Was this your first time improvising out there in the real world?! Great job! Looking and sounding like a rock star up there!!

My group Ensamble Ónix in aniversary museum Sarah Tisdall . México