Sunday, December 4, 2011
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Yellow Tone
My flute teacher said my yellow tone on my flute is too 'yellow', meaning, it's supposed to be soft tone, but mine is too soft, it lacks energy, I blame lack of practice for that lack of energy.
Planning to devote more time to practise my flute in January next year after the series of deadlines are over! I'll have two full months of somewhat free time to do leisurely things! *glee* In the meanwhile, just gotta bear with the lack of energy (lack of breath).
Planning to devote more time to practise my flute in January next year after the series of deadlines are over! I'll have two full months of somewhat free time to do leisurely things! *glee* In the meanwhile, just gotta bear with the lack of energy (lack of breath).
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Trouble in De-stressing
There is another reason of me taking up flute as my second musical instrument. To de-stress.
I feel kinda stressed in real life, and I miss my piano (which my parents sold off the moment I got engaged to my then-bf, now my hubby), so I decided to start playing a 'lighter' and more mobile musical instrument, mostly to de-stress and rediscover the passion of letting myself lose myself in music again. It's been more than a decade, actually more than a dozen years after I completed my Grade 8 in piano and almost as long to abandon serious music playing since the turn of the millennium.
The box of my then-brand-new flute, got this for myself end Sept just before my birthday in this year, 2011, this is the Yamaha YFL-211 model, fork up some extra money for the Split-E mechanism and I read enough to tell me that it will be worth it when I hit the high 'E' once I get better in the future. I guess emotions are as fragile as the sign on the box.
Yamaha YFL-211 model is my choice of student flute. It comes with a nice bag with an optional sling strap for easier/more convenient mobility. Oh, I'm NOT selling it, btw, I teach copywriting/writing for a living, hence my descriptive product introduction here, lol.
Anyway, I digress. Now, I have trouble in de-stressing. It's a vicious circle. You play music to de-stress and you need to de-stress before you can fully enjoy playing the music.. it's like a chicken and egg situation. When you are stressed, the air/energy flow within just isn't the same as when you are more relaxed, hence when you are blowing the flute, the space within, the embouchure, I think, isn't exactly ideal for the perfect tone. Arggh. I need to loosen up and cheer up. Funny how all the positive terms tend to have the word 'up' in them. I have to buck up then!!!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
My Flute Lessons
I thought I've blogged about my flute lessons or more specifically my flute instructor, as I first referred to him previously, but it seemed that any mention of my flute teacher was mostly on fb, and he isn't my fb friend up to this point, so here's a little post about him.
Let me recap what I blogged about him in my first ever post in my other blog.
He is a gentleman, very polite and cautious when body/skin contact has to occur, and he even asked for permission and apologised in the few instances he needed to touch my fingers or wrist to adjust my posture, and my jaw, to allow the air to be blown in the correct way, and the numerous tensed movements I tend to make.
Okay, that's my No.1 problem during my lessons, I tend to be tensed and couldn't leave my worries and 'stress' at the doorsteps and brought all that into my lessons, I think he's as frustrated as I was. Music is infectious, so is stress. Try being cooped up in a small enclosure for more than 15 minutes with a stressed out person, one-on-one... sure infected by the frustration and the negative vibe one.
Each week, he'll say relax, don't be so stressed, relax, or else you'll have no 'energy' or 'support' from within to play the flute, etc.etc, and each week I give the same feedback to my husband, and THREE months on, after my weekly class, I told my husband my teacher asked me to relax more and my hubby said: "I think that's very consistent" and he almost rolled his eyes.
Anyway, my teacher is oh so very young! He's at least 10 years younger than me. Fresh out from his first Diploma, and taking on a specialised Diploma in Flute with hopes to further his music studies overseas in two years time. Good to have a passion in life to follow through! We do chit chat a bit during the short breaks and also at the end of the lesson while cleaning and polishing our flutes.
