Flutewise Club Online

As life seems quite sometime away from getting back to normal I thought you might appreciate the opportunity to join in some online activities. The Flutewise Club Online is designed for young flute players of all levels and their parents. They will be held on zoom and each one will last for about 30 minutes. They will take part once a month on a Tuesday at 6.00 pm and once a month on a Saturday at 4.00 pm. 

Each Tuesday meeting will have a theme and for some of them we will have a visit from a surprise guest artist (I have many wonderful friends around the world who are famous flute players and enjoy sharing their expertise with young players - you never know who you might meet!). We will also play an ensemble piece with backing track during the sessions. 

Saturday meetings will offer the opportunity for flute players to perform a piece they know well, making a mini concert. Of course you don’t have to play, being an audience member is equally important.

To take part you need to be a Flutewise member. This is easy, if you have been involved in our events in the past eg been to a residential course or have been involved in online activities this year you will have automatic membership or you can join for an annual fee of £10. You can attend as many or as few meetings as you like, you just need to register your interest at least a day before a meeting so I can get appropriate music to you.

The dates planned will be as follows (all subject to change):
Tuesday 16 February 6.00 pm - theme - practice! Ensemble piece - bookable now

Saturday 20 February 4.00 pm - concert time - offer to play a solo or just come and listen - bookable now

Tuesday 16 March 6.00 pm - theme - fun with scales. Ensemble piece

Saturday 27 March 4.00 pm  - concert time - offer to play a solo or just come and listen

Tuesday 13 April 6.00 pm - theme - warming up. Ensemble piece.

Saturday 1 May 4.00 pm - concert time - offer to play a solo or just come and listen

More dates to follow

Flutewise Springerval Event

Hi everyone

I hope you are well, safe and happy in these very strange times. I think we all all despondent at how difficult life is, but we are lucky as we have our flutes. 

In December Abbie and I ran a Flutewise online event. We really enjoyed it and it seemed to work very well. Abbie is always so creative with her musical stories. Because of its success we’ve decided to run another one in February, on Saturday 27th February starting at 2.00 pm. It will also about 3 hours plus a break in the middle. This event will have a ‘Spring’ theme and will include a warm up, a quiz/competition, a new story from Abbie and some play along music. It will be suitable for all levels of players. I know it will be fun and we’ll all learn something. The bookings are already coming in fast, so hurry to book your place if you want to come.

For our Springerval event we are working with Claire Harvey from the Jersey Academy of Music. A plan for the future is to have a Flutewise Party event over on Jersey when we can. It’s a beautiful music school with residential accommodation and Jersey is a great place for a family break. Goodness knows when this will happen, but it’s a positive thing to have dreams and plans for the future.

Have you any thoughts about what you would like Flutewise to be doing for you now or in the future? I’d love to hear from you and I might be able to make them possible - go on, challenge me!

Happy flute playing

Liz

Website Update and Flutewise Winterval

Hello!

I hope you have been enjoying a really lovely Christmas. I have, even though it was so much quieter than normal.

I have been keeping myself busy with working on a huge new look our website. I'd love to know what you think about it. It's now possible to leave comments here on the NEWS page, so it would be great to hear your views.

Abbie Burrows and I have also been working on our Flutewise Winterval Spectacular event which is taking place online on Tuesday 29 December. It's going to be lots of fun. If you haven't booked a place yet there is still time. All flute players are welcome to join us. Book here.

Stay safe and happy and enjoy playing your flute.

Happy flute playing

Liz

The Flutewise Winterval Spectacular

We are really excited about this!

All young flute players (and their parents/carers) are welcome to join in with this very special online Christmas event with the amazing Abbie Burrows and Liz Goodwin, on Tuesday 29th December starting at 3.00 pm.

There will be:

• a Christmas themed warm up and workshop

• Enjoy Abbie’s Magic Christmas story

• Join in with a play along of some festive music

• Take part in a Christmas related competition

• And more …

This event is suitable for players of all standards of school age.

