Flute Instructor in Boston, MA, South Shore

There are so many things about flute that I like. The flute is an instrument which can make anyone proud to be a musician.

Although there are many instruments available on the market, the flute has its advantages which make it appealing to many people. Aside from being easy to travel with, flute is superior to others in many different ways.

Since the ancient times, the flute has been around giving pleasure to its listeners. Today, it is much more appreciated as you can see in orchestras and TVs. What's good about the flute is that it is versatile and could be use in different music genres.

Any person, at any age, can learn to play this. Since it's neither heavy nor big, young children or senior citizens can carry this around anywhere.

One more thing about flute is its price. If you're looking for an inexpensive instrument, this might be your choice. The price isn't going to be a hindrance to those interested in learning the flute. Actually, people from all walks of life seem to like it and want to play it. The sounds the flute makes appeals to people who like pop and classical music, so the audience is really diverse.

Adult flute lessons are also pretty beneficial when it comes to health. It has already been proven that music is able to lower stress level, making it loved by people with heart ailments or just plain stressed by everything. Because the flute is a woodwind instrument, you would have to breathe correctly. With adult flute lessons, you will be taught the proper way of breathing. This correct breathing gives you more air capacity in your lungs.

As an adult, you rarely have time to relax. But honestly, you should. It has many benefits on your physical and mental health. And what's the better way aside from playing the flute? You should take time to learn this instrument; you definitely have nothing to lose but so much to gain. Sure, you may spend a lot of time practicing and playing it, but it's worth it.

Even though you need to be disciplined in learning the flute, you still get to learn some lessons. The many virtue you develop will be a permanent help to you in dealing with work, family and school matters. It's a win-win situation.

The flute is easy on the ears, looks great on anyone, and most of all, it's fun. You've got no excuse for not learning this, except for laziness. But if you stop and think about all the benefits the flute could give you, you will surely change your mind. Who cares if you're already an adult just starting to learn one instrument? At least you have the chance to play it.

What you can do afterwards is play in front of your friends and family. That way, they can see your skill and possibly an improvement in your lifestyle. If you're lacking self-confidence, this is the perfect time to boost it up. Music, unknown to many, can be the answer to many questions in life.

Playing the flute can be easy with proper guidance. Build a strong foundation with our professional adult flute lessons. Flute Lessons Singapore, sharing the love for flute in Singapore. http://www.flutelessonssingapore.com

Yulia Berry is a flute instructor offering exceptional private flute and recorder lessons to dedicated students in Boston, MA, South Shore. She is currently accepting new students.
Go to http://www.Flute-Instructor.com for more information.

This article takes a look at musicians' injuries. For an expert perspective, I interviewed Dr. Sarah Mickeler, B.Mus., D.C. Dr. Mickeler is a former professional musician and a chiropractor who concentrates on musicians' injuries in her practice.

1) What led you to specialize in musicians' injuries?

I have a very personal connection to musician's injuries. I had trained as a classical clarinet player and it was during my undergrad that I started to have all sorts of problems from playing too much and with poor posture. Unfortunately, I was told, as many others are, that I should just play through the pain and that maybe it would get better! Of course, it didn't, and it eventually led to the demise of my career as a clarinetist, because I was totally unable to hold up my instrument. So, I decided to pick a new career that would help others musicians - and hopefully before they got to the point that I was at! Chiropractic appealed to me because of the whole health care paradigm that it embodies - as chiropractors, we diagnose and fix the cause, rather than masking the symptoms.

2) What is different about treating musicians than treating the general population?

Often, what I tell people who don't understand the specifics of musicians' injuries, is that "it takes one to know one". As a musician, it can be very difficult to explain to a physician or physiotherapist or even another chiropractor what the mechanics look like when you are playing your instrument. But when someone comes into my office and says that they play flute, or guitar, or tuba, or whatever, I know exactly what the physical component of playing their instrument involves. That is a very important first step.

Secondly, not only do you have to be able to have a good understanding of what playing that instrument involves, but you have to be able to see that person play. Even if someone tells me they play violin (I automatically think: "ok, so they will be leaning their head to the left and have right shoulder problems, etc..."), I am often shocked to see how over the years of playing they have contorted themselves into a little pretzel while they play!

So, on the first or second visit, all of my musicians bring in their instruments and I do a thorough playing analysis to see what it is that they're doing right and wrong. It could be that their posture is contributing to their injury. Or maybe there's something about the instrument that we could change; it might just need a minor adjustment in the thumb rest or a key positioning.

For instance, I have very small hands and found it difficult to reach some of the alternate fingering keys on my clarinet - so I had them sawed off and re-soldered on in a different direction so I could reach them.

Thirdly, it is important to recognize that there are some really common reasons for performance injuries. The most common ones are a change in repertoire, a change in the instrument (such as a new mouthpiece or something similar), a change in practice time or an upcoming recital. If we can pinpoint what it is that the performer has been doing differently lately to contribute to their injury, that helps immensely.

And lastly, it is so important to realize, especially for freelance artists, that you can't just tell them to take a muscle relaxant, and take a few weeks off. If these people took a few weeks off, they wouldn't have a roof over their head or food on the table. While it's occasionally absolutely imperative that a break be taken, most of the time I take a holistic approach to treating performers and change and fix what we can, within the obvious limitations of current gigs and upcoming events.

3) What's the most common injury that you see in your office?

