Life as a Working Musician & Alternate Fingering Articles

Click on jpgs to enlarge & use back button to return.

Dear Flute-lovers,

I just love this podcast about what it's like to be a working orchestral player/soloist/teacher: Stand Partners for Life

The most recent episodes are fascinating!

1. Life as a professional cellist - Robert deMaine is interviewed by Nathan Cole and Akiko Tarumoto.

2. In the hot seat when you play concert master: Nathan Cole and Akiko Tarumoto.

I've mentioned the approachable teaching style of Nathan Cole before on this blog, and have updated my previous blogpost to include his excellent "how to practice" videos. The three practice philosophy videos you'll find at the link above are brilliant. Take some time to translate "violin" to "flute". It really is all massively applicable.

But getting back to Nathan Cole's vunnderbarr podcast;
No. 1 above is yesterday's podcast and is an interview with the brilliant cellist Robert deMaine, listen to them discuss the lives of working classical musicians:

Did you know that the LA Philharmonic members believe that 90% of them have perfect pitch?

Did you know that some absolutely brilliant soloists are last-minute-procrastinators and why they think that is?

Do you know that in order to have the panache to play a huge brilliant solo you may have to just think "fun" not "perfection"?

Can you hear, from the sequence of events in these three classical musician's lives, just how much of their lives have been saturated by classical music and how many brilliant musicians they moved among and learned from?

This is a real ear and eye opener for amateur musicians to listen to!
These are not your high school band stories! :>)

The Cellist being interviewed in the most recent episode, Robert deMaine (see his great masterclass teaching here; especially the JS Bach at the beginning of the video), is also being featured in this week's PBS series on Handel in Italy. The Scott Woo hosted PBS series on Vivaldi, Bach, Scarlatti, and Handel is intriguing and fresh. Have a look: Now Hear This.

Now Hear This on PBS

Click on jpgs to enlarge & use back button to return.

In Canada the series "Now Hear This" is playing through PBS on cable TV's "Great Performances" (we get PBS on our cable TV), but there's a possibility this same series is already on Netflix or other streaming services (let me know in the comments if you've found it there, and thought it was smart television programming! I did!).

US residents can watch the "Now Hear This" series online here on PBS: whole series. 

Hugely informative and all applicable to flute! Enjoy! Loved the Spanish/Moorish/Arab influences on Scarlatti; I KNEW it!

(sorry that Canadians cannot view the US PBS online, but we'll wait for a rebroadcast of "Great Performances on PBS" here in middle of the rainforest. :>)

The fourth (and final) episode on Handel features this same cellist who tells his life story to Nathan and Akiko, Robert deMaine. Entrancing playing.

Enjoy all these wonderful resources!
Comments welcome.

Also:
_______________________
Alternative Fingerings for the Flute: 
Free pdfs with fingerings:

In other news, Nestor Herszbaum, author of the best alternate fingerings book for flute, has uploaded many free alternative flute fingering articles this week as a thankyou to the flute community; help yourselves at this link (and buy his book, which is GREAT!):

Special situation flute alternate fingering articles in pdf

I also recently purchased Ervin Monroe's new Alternative Orchestral Fingerings book, and hope to review it, at some point on this blog, so you'll all know it's worth owning. It truly is.

Best, Jen