. My teacher is Karu Hanata (I might bespelling that wrong, if so, I appologize). She is very gifted, most of all with the patience to put up with me and my lack of practice. One day I might actually practice for a whole week and find I have some skill.............or not.
(8/24/01)
So at the end of my first 'semester' at the Blumingdale House of Music, I called it quits. I was not practicing enough to warrant the cost of classes, inexpensively prcied as they were. I have not, at this point picked up my flue at all in at least 4 months. I was actually looking at it the other day and decided that I needed to start playing it some more, and then I sat down in front of the tv for half an hour and theni went to sleep. I guess the problem is lack of instant gratification. I know what i want to do on the flute, i knwo that it is possable, I theoretically know how it is done. the problem is that it never works out to be that simple. Yes music is a series of notes played in accordance to a beat that sets structure for the tune, but its so much more than that as well. It takes a great deal of skill to go from being able to play 3 notes to being able to play a song that only has three notes in it. I have no ability with singing. I quote my father "I couldn't carry a tune if it were welded to my back". I always thought that applied to control of my voice, not an instrument. You see, in my mind, an instrument has precise controls, keys or strings (though controlling a violin is anything but precise but hey thats another amtter entirely) while my voice controlled through muscles with no precise stops at certian musical notes. As it turns out, being unable to carry a tune has as much to do with being able to hold a vocal note as it does with understanding, hearing, and reproducing beat and tempo. I can't. Thus I have to play flute by wrote instead of the normal fashion of reading and playing notes in accordance with a beat. If I have never heard the tune before I have a very had time finding and holding the beat. I have to hear the tune, memorise the timing, and hold to it exactly every time. I cannot improvise and I cannot do it from site reading..... or at least I haven't yet been able to do so.
All that said and done the main reason I am so bad at playing the flute is that I don't practice nearly enough. Or rather I didn't while I was taking lessons and actually pretending to play. It seems I have given up the pretense. Hopefully I will try again soon.
(09/20/01)
It is now a new year (Jewish Calendar) and I have not yet picked up my flute since the last tme I updated this page (and for a considerable time before that). Also since the last time, I have seen with my own eyes how important it is NOT to put things off by even a single day. So, I have some extra time tonight. I will be cooking and while things sit in the oven, I will pick up my flute for the first time in nearly 6 months. I'll report here (mostly for my own sake, as no one else reads this page) how bad I sound.
(10/26/01)
I don't sound bad at all. That is because i haven't played a single note. So much for not putting things off.