This is Brandy playing the flute with her church chamber orchestra on Easter Sunday. Brandy is a brilliant, bubbly, and very on the ball musician and educator. You and your kids will love her!! She just enrolled a new student the other day, getting busier every week. Don’t miss out!

Here’s a cool story from one flautist about why they chose flute:

“Well… I have a pretty fun story. It all began waaaay back in about 1982 when my family was cleaning out my grandpa’s old root cellar.He was moving to another town, so we had to get everything out of the house. I was only about ten years old and had fun looking for all the treasures you can find in an old farmhouse.

On the last day of cleaning out the house, I thought to shimmy myself down into the root cellar. It was musty and full of dirt and a few rotten potatoes. I was poking around in the dark with my hand outstretched, afraid of mice and spiders when I suddenly felt something hard. It was a flute case. Seriously. I remember my heart pounding as I pulled it out into the light and opened the case to find a real, genuine flute.

This new ‘found’ flute was old. I found out much later that it was one of the first made of its kind in the early 1960’s. Older than dust, but it kind of worked. My parent’s couldn’t find the owner, so it was all MINE.

A little background to this is that my older sister had a flute, but I wasn’t allowed to touch it. Ever. I don’t think she had any idea how much I wanted to get my hands on that shiny tube. I do remember hiding in my closet sitting on the bumpy shoe pile (with our hung Easter dresses brushing the top of my head) and trying to figure out how to play her flute. She would have sister-strangled me had she known…

My Early Days with the Flute

My start to learning, playing, performing, and teaching the art of flute was all serendipitous. I had a flute of my very own now!
I didn’t want to waste a moment. I felt I had been literally ‘given’ a chance at something I could be great at.

I worked hard. Boy, did I work hard to learn how to play that instrument. I look back now and see that I was quite competitive, and wanted to be really good at playing the flute.

Now it’s my job to help others on their own pathway to flute-success.

Challenges and Learning Experiences

I was determined to play well, and I thought it was so pretty. What an elegant instrument. I had a guitar, but I had even more reasons for why the flute was calling me.

I like to challenge myself and do it myself also. I also wanted to be a soloist. I had primarily used my guitar and the little piano skills I had to accompany my sister (who was playing the flute). I think I subconsciously wanted to be upfront.I also wish I’d had some better direction those first few years. I could have really saved myself a lot of time and effort.
It wasn’t until two flute teachers and three band instructors later that I started to see the correct ‘light’ in my tunnel of effort. I also learned that not all so-called experts are created equally. So, once I found a pathway that led to quick, easier, and more natural feeling results, I definitely perked up to listen and learn.

I auditioned and won a big music scholarship to a University that changed my life. Not only did I find a flute teacher of my dreams, I found a hunky football player there and married him.

I had some little habits to break, but I fixed them with some concentration and focus within not too much time. I also had some natural skills that I was ever so grateful I hadn’t messed up with strange ideas that float around out ‘there’. My band teachers had been trumpet players.. They did their best, but definitely didn’t know how to help the flute players much with tone.

My favorite times were playing flute for fun with friends and gifted accompanists. I was asked to perform for loads of people, especially in church. That seemed to spark my drive. Once I found other musician friends who wanted to play music with me.. There was no going back. I was hooked. Music would be in me for life.”