Flute Lessons

My job is to give people a gift.

That gift is a series of skills.

Sometimes it is very difficult, and takes hours and hours of repetitive practise.

Sometimes it flows easily and smoothly and feels like a culmination or a great achievement.

That skill is music. Music is a place of mindfulness and safety.

That’s my job.

The skills I teach are things like:

--the skill of recognising small details in the moment they are present (aka reading music)

--the skill of taking on a difficult project, breaking it down into tiny steps, and working on step at a time until the project is finished (aka AMEB exams)

--the skill of co-ordinating different senses, like eyes, ears, mouth, fingers, arms, toes, brain, tongue, lips, etc so they work in concert and are able to produce a wonderful product (it’s not just hand-eye co-ordination, it’s hand-eye-lip etc co-ordination)

--the skill of trying and failing, and trying and failing, and trying and failing, and keeping on trying and trying until it works like it should do (fall down 7 times, stand up 8).

--the skill of trying something hard and failing, and then putting it aside for a while to manage emotions and focusing on the positive aspects so it is possible to keep on going (emotional management).

--the skill of learning how to learn. I am still learning, and I’ve been doing this for 20-odd years.

I am a music teacher of the flute and clarinet. I teach classical, a little bit of Jazz, and a little bit of improvisation and creativity. I teach a little bit of theory and a little bit of history of music. Generally I teach beginners, but I also teach intermediate students sometimes.

I started teaching in 2002, and I worked in primary schools for around 10 years.