Tag Archives: flute studies

Day 4 – October 4th – Getting in some real practice!

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Today was the first ‘free’ day we’ve had so far, free as in no lessons, orientation or Tesco trips. Instead, we had the whole day to practise, and plenty of motivation after yesterday’s lessons.

The figures are as follows:

Total hours: 5

Hours practising ‘warm-up’ exercises from Trevor’s Complete Daily Exercises book: 3

Cups of tea: 4

Episodes of Dr Who: 1 (I have to maintain sanity somehow!)

Feeling in lips: …

Trevor dropped by in the morning to give us some goodies from the bakery and bags of locally grown apples and pears. It was lovely, though we are now rather swimming in apples. I do suspect that he might have had another motive for coming round though; when the first comment on entering the door is ‘isn’t it lovely to hear all those scales’, I rather wonder whether he makes regular visits up to the dairies just to check that we’re practising!

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Sunset over the downs

It rained for most of the afternoon, but at about 6pm it cleared just in time for the sunset. Down the road and round the bend, there is a wonderful view out over the downs, and I wandered there along the wet hedgerows. I arrived to see the still-ominous clouds streaked with pink and gold, as if someone had set fire to them.

Day 2 – October 2nd – Orientation

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Well we’ve managed to cram quite a bit into the day and a half since arriving here, Trevor certainly hasn’t given us much time to find out feet!

I’m living in the ‘new dairy’ with Roya from the US and Chin Ting from Malaysia, while the other students are in the ‘old dairy’ down the road. They’re basic but homely, and in the middle of absolutely nowhere. This part of Kent is listed as an ‘area of outstanding natural beauty’ (think rolling hills, fields of sheep and tiny lanes with overgrown hedgerows), and so it’s almost impossible to build anything or widen the roads. On my run this morning, I passed three houses, a church, two tractors and at least a hundred sheep! It was a lovely time of day to see the English countryside, and the sunrise splotches of pink and orange complete a rather picturesque view all the way.

Last night, we were invited for dinner by a lovely family in the village, who accompanied dinner with the promise that the next six months would be tough but worth it. We would all end up in tears at some point, that’s just the way that Trevor teaches.

This morning’s orientation session gave me a good glimpse of the coming months. We alternated some ‘light’ playing with being shown round the flute studio and all its resources. Playing consisted of a lot of warm-up exercises (both for expression and technique), which we are expected to play easily, from memory at each class. After an hour of that and my practice session this evening, I can certainly feel the muscles beginning to work!

Trevor’s studio is fascinating; full to bursting with CDs, sheet music, books and old and ethnic flutes. Quite a sight! In the course of our practice and projects we’ll get to explore and use a lot of things, and I hope I’ll have time to browse as well.

Already there’s a bit too much to write for a quick blog post. For now, though, it’s bed time, to dream of the Moyse and Andersen studies that I’ll be playing in class tomorrow!