Starting At 62!!

[Soupy1957]

I’ve GOT a “musical” background. I can “read music” within the lines (if you will), and I have “played by ear” since I was very small.

The piano, organ, harmonica, Native American flute, trombone, guitar, mandolin, ukulele, saxophone and voice, are all instruments I have a history with, at various levels.

So when I lost my first wife of 37 years, and ended up marrying a gal who had spent a good chunk of her life playing and performing and teaching the flute.

There’s a small, but thriving business in Hamden, CT, where I had done some business in the past, purchasing both a tenor and then later on an Alto Sax, (both of which I had not been playing). The guy who runs the place, is a professional player, and a top notch repair person, and so I trotted my butt and my Alto Sax down there, and traded it in on a Student “Standard C” offset Armstrong flute in GREAT shape!

I have developed a lust of songs that I personally like, and have set my sights on elevator music (lol), Jazz and Blues, as my dwelling places, and at a month in, am practicing every day, and loving it.

Working on long tones, (breathing and quality of sound), scales and one or two of the songs on my list....... by the time I’m 70, I hope to be playing skillfully enough to be able to hold my own at a performance level.

There’s a LOT to learn, and I will never learn it all, bug my flute-talented wife is a good teacher, so I’m in good hands. Recently “Retired” from a long career in QA, I gave a good deal of time to devote to it!!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L_vS98gztoU&t=7s

Advice, tips, tricks, or just stopping by here in CT to “woodshed” with flutes, is always welcome!! I’m thinking of opening up our home in fact, to a monthly flute gathering, to all enthusiasts at all levels, to encourage the use and enjoyment of flute playing.

“Peace/Out”

-Soupy

[Phineas]

Advice? Just play the D**N thing.....

That is all

[Soupy1957]

Phineas:

Back in 1998 I think it was, I bought my first house, and I remember asking a friend of mine what I should do, in terms of prioritizing things at the house would need.

His advice, was much like yours, when he said, “just live in it!”

I snickered when I read your advice, because of that memory. That’s exactly what I did with any of the other instruments that I ever played. It’s all about just doing it. Of course that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t get really good advice on hand position and all the other intricate pieces that make a good flute player. Thank goodness I have a wife who knows what she’s doing on the flute and I can learn from somebody who is a quality player!!

[AJplaystheflute]

I watched your youtube videos. Keep it up! I'm a newb at 52, and loving it.Maybe I'll get brave and journal my progress on youtube too. (maybe) I loved your "Twinkle Twinkle little star" duet!