Hold on, now. By ‘prostiflute’ I am not talking about mixing prostitution from the red-light area of your favourite city with being a flute player (now that would be a highly fascinating blog topic, no doubt). To be a ‘prostiflute’ (which by the way is not my term,* but is oh so fitting, no?) is to use your […]
Musicians who show the world who they are boldly and without any apologies are game-changers for us all. I am talking about artists who are openly unabashed about what they do. The ones who continually aim to unedit their artistic expression. The ones who tend to ignore sentences like: …if I stay with what’s in the rule book I’ll be fine! or […]
Have you been able to witness it? In a recital, on the hi-fi, over Wi-Fi, a bar, or in your car? The air changes, becoming electrically charged with something. Your bum ceases to wiggle about in your seat. You stop worrying about that WhatsApp message niggling you and quit second-guessing whether you’ve locked your doors. You […]
Do you ever get frustrated doing the same ol’ same ol’ musical stuff year after year? I sure do. You know what I mean: Masterclasses. Practice. Auditions. Lessons. Winning. More lessons. Exams. Rehearsals. More practice. Losing. Recitals. Lesson planning. Teaching. Competitions. Marking. Writing. Job applications. More (fill in the blank). Be one of the few […]
Is the current musical story that you like to tell about yourself full of your awards, your previous teachers (from 20 years ago), the festivals you played at in 1991, and the numerous fancy degrees you’ve earned? First, well done on that. Secondly? –and I am going to be blunt here– please spare us, even […]
“I used to be so goooooood on the flute!”, exclaimed a British client of mine I’ll call ‘Julia’. “Now I hardly remember my scales, my tone sounds awful and I think I sound rubbish– it’s really depressing to hear myself now compared to how I used to play when I was younger”. Julia, age 41, was at […]
With phrases slung around like ‘music must be your blood!’ and ‘she was born with her instrument in her hands’ and ‘she would be so lost without her music!’ rife in conversations about musicianship, let me share a truth of mine with you: Possessing a flute career is not the centre of my world and […]
What’s that? You’re struggling with your musical improvisation? No matter which genre you play, ask yourself these 5 questions next time you keep banging into Your Resistance: 1) Have you accepted that your fear of it is part of the process of learning how to improvise? It’s not just you who is scared. In Argentina, tango […]
By now you might have found out that unless you venture to Buenos Aires, resources for playing/ finding tango music scores can be slim-pickings-sorry-charlie if you don’t know where to look. That’s why I am thrilled to help. Here are my all-time top 10 (in no particular order) http://www.todotango.com This bilingual website allows you to to view many […]
You have Piazzolla’s 6 Etudes/ Libertango/ Le Grand Tango in your hot little hands. You love playing the score. In fact you revel and delight in it. You think you could become a tango musical Jedi equivalent if you just knew how to play more authentically. So you dream about venturing to Buenos Aires to immerse […]