Beware The High Pitches @piccolojesus - Tumblr Blog

fatmaninalittlesuit

Put yours in the tags.

gingersnapdragonspice

Rum

Purpose

Man

gingermaple

Connection

Power

Care

thewriterscall

Doe

Change

Sank

ironfamilycult

Connection

Care

Rough

night0seven-deactivated20210207

Creation

Health

Breakthrough

incorrect-ft-ez-quotes

Power

Family

Gratitude

piccolojesus

Connection

Strength

Money

Umm...ok then

finnlongman

A couple of days ago I played the flute.

Not for the first time in six years, but I can probably count on my fingers the number of times I’ve picked it up. What with the original wrist injury and my shoulders and that neck problem I had in second year and my perpetual headaches and so on, I just… never started playing again. I was good, when I stopped. Working on diploma-level pieces, a genuinely good flautist on my way to being better. I didn’t stop voluntarily, but I could have gone back sooner, and I didn’t.

I played for ten minutes, mostly just slow stuff, a few tunes, and then stopped. My loss of breath control and my weak embrouchure meant that was about all I could manage before my headache got too bad to bear.

Today, I played again. Fifteen minutes this time. I played through the second flute part of the Doppler flute duet, and a movement of a CPE Bach sonata I loved six years ago. It came back… easier than I expected. All those semiquavers, all those accidentals, were still somewhere under my fingers, despite the years since I last played those pieces. My breath control is shot, and my tone isn’t anything like as clear as it used to be, but… I had the notes. I played the notes.

My left hand hurts a little now, from gripping the flute too tightly, but not too much. My head hurt a little afterwards, but not unbearably.

Maybe… maybe I can do this, and it won’t take as long as I thought to be good again. Maybe it doesn’t have to be a slow climb up again from the bottom.

I almost didn’t bring my flute with me to Cambridge when I moved, but I’m glad I did.

justanotherpiccplayer

When you’re practicing for your music exam and you flip violently between “hey this might be ok!” and “I am beyond dooooooooooomed” every 30 seconds or so.

#honestly though

My band director wants all the flutes to switch to piccolo for marching band since there is only 4 of us and I'm stressed because one of us can't even play flute and I can't play or hear piccolo without getting a headache. I hate...... everything

I wouldn’t stress about it right now. Your director will probably reconsider once marching season starts. You might also talk to him personally about it. I know my directer didn’t want all four of his flutes to play piccolo because it’d have to much high pitches and not enough blend.