May 2022
Unfortunately, the madness in the world continous. It is hard to keep living normal. But it is necessary, no weakness is wanted in my work as a nurse. We care for old and sick people and they need us strong and cheerful.
Music is a great escapism for a Flute Rookie like me. Tone for tone, note for note, bar for bar, step for step, glance at note for glance at note, pause for pause, word for word. Until a tender indifference makes the horrors in the world outside fade away.
Old music with its tactus. Taken out of a time like ours now. Works very well as an escape from reality. Monteverdi: the Vespers of the Virgin Mary. Joyful and peaceful at the same time.
I take a name like that and put it in my blog post. As if I hope it will have an effect on the reality out there.
Yet I'm still muddling around very beginner-like in the second school of notes by Weinzierl and Wächter.
I'm learning the C sharp. That's quite tricky again. Not necessarily when I'm doing a finger exercise to get used to it. The problem only arises afterwards, when I want to play something I already know. Then the fingers usually want to play the C sharp and not the desired C.
Interesting: it's not the new note increase that becomes the problem, but the root note.
The flute has held up so far, I haven't had to consult a flute doctor. My flute teacher took an interest in my experience and was rather surprised that I hadn't taken out instrument insurance when I bought it. I can remember darkly that this would have been possible. But I would never have dreamed that such a misfortune would happen to my silver friend and me.
I can understand that she had taken out insurance. She is a professional musician and her flute cost more than twice as much as mine. In this case one is certainly more motivated to take out an insurance policy.
At the moment, I have even less flute lessons. My teacher is in a strenuous study block for several weeks again and her remaining time has to be carefully divided for the children and family.
I'm still used to that from the lockdown and I don't mind. So I practise the old pieces again and again by my own.
But I bought some sheet music from the second-hand bookshop for a few Euros. All three in English and intended for Level One. Just couldn't resist. ;-) One is a school by an Englishman who has simplified a few Beatles songs very much. Some of them I could probably play already, but I'm still missing a few notes for most of them. The other one is an American method for a flute student and, to go with it, a booklet with additional warm-ups, scales, easy note studies and technical drills. (I'll have to look up what "dril"l means exactly).
But now I really mustn't buy anything extra.
I don't get it quite right any more. Some time ago I read in the book about the flute by James Galway that he likes to keep his instruments in a north-south direction when not in use. It is not verifiably, but it could be that the molecular structure of the metal is in for a better vibration and the flute sounds better when played.
So it is very fortunate that I store the flute in my music room on the cupboard in exactly this direction.
Yes, I have the infinite luxury of having an extra room in my flat with two small cupboards, a pile of shoes, my digital piano, a music stand and the now many sheet music for piano and flute.
However, so that it doesn't sound too perfect: the hoover and the ladder are also stashed in there.