Where else in your life are you improvising? How are the elements you improvise with there comparable to the elements of music you improvise with on flute? For example, I love to freeskate: Since I started freeskating, I view every surface as having a certain "friction quotient." Super smooth polished stone is like a 10 and gravel is a zero. Super duper smooth is fun but a dangerous challenge. Super rough is more of a workout and makes some tricks impossible. This is maybe like the difference between playing a passage on flute very fast or very slow. Or all slurred versus all staccato. Sometimes I encounter an unexpected obstacle when I'm skating, like a rock, stick, or crack in the concrete. When this happens, I may have to improvise with my foot position on the skate... or with the direction I skate away. This is kind of like on flute playing through an unexpected burp, hiccough, or spit bubble... Or playing through a passage with your flute placed at a not-ideal position on your face because you don't have time to readjust at that moment. Or playing a different scale segment than you originally intended because you overblew the first note and it jumped up the harmonic series. Where else in your life do you see analogies to musical improvising?

If you could design the flute of your dreams, what would its characteristics be and what COLOR would it be if it could ANY color... besides the obvious precious metals?? My purple flute doesn't resonate quite as beautifully in the upper register as my Pearl flute! But it seems appropriate for this song: Colors Flying! I'm grateful to have it for making music while my fav flute is in the shop. If you could have any color what would you choose?!

We'll do a little bit of both tonight in Improv Games 🙃

Good music singing from atop a lonely lighthouse sends waves of connection across the sea To people who thought sometimes they were lonely Until they heard coming from afar -- a melody! As they listened stronger, the song became clearer the melody from the lighthouse made the neighbor seem nearer! It wasn't long before they were humming along... When the groove came clear, they stomped their feet snapped their fingers and began to sing! Isn't how music brings us together amazing?

Movie music is usually epic. It HAS to be highly dramatic!!