Gotta Be A Flute Player

Tribute to gottabeastringplayer, a blog for flutists!

[gottabeafluteplayer]

how does one pronounce tadeu coelho?

Ta-DAY-o  Co-WAY-lee-ohIdk i’m really bad at spelling phonetically but that’s what it sounds like, with a really subtle “lee.”  

[gottabeafluteplayer]

wow you study with tadeu coelho? he's one of my favorite flutists!

I do! he's amazing, and one of mine too :pI worship Marina Piccinini most of all

[gottabeafluteplayer]

I saw your post about the James Galway masterclass, that's awesome!!!! Where do you go to school?

It was really cool!! :) I got to school at UNCSA, University of North Carolina School of the Arts 

[gottabeafluteplayer]

90% of the class for Aural Skills dictations

[gottabeafluteplayer]

When James Galway freaking drops a microphone onto one of his flutes and the whole studio collectively gasps

[gottabeafluteplayer]

A James Galway Master Class at UNCSA! (Titled "Which of my three gold flutes should I demonstrate this on?")

Really though, 3 gold flutes, a Nagahara, Haynes, and Muramatsu. He'll just have them out and randomly switch between them. 

I was going to ask you guys to guess which one I am in the picture but I'm one of the ones mostly hidden in the back so, nevermind :p 

Edit: here's a slightly better one!!

Anyway it was a really great class!

Edit2: and Galway told Dr. Coelho we have a "Strong Studio" Woo!!    UNCSA Flute Studio has the Galway seal of approval :p :D

[gottabeaviolinist-blog]

Making faces at your best friend during orchestra rehearsal

[gottabeafluteplayer]

When you listen to people performing Bach with un-authentic articulation and vibrato

[gottabeafluteplayer]

When you're in the middle of playing a piece from memory, and you realize you have no idea how the next entrance begins

[gottabeafluteplayer]

Running to get coffee before orchestra

[conductorland-blog]

LEARNING THE ANNUAL SALARY OF MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS

[gottabeafluteplayer]

(OMFG yes. If you haven't seen that San Francisco Symphony article going around it's here, and he makes about $2.4 million a year. Akjfhgkjhg yeah.)

[gottabeafluteplayer]

Your teacher when you try to ask why he wants you to do something

[gottabeafluteplayer]

When you're sure you can do well without practicing, on the sheer power of determination and then.....no.

[gottabeafluteplayer]

Listening to recordings of yourself

[gottabeafluteplayer]

Haven't looked at this page in a really long time so decided to look at it again while listening to my new rep. Finally a month and a half into the semester my teacher finally told me what she wants me to play. (had to focus on mozart because i won a concerto competition and had to perform it again) but let me tell you what a way to be antsy. either way. kept starting the tracks over because i was too distracted by this page. loooove it.

hahaha thanks so much! :D congrats on winning a concerto competition on Mozart! and good luck on your new rep :) 

[gottabeafluteplayer]

My reaction to someone playing music from Baroque to Early Romantic periods on a Boehm flute

[gottabeafluteplayer]

Hi :) I've been stalking your blog for the past while, I love it! I'm in 8th grade and want to be a flute major for college, and I'm just wondering, do you have to be able to play piccolo? I REALLY can't make a noise at all on a piccolo and it just occurred this might be an issue... I hope not.

Hi! Thanks so much :D It generally is good, if not necessary, to play piccolo somewhat well at least, because most flutists won’t be able to play in orchestra for very long with out coming across a piccolo part. But don’t worry too much, I remember those days of not being able to make a sound on piccolo too! When I was in 8th grade at the beginning of the year I went to buy a piccolo because I’d wanted to play it and no one else in my school did, and it took me nearly a full hour of trying various ones to be able to make a sound at all, I felt awful. But it didn’t last long, and I’m sure you’ll be able to do it eventually :) (Have you tried piccolos with lip plates and without? sometimes one is easier to start on than the other!) Then piccolo playing seems scary because it’s an exposed instrument in an ensemble, being the highest instrument and one that isn’t particularly easy to sound “good” on. But if you push through the fact that it’s scary at first, it gets a lot easier as you get better at it, and then it becomes fun! And remember it’s OKAY to be bad at piccolo at first. I think the reason a lot of flutists don’t like piccolo isn’t necessarily because the instrument itself is harder(in some ways it’s easier, being smaller, it takes a smaller amount of air, articluation, etc. And piccolo parts in ensembles are usually as hard as flute parts when you do play, but piccolo rests a lot more so there’s less quantity of it.) but because we’re comfortable with flute playing, and we don’t want to break out of our comfort zone and play something we’re inevitably going to be worse at at first. I went through a phase of hating piccolo at first because I didn’t understand intonation or anything else on it, to now loving it even more than flute, and now piccolo is more my “main” instrument. Sorry if that was long, I just have a lot to say about piccolo :p Let me know if you have any more piccolo questions!! (and anyone else too! :D)