A letter landed in my inbox last week… Hi Dr. Quiñones, I am currently a graduate student in flute performance. I have always had a drive & joy about choosing this career path. It’s always felt relatively easy to connect with why I want to be a musician or an educator. Lately, though, I’ve felt […]
Tag Archives | boredom
Your (musical) guide to seeking pleasure (and why to stop feeling guilty about it, too)
Quick Question: What are your top 10 personal ‘cure-alls’? Below are my little ‘go to’ for pockets of pleasure: 1. The aroma of yellow buttery dahl from a Bombay café 2. Wearing turquoise anything 3. A cumbia bass-line that beckons a groove 4. Roger Federer in all-white 5. A quirky foxglove 6. Speeding around the Cornish coast […]
How to recharge your flute playing + creativity without spending a dime (I asked, you told)
This morning I was woken by a man driving through the streets yelling through a megaphone that he had brooms for sale. This was then followed by another man with another megaphone selling women’s pyjamas. Then the fruit and veg man arrived with his megaphone, and well, I wish you were here to see how […]
Afraid of your musical burnout? 6 minutes of comforting advice
Recently a letter appeared in my email from a flautist I’ll call ‘Victor’. — Dear Jessica, I studied flute in the school and this year I will graduate from the Romanian music university from Bucharest. I am not graduating from the university in flute performance, but in pedagogy. Currently I do not feel any passion […]
Tap into your musical flow at the upcoming Flowing Flautist Retreat in Cornwall, UK
I’m leading a second Boho Flute Retreat this year in Cornwall… and you’re invited! This retreat is called The Flowing Flautist and is taking place on the 16th-18th of September, 2016. Achieving a state of ‘flow’ is about being ‘in the zone’ and finding the magic in your playing so that you can tap into […]
What I Tell Myself When I Don’t Feel Like Practicing
There’s tons of advice written for how to ‘make the most’ of your practice sessions, but how about getting motivated to pull out your instrument in the first place? Here I share 25+ years of what has worked for me a flautist (and what hasn’t) — Back in the 1990’s when I was an teenager […]
Tired of the usual musical hum-drum? (Of course you are!) Here are 52 flute activities guaranteed to shake up your musical life this year
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 […]