Well, there are three reasons why I wanted to take up flute as my second musical instrument:
1. I've always wanted to learn to play the flute since I was a schoolgirl in my early teens.
2. I want to take my mind off my state of childlessness and the 'stress' of not having something I cannot have YET, so instead of stressing myself out over something I cannot control, it's better I learn a new skill that at least I can master and control and it is a good distraction, albeit an expensive one. :-)
3. I love the oboe and flute, especially after listening to "Gabriel's Oboe", and its variations, Nella Fantasia (popularised by Sarah Brightman), and the recent "Whispers in the Wind" by Hayley Westernra.
Oh, I love the song so much (point no.3 above)!
Sarah Brightman's version in Italian, Nella Fantasia:
Hayley Westenra's version (2011) with the original composer helping her with her newest album, English title of the song becomes Whispers in the Dream:
Flute (originally composed as Gabriel's Oboe): - This kid from HK has his own flute video channel on youtube and he's a really hardworking kid:
I've been telling my teacher Gabriel's Oboe/Nella Fantasia/Whispers in the Wind is the song that motivates me to play the flute and he was like !!??!! then he paused and said: Good, have a high aim.
So good luck to me and to him too for having this 'too adult' student, a term I coined for being 'too much of an adult' by overthinking every time I wanna play the flute and fail to relax, lol.
Let me recap what I blogged about him in my first ever post in my other blog.
He is a gentleman, very polite and cautious when body/skin contact has to occur, and he even asked for permission and apologised in the few instances he needed to touch my fingers or wrist to adjust my posture, and my jaw, to allow the air to be blown in the correct way, and the numerous tensed movements I tend to make.
Okay, that's my No.1 problem during my lessons, I tend to be tensed and couldn't leave my worries and 'stress' at the doorsteps and brought all that into my lessons, I think he's as frustrated as I was. Music is infectious, so is stress. Try being cooped up in a small enclosure for more than 15 minutes with a stressed out person, one-on-one... sure infected by the frustration and the negative vibe one.
Each week, he'll say relax, don't be so stressed, relax, or else you'll have no 'energy' or 'support' from within to play the flute, etc.etc, and each week I give the same feedback to my husband, and THREE months on, after my weekly class, I told my husband my teacher asked me to relax more and my hubby said: "I think that's very consistent" and he almost rolled his eyes.
Anyway, my teacher is oh so very young! He's at least 10 years younger than me. Fresh out from his first Diploma, and taking on a specialised Diploma in Flute with hopes to further his music studies overseas in two years time. Good to have a passion in life to follow through! We do chit chat a bit during the short breaks and also at the end of the lesson while cleaning and polishing our flutes.
Well, there are three reasons why I wanted to take up flute as my second musical instrument:
1. I've always wanted to learn to play the flute since I was a schoolgirl in my early teens.
2. I want to take my mind off my state of childlessness and the 'stress' of not having something I cannot have YET, so instead of stressing myself out over something I cannot control, it's better I learn a new skill that at least I can master and control and it is a good distraction, albeit an expensive one. :-)
3. I love the oboe and flute, especially after listening to "Gabriel's Oboe", and its variations, Nella Fantasia (popularised by Sarah Brightman), and the recent "Whispers in the Wind" by Hayley Westernra.
Oh, I love the song so much (point no.3 above)!
Sarah Brightman's version in Italian, Nella Fantasia:
Hayley Westenra's version (2011) with the original composer helping her with her newest album, English title of the song becomes Whispers in the Dream:
Flute (originally composed as Gabriel's Oboe): - This kid from HK has his own flute video channel on youtube and he's a really hardworking kid:
I've been telling my teacher Gabriel's Oboe/Nella Fantasia/Whispers in the Wind is the song that motivates me to play the flute and he was like !!??!! then he paused and said: Good, have a high aim.
So good luck to me and to him too for having this 'too adult' student, a term I coined for being 'too much of an adult' by overthinking every time I wanna play the flute and fail to relax, lol.
My First Flute!
I have a new baby! And it's my new flute!!!
This is actually an overdue post but better late than never!
I am still continuing with my private flute lessons and now, THREE months have passed and I am a proud owner of a brand new flute for nearly a month now. It's the best decision ever to take on flute as my second musical instrument. True, there are hard times when I just couldn't master the techniques and all, but after each breakthrough, the satisfaction is so immense it's overwhelming, like WOW, I actually did that!
