Flute – Page 10 – Lynette Lewis Flute Studio

Performing is Fun

July 30, 2021 utahfluteteacher

What is fun about performing?

Sometimes students are scared to play in front of others. I completely understand that. Sometimes I get nervous too. When I was younger my dad always wanted me to play my flute or the piano for anyone that came through our front door, or so it seemed. Did I love that? Absolutely not! But now, years later, I’m grateful that he was so proud of me and wanted to provide opportunities for me to share my talents with others as often as I could.

I went to college and earned degrees in Flute Performance and Pedagogy. Some of the college requirement options were to either do a research paper or do a solo performance. Which one did I choose? You guessed it. Performance!! I had a lot of fun preparing and playing multiple solo recitals during my years in college and graduate school, not to mention all the large and small ensemble performances I’ve been involved in for the past 40 years.

Last week I played with the Utah Valley Symphony for our second outdoor summer concert in the park. The symphony is on the left just past the large screen and the van. It’s not the best photo, but at least it gives you an idea of the setting. Even though a lot of people filled the park to come listen to us and even though it was being filmed by the local cable company to be rebroadcast later, I wasn’t concerned about the people or the cameras.

I was just so happy to be playing again and even more grateful that the wind wasn’t blowing like our last outdoor concert. I sure missed not preforming last year, thank to COVID.

Our concert was patriotic and movie music such as Battle Hymn of the Republic, Moon River, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Over the Rainbow, Harry Potter and more. Nothing heavy and serious, just a lot of fun and beautiful music. There wasn’t anything scary about playing this summer concert.

So what’s fun about performing?

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Flute

What Have You Learned?

June 28, 2021June 28, 2021 utahfluteteacher

It’s great to finally start having some things return back to “normal” after the pandemic. We’ve all learned a lot during this past year. If each person made a list, and we compared them side by side, perhaps there might be some things that are similar but for the most part, I’ll bet each one would be different.

Keeping yourself and your family safe became the number one priority, no matter the costs. Having three “high risk individuals” living in my home at the time, we took the virus very seriously. The pandemic helped remind us what’s truly important in life and what things are nice, but not critical. Our schedules suddenly became free from all extra curricular events for a time.

I remember when I saw an empty parking lot at a chain of retail stores in the middle of the day and how strange it seemed. This was another reminder of what’s critical such as food and medication and other household items, like toilet paper, right? We all had to get used to wearing masks and it became a natural part of getting out of the car to go into a business. Yet, now it seems strange to see so many people without masks.

What did I learn as a musician?

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Flute

Summer Practicing

May 27, 2021 utahfluteteacher

Hooray for Summer! Who doesn’t love a change of pace, the warm summer sun, lemonade, swimming pools, ice cream and vacations?

With all the fun and extra events that summer brings, how do you stay motivated to practice during the summer? Commit to keep playing, especially if you are not taking lessons during the summer.

Sight read anything. Pull out old books you’ve previously gone through, flip randomly to a page and see what you can still play.

Go to flutetunes.com and try the Tune of the Day. They have an audio recording along with it.

Summer can be a great time to strengthen your scales and put them to memory.

Play popular music or folk tunes. All local music stores always have popular music or Broadway or Disney music favorites or Irish tunes or folk songs for flute. Try a new one each day as you continue to work on proper breaths, accurate tonguing, solid tone and vibrato.

If you find it hard to motivate yourself to practice, at the very least, listen to exceptional flute players. Maybe that will motivate you to practice.

In any case, enjoy summer and keep music a part of it in some way.

Flute

Memorization Tips

May 17, 2021 utahfluteteacher

Some festivals or competitions require memorization. Naturally, there are pros and cons to being required to perform from memory. While some people memorize naturally after playing a piece enough times, others have to actively memorize. Here are some tips to improve your music memorization skills.

MAP out a plan. When do you have to have it memorized by? Then aim for 2-3 weeks prior to that date. Divide your music into sections and assign how ever many measures or lines by weeks you have. Then you have those 2-3 weeks to build your confidence by playing from memory.

SET daily memorization goals. Take your weekly goal and divide that into daily goals. It can be overwhelming to memorize a long piece, but if you take it in small steps, it will be much easier. Most of the time you only need to memorize a small portion each day. I’m a strong believer in setting goals.

KNOW your scales, thirds, and arpeggios. (Go watch the 1970 Disney movie called The Aristocats. There is a cute scene where the cats are practicing their scales and arpeggios.) One reason I emphasize a strong technique is because it makes everything easier, especially memorizing. If you know your fundamentals, you can find those in your music. Once you have discovered them, you don’t have to “read” every single note, you can see it as one idea, so to speak. Compare it to reading. At first you sound out each letter as in C-A-T. Then you see it as one word instead of 3 letters.

IDENTIFY patterns or notes that are almost patterns. I like to label scales or technical passages that are not readily recognizable It’s been handy when I pull my music out years later and I have those already marked in my music. Look for sequences or identify the musical form.

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Flute

Get Started

April 20, 2021 utahfluteteacher

I’m sure you have heard of “writer’s block”. It’s when a writer can’t think of what to write, how to start the story, what character development should take place or where to take the story next. Well, I’ve come up with a new term – “human block”. I’ve decided this means that as human’s we get stuck and have a hard time getting started, don’t know how to proceed, or where things should lead.

My advice to that is GET STARTED!! The popular sports slogan for Nike is “Just Do It.” That can apply to so many things. Sometimes half the battle is simply getting started.

The legendary, masterful Irish flutist, James Galway, is credited to say,

“THE QUICKEST WAY TO UNLOCK YOUR TALENT IS TO TAKE THE FLUTE OUT OF THE BOX.”

Getting your flute out of its case. Sitting down at the piano bench. Opening your textbook or your laptop to do homework. Walking down the stairs to get to the treadmill. Pressing the Reply button on a computer. These are all first steps to progress.

Don’t be lazy. Don’t be sidetracked. Don’t procrastinate.