Did you notice in last week's video there were 2 pieces of music stuck to my wall?

What is the flute music stuck to my wall?

Well today I'm giving you a little insight into what I'm practising at the moment. So I thought I'd play you those 2 pieces.

I totally LOVE the melody (at 1:19 in the video), and you'll probably recognise it.

I hope you are having a productive week working on a special piece of music, or simply practising getting a great sound!

Jane xx

Sticking flute sheet music to the wall

Hey there, just a quick video to address two things that I have been asked during the week. Do I really stick my music to the wall as my music stand? Yes. And what's the music on the wall? So question one, do I really actually not use a music stand and why do I stick my music to the wall?

Alternative to music stand

It's because I live in such a small apartment that I trip over a music stand. And because you are all adults, you understand that if you have this at the right height and you can stand at the right angle, it's just as good as a music stand. I tell all of my students, my young students to use a music stand. I never mentioned this cuz you adults, you kind of get that. It's actually the same.

Flute music for performance

Now, what is the music? I am practising for two things. There's a band that I play with. This is music from Star Wars and this is Princess Leia’s theme. It has these massive flute solos. So I'm practising that. I'll play it for you in a sec. And oh, the other one I'll get to in a minute. So Princess Leia’s theme, it's really good. Good for breathing. Have a listen to the breathing. Well, actually the lack of breathing. When you can get long phrases like this, you can play music like this.

Long phrases on the flute

So when I said, when you can get long phrases like that, you can play music like this. I was thinking as I was playing, that was really vague. That was a really vague thing to say.

Small flute embouchure

So what I meant was when you get control of your embouchure and you learn how to have a small enough hole, when you learn how to play high notes, it ends up giving you heaps of air and you can play long phrases like that. And I wasn't even running out between phrases that was very comfortable.

Flute music for marching band

The other piece I am trying to memorize, this is Stars and Stripes, which you probably know because it's pretty famous. I'm playing in a marching band soon, and that is not the size of the music that we play when we play in the marching band. It's like this big. It's really, really small writing and it's bouncing around on your arm. You can't read a thing. So that's why I'm memorizing it. The famous bit is this. And it goes on. Let me just grab the tiny music to show you that explains why I want to memorize this.

Small size of marching band music

So this is the size of the music that I will need to read off as I'm playing in this marching band. When I said read off, that's what I mean by, I really need to memorize it so that I can actually play this while I'm walking around. So that was a little bit of insight into what I'm working on at the moment. I hope what you are working on, whether it's pieces, scales, or even just getting a sound. I hope that's going really well. I'll see you next week.