My baby, not sure how to take a close shot of the entire length with it fully assembled (flute is in 3 parts, which are to be assembled together), and that's my hubby snapping a shot of me blowing my new flute - I'm loving it! :-)
Usually this is how you look like (proper posture) when blowing a flute: http://0.tqn.com/f/wiki/e/en/thumb/b/b2/Flute_player.jpg/250px-Flute_player.jpg
This new hobby is surely turning into my new passion!
This is actually an overdue post but better late than never!
I am still continuing with my private flute lessons and now, THREE months have passed and I am a proud owner of a brand new flute for nearly a month now. It's the best decision ever to take on flute as my second musical instrument. True, there are hard times when I just couldn't master the techniques and all, but after each breakthrough, the satisfaction is so immense it's overwhelming, like WOW, I actually did that!
My baby, not sure how to take a close shot of the entire length with it fully assembled (flute is in 3 parts, which are to be assembled together), and that's my hubby snapping a shot of me blowing my new flute - I'm loving it! :-)
Usually this is how you look like (proper posture) when blowing a flute: http://0.tqn.com/f/wiki/e/en/thumb/b/b2/Flute_player.jpg/250px-Flute_player.jpg
This new hobby is surely turning into my new passion!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Getting the Hang of Flute After Turning 30
I stumbled across this amazing flautist, Sir James Galway:
http://www.jamesgalway.com/home.htm and the above embedded video was of his flute playing of my fav song (I think most people's too) from the movie Titanic.
Having just started my first flute lesson in August 2011, I decided to at least complete a month's worth of classes before buying my first flute. After about two months of lessons, I've decided to get myself a flute to practise on at home. Then I found out that flute can be quite expensive. Upon further probing, it is expensive as it is hand-made, especially the intricate parts of the instrument. I am deciding between Yamaha YFL-211 and Yamaha YFL-221, they have only slight differences in feature/characteristic, namely the Split-E mechanism that makes it easier to play the High E note.
Been reading the forums/blogs/anything I can get from Google about the reviews/advices and I think my flute teacher is right, they are both okay for beginners and can last a long time. I'm partial to Yamaha, having played a Yamaha piano for the greater part of my youth, I guess it's a personal preference, and the reviews of the Yamaha student flute has been good, from what I could see online. My teacher's first flute is also a Yamaha students flute and he refused to sell it to me as it has sentimental value.. haha.
Will be flute shopping in the next two weeks and I hope to get my flute by my upcoming birthday. Oh, I'm already past 30, so I stopped counting my age from that point onwards. lol
My take on my first flute lesson in my other blog: http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/2011/08/new-passion-kinda-crazy-though.html
http://www.jamesgalway.com/home.htm and the above embedded video was of his flute playing of my fav song (I think most people's too) from the movie Titanic.
Having just started my first flute lesson in August 2011, I decided to at least complete a month's worth of classes before buying my first flute. After about two months of lessons, I've decided to get myself a flute to practise on at home. Then I found out that flute can be quite expensive. Upon further probing, it is expensive as it is hand-made, especially the intricate parts of the instrument. I am deciding between Yamaha YFL-211 and Yamaha YFL-221, they have only slight differences in feature/characteristic, namely the Split-E mechanism that makes it easier to play the High E note.
Been reading the forums/blogs/anything I can get from Google about the reviews/advices and I think my flute teacher is right, they are both okay for beginners and can last a long time. I'm partial to Yamaha, having played a Yamaha piano for the greater part of my youth, I guess it's a personal preference, and the reviews of the Yamaha student flute has been good, from what I could see online. My teacher's first flute is also a Yamaha students flute and he refused to sell it to me as it has sentimental value.. haha.
Will be flute shopping in the next two weeks and I hope to get my flute by my upcoming birthday. Oh, I'm already past 30, so I stopped counting my age from that point onwards. lol
My take on my first flute lesson in my other blog: http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/2011/08/new-passion-kinda-crazy-though.html
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