Book early to guarantee a place and claim an early bird discount.

Cost £15 but if you book by 23rd December you can have an early bird price of £10

We will start at 3.00 pm. There will be a 30 minute break at approximately 3.45 followed by a further session lasting about an hour.

Flutewise News October 2020

Hello 

I hope this finds you well and happy and still enjoying your flute playing in these very strange times. I think we all thought life would be back to normal by now, but it looks like we have a bit of a way to go yet.
I've come up with a couple of things that might keep us all busy and happy. One is a new Flutewise Challenge and the other is to do with music reviews.
Flutewise Challenges.
Over the summer lots of us had great fun with the Flutewise Challenges. Toady I've just added a new one. You need to registerif you want to take part and then I'll send you the link to see all of the challenges. You can do any of them that you like to look of and once you've sent in your first video you will win a place on our Flutewise Party that I will arrange once life is back to normal.
Flutewise Reviews
We've also got a new section on the website dedicated to reviews of new flute music. There are some fantastic videos ready for you to see and you can also apply to become a Flutewise Music Reviewer. Please have a look at the videos, some of our Flutewise members have worked really hard and a special mention should go to Emme Hensel who composed the jingles. Emme is only 11 and her work is all very impressive.
I'd love to hear from you to know what you are up to or if you've got any ideas about Flutewise.
Enjoy half term.
Happy flute playing,
Liz

Flutewise Newsletter September

Hi everyone

It’s great to see some life returning to some sort of normality but we do live in strange times. It seems playing the flute or singing in groups is still not something we can do safely. I know, this is so sad, but it’s all to do with lack of research findings on how badly the virus is spread from aerosols when we breathe out. I think most people understand about it being spread by droplets when people sneeze or cough and we’ve all learnt the importance of washing hands, wearing masks and keeping a distance from people. But we are still waiting for guidance over aerosol dispersal.

You might have seen ‘flute playing masks’ of various sorts on social media and even bags that cover your whole flute and hands. If it is found we can catch Covid 19 from aerosol dispersal I would suggest these are a really bad idea as they give a false sense of security. We all really must stay safe and look forward to when we can meet and play our flutes again together. As soon as I know it is safe to do so I will start organising events. I do miss them!

All of the people involved have all thoroughly enjoyed our weekly Flutewise Party Challenges. As so many people are going back to school now I thought we’d stop these for the minute and have another challenge over October half term. It will probably be an ensemble piece with parts for all standards. I’ll send out details nearer the time and I hope everyone wants to join in. If you want to you are welcome to do any of the past challenges at anytime. You just need to register and I’ll send you details.

Enjoy the start of the new term and whatever you do, stay safe.

Happy flute playing

Liz

Flutewise News June

I hope this finds you well, happy and enjoying your flute playing during these strange times. I know everyone is finding life difficult in different ways, but we are lucky to have our flute playing to keep us engaged.
Some of our Flutewise members have signed up and are taking part in our Flutewise Challenges. Each week I set a new challenge and people can submit their videos. The results have been absolutely wonderful, our young flute players are very creative and talented. I can't share the videos with everyone as Flutewise as  and organisation has extremely high safeguarding guidelines. However if you do get involved and submit a video you will get access to some of them. You can sign up here  All ages and standards are welcome to take part and the prize is a place at our Flutewise Party sometime in the future (I hope it isn't too long in the future).
Sadly our residential course at Wycombe Abbey has been cancelled due to the Coronavirus.
I heard from my friends and colleagues in Croatia yesterday asking what my plans were for the summer school in August. I booked my flights way back in January and I would love to be able to travel and run this amazing course. I've been doing it for over 20 years and it really is the highlight of the year. I have no idea if anyone will be able to travel (or would want to) in August, but if I can, I will be there and the course is booked to go ahead. Fingers crossed. Please get in touch with me if you have booked to go or are thinking about it.
I received a lovely surprise in the post yesterday from my friend Erich Tucker in Dallas. He sent me 3 flute hats! See the photo below.
Enjoy the sunshine during June and keep safe.
Happy flute playing
Liz

My wonderful present from Erich

Flutewise: Let’s Play Together Party!

