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 heard this & really liked it.

Where else in your life are you improvising? How are the elements you improvise with there comparable to the elements of music you improvise with on flute? For example, I love to freeskate: Since I started freeskating, I view every surface as having a certain "friction quotient." Super smooth polished stone is like a 10 and gravel is a zero. Super duper smooth is fun but a dangerous challenge. Super rough is more of a workout and makes some tricks impossible. This is maybe like the difference between playing a passage on flute very fast or very slow. Or all slurred versus all staccato. Sometimes I encounter an unexpected obstacle when I'm skating, like a rock, stick, or crack in the concrete. When this happens, I may have to improvise with my foot position on the skate... or with the direction I skate away. This is kind of like on flute playing through an unexpected burp, hiccough, or spit bubble... Or playing through a passage with your flute placed at a not-ideal position on your face because you don't have time to readjust at that moment. Or playing a different scale segment than you originally intended because you overblew the first note and it jumped up the harmonic series. Where else in your life do you see analogies to musical improvising?

If you could design the flute of your dreams, what would its characteristics be and what COLOR would it be if it could ANY color... besides the obvious precious metals?? My purple flute doesn't resonate quite as beautifully in the upper register as my Pearl flute! But it seems appropriate for this song: Colors Flying! I'm grateful to have it for making music while my fav flute is in the shop. If you could have any color what would you choose?!

We'll do a little bit of both tonight in Improv Games 🙃