About a month ago my son had his “beginner band concert” where all the first-year music students showed off how much they’d learned over the course of the school year. It was a charming night that made me remember my own school music concerts fondly.
The concert also featured something called the Parent Band, which consisted of parents of some of the second-year music students, all of whom had been taught to play their child’s instrument by their child. I thought it was the coolest idea ever.
Inspired by the Parent Band and feeling the urge to play music again, I’ve enlisted my son to teach me everything he’s learned so far about playing the flute. I am now the most inexperienced flute player in the house, behind my son and my wife.
I am having a few difficulties.
First off, the reality of being taught by a ten-year-old is much different than the fantasy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful opportunity to bond with my son, but he also has ADHD and doesn’t pay very close attention to what I’m doing. Several times now I’ve had to ask him a question only to find him engrossed in something else entirely. It’s been about two weeks and I’ve learned three notes, and I’m having trouble with the third.
Second, the flute is a much different instrument than the one I played for nine years of my schooling, the trumpet. That brass baby had three valves and I only had to worry about the actions of one hand. There’s a lot more going on with the flute and my fingers stumble across its length at best. My brain also has difficulties remembering the different fingerings of the three notes I know, with the aforementioned third giving me trouble. This is not easy for me.
Last but not least, I grip it way too tight. Maybe I’m not accustomed to such a light instrument or maybe I’m just naturally tense these days, but my fingers clamp around the flute to the point where I start to hurt myself. I’m trying to actively relax my grip, but something in my brain tells my hands to hold on tight! That’s going to take some work.
For all my troubles learning the flute, I’m fulfilling a childhood desire. The flute was one of my original instrument choices from my elementary school days, but for whatever reason they gave me the trumpet, which was not one of my choices. Maybe it had something to do with an outdated “only girls play the flute” attitude because there were no boy flutists during my school days. Thankfully my son is among several other boys learning the flute this year.
Maybe I’ll stick with this and be chosen to play in the Parent Band next year, or maybe I’ll learn there was a reason I wasn’t given the flute as a kid.