When did all of you professionals start playing flute? How much did you practice? Did you take lessons? Tell me all about it because I seriously want to become a professional someday and I want to see if I am on the right road towards it.

Your success will come from your ATTITUDE to your playing/practicing, mkuch more so even than how long/often you practice, because many people practice how to get better at doing something wrong!

A good taeacher sure helps you to avoid doing things wrong, but in the end it is up to you.

Some people achieve in 5 minutes practice what others would not achieve in hours.

For EVERY note, you must constantly aim to play better, trying different things and selecting what works, sped up, of course, with the help, of a good teacher.

Some people do extraordinarily well with little input from teachers. It is because of their attutde to practice.

Arak speaks true.
Attitude is very important.
Hopefully, A good teacher can put you on track for a good attitude as well as good practice routines and materials.

Practice is very important (and how you do it), Correct repetition of materials such as scales and difficult passages will make the proper technique form and last for a lifetime. Remember that when you learn something it is not only learning notes but coordination as well. Coordination takes time to solidify. To be a musician, you need to learn how to create good habits.

Divide up practice time between different aspects of playing.
Tone.
Fingers..
Tongue...
Tuning.....etc.

Practice as if practicing is your job. One of the problems these days with students is that they take on too much to be very good at anything. They go to college and take on a slew of part time jobs. Maybe out of necessity but this does not change the ultimate result. The result is this does not give them a good foundation of technique for the future because they don`t have or they don`t take the time to practice. They don`t realize that they can`t become very good without a basic 4 hours or more of practicing daily.

Becoming a musician is not always a choice. People do it because they need to relate to others in that medium (Music) or they are drawn to the sounds or the ultimate puzzle which is music. To be a classical musician, takes a huege amount of focus and perfection. My teacher`s teacher said that you ned to play that difficult passage 100 times in a row perfectly before you can guarantee that the performance is perfect. Mess up on the 100th time and you start over.

Musicians are good listeners. They listen and connect to every note that they play. They also listen to others. Recordings and live.

~Bilbo

just to be on the safe side, my teacher keeps telling me this: theres a difference between playing and practicing. Honestly, I play. I dont practice. but i am trying toget better at practicing.

Practicing: breaking the piece up into sections. Play it long/short, different articulations, speeds, faking it, etc.
Playing: playing the piece until you can get it right, not breaking it up, not faking it, etc. You play at slower tempos to get parts right which can be a bad habit, but sometimes good.

I`m not a true professional, yet. But I do have gigs and get paid for it. Any more questions, just ask.

ALSO: when looking for a teacher, dont automatically go for somebody that is the msot expensive/most credited. Go with someone you can stand. My first teacher I had didnt go to college for flute performace/education. But she`s played with James Galway, Jeanne Baxtresser, Ervin Monroe, Shaul Ben Meir, etc. And she was EXCELLENT. Only reason I stoppped with her was because we kept talking too much and I wasnt learning everything. Meet the teachers first and have them explain their teaching rituals.

puppies

How much money do you think a professional flutist makes, like if he or she is in a big orchestra and/or has a recording contract?

Miranda wrote `faking it` as part of practise. IMHO `faking it` is practising NOT doing something correctly, i.e., getting better at doing something wrong, and therefore very destructive to ever playing it correctly. Definitely no place for this in conscientious practise.

But perhaps I misunderstood what Miranda meant.

Quote from Cameron:"How much money do you think a professional flutist makes, like if he or she is in a big orchestra and/or has a recording contract?"

A major symphony first chair musician can make anywhere from $80,000 per year to probably a bit over $160,000 in USD. but there are other perks such as $100+ per hour to teach privately and probably a local university professorship.
But there are relatively very few of those type of positions and the competition is fierce.
~Bilbo

When did all of you start playing?

I started in 3rd Grade in 1963.
~Bilbo

Wow, Bilbo! I started in `98...
And I take it that you are a lord of the rings fan...so am I...
SORRY, off topic....
My old band director told me that if you consider that there are about two flutists in a symphony and that there are three or for symphony orchestras in each state and that there are 50 states, your chance of being a pro is slim, but not impossible...
I wanted to be a pro flutist once (now I am going for a teaching degree to become a music teacher) and the stress is amazing!!! If you can handle it physicaly, great. If you can handle it mentally, Bravo!

I`m not a real big LOTR fan. LOL

Don`t have time.
I`m also not a major symphony player.
At my age, I don`t have the inclination to deal with that much repetition to be 100% on top of the music and I`m not that much of a competetive perfectionist.
I teach and play a wide variety of gigs in my area. I have a nice Fl and Harp dinner music gig comming up that gives me somethnig new to look forward to.

It is my belief that if a person wants to become a pro, then they are going to know that there`s nothing else that they can do with their life....or the job kind of draws them in to it.

~Bilbo

1961

I am not a LOTR fan, but I love the scenery in my country, where it was shot, and I have utter respect for the way Peter Jackson has retained his typically Kiwi ways, in spite of all the success/glamour/media, and the way he has stayed here and not trooped off to Hollywood. He`s a good, down-to-earth `bloke`.

OT:
I was also very impressed with the thouroughness of the work on the LOTR series. Good that he hasen`t fallen into the Hollywood mentality as well. I don`t think there`s anyone out there in this age who has the gumption and originality enough to produce something like LOTR. Then again with all the $ from those blockbusters, he may not need to. Soooo...Any chance he`s going to do "The Hobbit" Prequil?
~Bilbo

I heard he was not going to do The Hobbit any time soon. I read somewhere that he was going to do a remake of King Kong and put off LOTR for a while. Jackson says that he put all of his energy into LOTR and is not ready to do The Hobbit for film yet, but wont sell the rights...
(one of my good friends is crazy about LOTR and everone goes to her for any information they need about the film...)