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It is with my most sincere and deepest gratitude that I thank the International Double Reed Society for allowing me to reprint the following article, “My Secret Life – Confessions of a Flutist”, which was originally published in The Double Reed Journal, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2008.
 
It represents not only my undying love and enthusiasm for all music, but my passion to learn and grow despite the fact that I am an “adult”. I have often had students assume that since I am all grown up I have stopped my education. I believe that all talented, curious, eager minds seek out challenges. My challenge was…. Well? You’ll just have to read about it!
 
 
    My Secret Life - Confessions of a Flutist
 
It all began quite innocently - this secret life of mine. I saw kids in music school hiding in the basement playing with dangerous tools, but I always thought I'd be safe with my professionally-handcut headjoint purchased years earlier. The stress, the fuss, sharp objects, cold dank rooms. Who needs that? Those poor double reed players and their neuroses.
 
Then I met and fell in love with one of those neurotic knife-wielding freaks. As I helped him laboriously drag around bassoon, contrabassoon, contra stand, the occasional sarrusophone, and a frighteningly ancient tackle box loaded down with reed tools, thirty-year old wire, nail polish and other "important" items, I was ever more grateful that my instruments (plural), music, and music stand all fit nicely into a small backpack. If that weren't bad enough, gig after gig I watched him panic over a wonderful sounding reed, scrape .001 mm here, .002 mm there and then panic some more. "It's too reedy." "No kidding? It's a reed!"
 
Seven months into our relationship he invited me to join him on a trip to Spokane, Washington near the Washington and Idaho border. He would be playing contrabassoon with an oboe band for Handel's Royal Fireworks Music. Oboe band? Another gig? I loved driving across the diverse Washington landscape from our cool Puget Sound region to the dry, hot heat of the Inland Empire. I also loved Spokane and was thrilled to get the opportunity to ride the most amazing carousel I have ever had the joy of riding - the famous 1909 Loofe carousel, a gem left behind from the 1974 World's Fair. Road Trip!
 
I should probably let you in on my secret before I get too far. In those first few months with my future husband I tried the unthinkable - I borrowed a bassoon. It was more of a curiosity at first, like all illicit activities. My husband and I were introduced by mutual friends, a bassoon couple. All our visits seemed to center around Weissenborn trios and bassoon chatter while I sat in the corner quietly reading twenty-year old National Geographics. Clearly, if I was going to be a part of this circle I needed a bassoon. Love drives people to do crazy things. Before I knew it, I had borrowed a bassoon for a couple months until a Fox miraculously showed up in a pawn shop for $150. All legit. Too good to be true. I was now the proud owner of a bassoon. What would flutists think? Well? They don't even need to know.
 
I was anxious to get to Spokane. If you've ever been on the gorgeous...

Often when I ask students why they chose to play the flute, one answer I receive (hopefully among others) is that it is small.  I think many people, including parents of young children, are under the false impression that, because the flute is one of the smaller instruments, it is therefore easier for younger, or smaller players to handle.  While it’s true that carrying the flute back and forth to school or storing it in your locker are easier than with a tuba or string bass, the idea that the flute is easy for little people (or even medium sized people) to play couldn’t be further from the truth.  Of course, that isn’t to say that it can’t be done—it just takes proper instruction and careful habit-forming from the beginning.
 
Actually, the flute can be an ergonomic nightmare if not played properly.  Although the flute is fairly light, it does weigh something (about a pound and a half, in fact), and because the weight of the flute is held asymmetrically, and far from the player’s center of gravity, it can produce quite a bit of strain on the body, even for a full-grown adult.  This should not be surprising if we study the history of the development of the flute.  For many centuries it was considered improper for women to play any wind instrument, so the flute was really developed only with a man’s size and build in mind.  Although women have played the flute throughout most of the 20th century, it really wasn’t until the 1960s or 70s that they started to outnumber men in the field.  Of course, men can also experience tension, strain, or even repetitive stress injury related to flute playing, but they are more likely than women to tolerate some “incorrect” playing without injury, just because they have more muscle mass, and usually, are larger than women in relation to the size of the flute.
 
Only recently has an awareness of ergonomic impact to flute playing come to the forefront.  Ergonomics is the study of repetitive tasks and how these tasks impact our bodies over time, and more importantly, how to perform these tasks in a way which is in harmony with our bodies and their physical capabilities.  I believe that, along with the recognition of ergonomics as a legitimate science, the other factor in its application to flute playing is that all those women who began playing the flute in...