Friday, February 22, 2013

Mind, Body, and Flute #1

I bought a Chinese flute in Vietnam about a year ago, and after I started to be able to get a sound out of it, I decided to buy a secondhand flute, and for about six months I worked on it by myself. Finally I decided I needed a teacher, and a flautist friend of mine recommended one.
I've now had two lessons, about a month apart, and they have made a huge difference in my playing. My teacher is very knowledgeable about the bodily mechanics of playing the instrument, and he also uses visualizations to help put the body in tune with the instrument.
It's kind of ridiculous for a man of my age to take up a new musical instrument, when I already play saxophone and clarinet nowhere near well enough to satisfy myself. But every instrument is a way of expressing something different, producing a different voice.
Anyway, I've found that practicing the flute hasn't detracted from my saxophone playing at all. In fact, the concentration I need to apply to the sound of the flute when I work on it, the awareness of what comes out of the instrument, is helpful for the saxophone as well.