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Flute

Don’t Be Scared

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Why do you get scared to perform in front of people?  Why do you get nervous? Why does your mouth get dry or your lip shake or your palms get sweaty? Why do you feel sick to your stomach? These are called performance jitters or performance anxiety. These feelings are very real and there are numerous books and lengthy articles written on the subject.

What is it that are you afraid of?  A missed note, muddled tonguing, fumbled fingers, not making the long breath, not playing as well as you know you can?  Scared of what others will think of you, like your peers or your teacher or the judges? Are you afraid of possibly not getting the scholarship or not getting the job or not getting accepted into a program? Have you ever felt like this before?

Here are a few basic things that have helped me in my over 40 years of flute playing (and piano playing and organ playing and singing). A lot of it comes down to three things: PREPARATION, POSITIVE THINKING, and EXPERIENCE.

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Flute

Never a Failure, Always a Lesson.

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What have you learned from this?

Has anyone ever asked you that question? Especially these days with a worldwide pandemic, I’ve often heard people ask, “What have you learned from this?” I recently asked someone this same question, to which this person replied, “Why do we always have to learn something? Why can’t we just let it happen and go on with our life?” How would you answer that question?

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Flute

Pneumo Pro

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Meet the Pneumo Pro. The What?

That’s right, the Pneumo Pro. Collinsdictionary.com defines pneumo- as “related to the lungs” or another definition is relating to the presence of air. Developed by Kathy Blocki, the Pneumo Pro is a wonderful device to help flute players produce a beautiful flute tone through improving their awareness of their breath and lip placement. Sometimes with younger students I just call it the “yellow spinner thing”. It helps flutists actually see where their air stream is going, how fast they are blowing, and how to pinpoint their air stream.

The four different colored wheels provide a visual of what happens when they change the embouchure and the air.

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Flute

Musical Memories with My Sister

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Rehearsing for our Aunt and Uncle’s 60th wedding anniversary

I grew up in a musical family where my mother was a piano, organ, and voice teacher and also the church choir director for over 50 years.  Each Christmas, while growing up, the choir would prepare a special musical program to perform the Sunday before Christmas.  This usually also consisted of a small chamber orchestra comprised of musicians from our local congregation.  My mother would have me write out orchestral parts to enhance the special choir worship service commemorating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This was the beginning of my efforts to arrange hymns for small groups of random musicians.  

My younger sister wanted to play a different instrument from her siblings and at age eight, began playing the cello. Just as soon as she could play a whole note, she was, naturally, added to the Christmas orchestra.  Aside from our family singing time, this was the beginning of making music together.

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Flute

Symphony Season…wait for it

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September marks the beginning of symphony season, but not this year.  Usually the Utah Valley Symphony would start rehearsing this month, but like many other symphonies all around the world, we are putting our season on hold or finding alternate ways to move forward in order to keep everyone safe.  I’ll keep you posted as to when we actually start rehearsing and you can look forward to our upcoming concerts at the Covey Center once again.  

I first substituted with the symphony while attending college.  It was under the direction of Dr. Clyn Barrus at the time.  I substituted for many years before a permanent position opened up.  I auditioned and, under the direction of Dr. Bryce Rytting, was appointed principal flute in 2002.   

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