In my office, there is a tie for the most common injury. The first is upper back/shoulder/neck pain - I lump these together because those terms can mean the same thing to a lot of people - often someone will come in and say that their shoulder hurts and point to the pain, but to me what they're pointing to is actually their upper back or lower neck. This one is often a function of poor posture or poor practice ergonomics. If we can figure out how to improve the overall posture and ergonomic situation then this tends to resolve quickly.

And the second most common injury is hand and arm pain. You would not believe how many people walk into my office with numb and tingly hands and fingers - which can be very scary if you're the one to experience it - to find out that the problem isn't actually their hands and fingers at all, but it's a little further up the arm and can be quite easily treated once properly diagnosed. Or they come in with tennis elbow - but they have never held a tennis racket in their life! In my office, I call tennis and golfer's elbow "musician's elbow" because it is a repetitive strain injury. It is really, really common and surprisingly easy to treat.

4) What can musicians do to prevent injury?

First of all, don't be a hero! There is just no reason to practice for hours on end without a break. Always remember to take a little break for every 30 minutes that you are playing. Secondly, don't play through pain. The pain signal is there to tell you that you are doing something wrong. Playing through it is not going to get you anywhere - other than in more pain and in worse shape down the road. Thirdly, be aware of your ergonomics. If you sit to play, does your chair fit you properly? In rehearsal, do you have to strain at all to see both the stand and the conductor? Are your arms contorted oddly in order to be able to play properly? This is not good. And lastly, seek the help of a professional who can not only help you with the injuries that you are currently dealing with, but can help you avoid future injury and optimize your overall performance.

You can find out more about Dr. Sarah Mickeler and her Toronto-based chiropractic practice concentrating on musicians' injuries at http://www.drsarah.ca.

To echo Sarah's advice, please pay attention to any pain signals your body is sending you! Admitting you're having a physical problem doesn't make you any less of a musician – it means you're a very smart musician with years of playing ahead of you!!

This article was originally published on the Muses Muse Songwriter's Resource website (February 2005) http://www.musesmuse.com

(c) Copyright Linda Dessau, 2005.

Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues. To receive her free monthly newsletter, "Everyday Artist", subscribe at http://www.genuinecoaching.com/artist-newsletter.html

Yulia Berry is a flute instructor offering exceptional private flute and recorder lessons to dedicated students in Boston, MA, South Shore, particularly in Quincy, Braintree and Weymouth. She is currently accepting new students. Go to http://www.Flute-Instructor.com for more information.

Besides the fact that listening to instrumental music composed for the flute, piano, guitar, violin and other instruments is incredibly enjoyable, practitioners have found that it can also have a tremendously positive impact on the mind, body and spirit.

Of late, the affect of instrumental songs on physical health and well-being has been particularly touted. "More and more doctors are now using music as part of their patients treatment to help them stay healthy and to recover more quickly from illness," says Victoria Abreo, an alternative medicine specialist at BellaOnline. "Heart patients gained the same benefits from listening to 30 minutes of classical music as they did from taking 10 mg of the anti-anxiety medication Valium. Music and relaxation therapy have been used together to lower heart rate and blood pressure in patients with heart disease. Migraine sufferers were trained to use music, guided imagery, and relaxation technique to help reduce the frequency, intensity and duration of their headaches."

At the James Medical Center at Ohio State University, surgeons are now using instrumental music to relax patients during surgery. On its Web Site, the Medical Center noted that both research and patient's stories testify to the healing power of music. "Music has been shown to make the immune system stronger," it says on the Web site. "The immune system helps to heal wounds." The Medical Center also listed other benefits of listening to instrumental music including decreasing pain, nausea and vomiting and increasing the patient's sense of control.

Besides the physical benefits, research has shown that listening to instrumental music also has a positive effect on the mind. "Students who listen to 10 minutes of Mozart prior to taking SATs had higher scores than students who weren't exposed to the music. People who listened to light classical music for 90 minutes while editing manuscript increased accuracy by 21 percent," says Abreo. Listening to instrumental music is recommended for people of all ages--even school children have reportedly benefited from it because hearing music stimulates the mind, enhances abstract reasoning skills and cognitive development.

Of course, you'll want to listen to different types of instrumental music depending upon what whether you want to promote physical, mental or emotional health. For instance, to stimulate the mind you would choose a composition that charges you up--music that is moderately fast with high frequencies. An example would be Mozart's violin concertos. To elevate your mood, you could listen to a piece of instrumental blues guitar, music that accesses our emotions, and to boost your imagination, you could tap your unconscious mind by first stimulating the body with upbeat instrumental music designed to spark the creative, right side of the brain. A perfect example of this would be work from the jazz saxophonist, John Coltrane.

Music has always been a great healer, says Abreo of BellaOnline." Even in the Bible, we learn about how David played the harp to help ease the severe depression of King Saul. Most importantly, music is a successful therapy because almost everyone responds positively to at least some kind of music." Listen to instrumental music today and experience its benefits for yourself.

Instrumental music especially composed for the piano, guitar, flute, violin and English horn, can be found Ez-Tracks.com. When it's time to relax and rejuvenate, there's no better way to unwind than to sing along to instrumental karaoke songs. They are the antidote for all that ails you.

The author has been a professional writer for twenty years and has been published in publications ranging from The New York Times to Newsweek.

If you want to start taking recorder or flute lessons go to www.Flute-Instructor.com

 Yulia Berry is a flute instructor offering exceptional private flute and recorder lessons to dedicated students in Boston, MA, South Shore, particularly in Quincy, Braintree and Weymouth. She is currently accepting new students.