How would you like to win a place to our Flutewise: Let’s Play Together Party? We don’t know when it will happen yet, but we can all look forward to the day it does.

To make sure you have a free invite you need to collect points. To collect the points you need to get involved in our Flutewise Challenges. I’m sure you will have great fun taking part. The people who get the highest number of points will also win a Flutewise Goody Bag which will be available during the Flutewise: Let’s Play Together Party event.

This is how to get involved and gain points:

1. Sign up using the form below   

2. You will be sent details of how to submit your entries by email

3. Complete the challenge that will be set each week and submit it

4. Collect points

5. Complete the next challenge, submit it

6. Collect points

7. Complete the next challenge, submit it

8. Collect points

9. etc - it really is like Groundhog Day as we have no idea how long this will go on for.

This competition is open to all keen flute players, it doesn’t matter what your standard of playing is.  You will need to submit videos of your work in the way I will ask you to. All of your details will be kept confidential and no videos will be shared without your permission. There is no cost involved. People who collect enough points will be invited to our Flutewise: Let’s Play Together Party! with a parent or two. Points will be awarded for:

1. taking part

2. inventiveness 

A new challenge will be announced each Sunday on the Flutewise website and Flutewise FaceBook page and Flutewise Challenge FaceBook. Music will be sent out by email to everyone who has registered.

The challenges will involve flute players producing a short video of a performance on a set theme, eg. a piece of music will be sent out to registered people plus an instruction, to use as a starting point for their performance. 

Please note Flutewise is UK based. Anyone is invited to take part but the Flutewise: Let’s Play Together Party event will be held in the UK (and maybe in Croatia)

Please complete the form below and then you will be sent email details about what happens next.

Registration to take part in our Flutewise Challenge

Coronavirus isolation ideas

Hi everyone,

We do live in strange times at the moment, but we are lucky that we have our flute to keep us busy. I hope you are getting plenty of time to play without annoying your family or neighbours too much! I’m being kind to mine by playing in different parts of the house each day.

All Flutewise events are on hold at the moment of course. As soon as we know life can return to normal we will get busy again.

To help keep everyone busy and in touch I’ve set up a new Facebook group - Flutewise Challenge. This is a private group and you need to answer 3 questions to be able to join (this is to help keep us all safe). I thought it would be a fun thing to do to offer you a challenge every few days. You can either just enjoy doing the challenge or you can upload a video on the Flutewise Challenge group. You will be able to receive feedback on what you’ve done by some of your favourite Flutewise Team.

The first challenge is to play Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Also on the Flutewise Facebook page, which anyone can see, I’m sharing links of any really good interesting flute things I come across. So if you need inspiration please have a look.

Take care, keep in touch and enjoy your flute playing,

Liz

Flutewise News February 2020

Hello

How is your flute playing going? I'm a bit sad at the moment as my flute is not working 100%. Tomorrow morning I'm off to Just Flutes to see Ian McLauchlan and I'm hoping he can put it right quickly. We rely on our instruments working properly so much, it's hard when they don't.
I've been using the time when I could have been playing my flute working on our big project, Flutewise: Let's Play Together. It's making really good progress and I should have lots of information to share with you soon.
If you are wishing travelling distance of Brighton, you can have a taste of this project if you come to our Flutewise Club next Sunday. Please book in advance so I can have enough music ready.
Are you or do you know anyone who would like to come to our residential course at Wycombe Abbey in August? I really could do with people letting me know very soon so I know we have a viable course.
There has been quite a lot of interest in our Croatia course this summer. Have a look at our website and see if you are tempted. It really is a magical experience.
Happy flute playing,
Liz