I think tonight in IMPROV GAMES we'll play a "creature caricatures" version of Animal Adjectives!

Congratulations @Sheri Hudgins!!! You're a rockstar already even though this was your public debut as an improviser!! I was so proud of you for putting on a house recital a few months ago with your family, and now you're officially an improviser since you performed in front of "real people" haha - not your family!!! I knew you could do it though because I've had the pleasure of hearing you improvise in lessons with me for months now! Tell us, how nervous were you and how do you feel about your performance? I'm pleased with it. Your tone is sounding great! And I love that you get into the music and aren't afraid to move a little with it. Isn't it nice to play without a music stand between you & the audience???

Wouldn't it be a cool party trick if you could play flight of the bumblebee in ANY KEY? Get all 12 keys here. Being able to play it at all - even the first line - is a major accomplishment on flute! in the original key! But my music teacher Philip said, "Any song you truly want to master? You should learn to play it in all keys." Wow, was he right - what a great way to train your ears!! I've never performed Flight of the Bumblebee. But I did study it for a while in high school - and I found that my chromatic scale was rapidly improving!! The challenge of playing it made it more fun to practice my chromatic scales. Watch out for those whole steps in there!! It's a really great study all on its own in the original key - starting on E... But since I was thinking that I want to further improve my full-range chromatic scales this year, I thought: what would happen if I transposed it to all keys and practiced each one a few minutes each month??? So I did!!! I found it in the MuseScore archives and was able to relatively easily transpose it to all keys!! And I'm sharing them with you - you can access it here!! Who wants to try it with me?? How many minutes can you handle per week? I might even incorporate this in some of the Atomic Flutist sessions. PS - Made a version with markings indicating when to go down and up and colored brackets to indicate those pesky non-chromatic intervals hoping it might expedite the memorization process!!

Check out this image of the muscles around the mouth. Can you find the Orbicularis Oris? This set of muscles helps us to make "kissy" lips and to create our flute embouchure. It draws the lips together like you're cinching up a drawstring bag.