I had my first flute lesson of the summer the other day. Me teacher talked a lot about playing with passion and with out passion, music is just dead music. And I completely agreed with this. Her opinion of my video was that it lacked this passion. (which I can also understand). Right now, I feel like I am getting really discouraged by playing and I feel like I just don't have the motivation to sit down and do what needs to be done with my music. I am in a lull of sorts. So I would like to know what some of you do to help you get out of a lull when you have one.

I am just trying to listen to a lot of flute music and think about flutes all the time to try and spark that fire that I know I have.

Can you please help me?

Spencer, your video was very good and you have received very good opinions from people that really knows what they are talking about.

Your teacher is either much better as a flutist than anything I can imagine or simply, she was trying to push you go further and higher by criticizing your performance on subtleties that are highly subjective.

I am more inclined to think of this second possibility; but judging by the results. she did this quite badly if you have got discouraged (sorry I have doubts concerning the word "lulls", due to my imperfect English).

Do not let your teacher -or any teacher- discourage you. She is there to help you improve your performance and this must include self-esteem above all.

She sure is a great teacher but she is wrong in that part of her method.

It may be time for you to explore new paths and have some professional teachers/masters listen to you and give positive critics, even if there maybe things to be criticized, as there always are.

I agree that your video is good, here is what I tell students when I do classes overseas, as I usually have to work through a translator..

when you are playing a piece, think of what scene it would represent in a movie or theater piece, then put yourself in that part..play as if you are one of the actors..the passion and expression will follow as you have then personalized your piece, otherwise it's just notes...

don't play the flute, use it to express the emotions that we all have..

Spencerflute, it's perfectly fine to feel discouraged sometimes. Somehow we need to find a way to both accept and appreciate our current abilities. You will never be the best flutist in the world, simply because there is no reasonable way to define what this would be. There will always be different opinions about what the best interpretation might be of a piece. That we are aware of numerous things that we might want to improve about our playing does not mean that we should not enjoy the good music we create in the process.

Value in music exists on many different levels. If a friend sings “happy birthday to you” on your birthday, you will enjoy it even if there are some false notes or if the voice is not powerful like an opera singers. If you spend a summer afternoon in a park, and the local schools big band starts playing, you might be smiling and singing the melody to yourself as you walk home. Sometimes you will like a performance because you get impressed by the fast tempo of it, and sometimes you will love the performance just because it happens to match the mood you were in when going to the concert.

If I would give some practical advice, I would say that you should try to find a few performance opportunities that are more for fun. Playing with others always inspires me. Join a new ensemble/band or just get together with some other musicians for the fun of it. Why not go busking, or do some other activity that is new to you musically? If you are discouraged by the specific piece, maybe it is time to put it away for a while? If you come back to it later you might have new perspectives and ideas for it.

Your video was very well-played, your phrasing admirable, and you had a marvelous low range. Besides a few intonation problems, you should feel very proud of yourself. Just remember that just because someone doesn't like a performance doesn't mean that you should give up. Take your teacher's criticisms politely, and ask him or her for suggestions.

Also, your teacher may be one of those people who believes in using dramatic effects extensively: massive swells and crescendoes, tempo changes where they aren't written, etc. These techniques are often useful when playing repetitive music like some ofBarber's, but Canzone could have sounded great with or without drama. While you may have had chances to add dynamic changes and more, your performance expressed that these really aren't necessary for beauty.

I have found that myself and many of my fellow musicians fall into the trap of playing everything "correctly," with all the right notes at the right time at the right volume with the right dynamics and vibrato and the appropriate tone color, simply because those are easily identifiable factors and therefore easy enough to fix with proper amounts of regimented practice. While playing the music "correctly" is very important, because to do otherwise would be a great disservice to a composer too far dead to defend their works from the misguided creative impulses of the modern performers, it is also important to realize that the composers intended their music to have life beyond the page and not simply exist as sound. I believe it was Stravinsky who said that "writing about music is like dancing about architecture," and it is in the analysis of this matter that his words become so poignant. The resistance of the true essence of music to be put into words is what makes it so elusive, so enticing, and yet so frustrating for those of us who desperately need to capture it consistently. Instead of reading what dolts like myself have written on a topic that is by its very nature indescribable, I would suggest listening to any and all music that has the ring of passion among the notes. From the great flutist Irena Grafenauer, to Janis Joplin, to Pink Floyd and Paul Simon and a million other artists who have found what we are all looking for, listen to performances that you like not only because the music is good, but because they speak to you in a way you can't describe. That element is what we all must capture if we want to perform something that will take the listeners' collective breath away for the sheer beauty of it all, and not simply dazzle them with technical prowess.

Good luck, because that indescribable element is one slippery devil.