Truly Listen to Music 
    There are so many questions, but there is possibly one answer that fits them all – listen. Are you listening? Truly listening? In other words, are you listening to music without distractions? Or are you hearing music while doing homework or driving to school or work? Listening to music is often a passive activity that sets a background mood for the many things you are busy doing. 
    Simple hearing involves the senses picking up sound and tones while listening is an active state of perceiving sound, paying attention to it, and then making sense of the sound. This is why ear training is crucial for musicians. When musicians remember and encode the frequency of pitches, which come across as sound, timbre, color, and dynamics, to determine the interval, duration, length and combinations of those memorized pitches and sounds, they are able to reproduce what they hear. Otherwise music remains a foreign language. 

How to Become a Better Listener 
    Practice listening. As you set aside time for practicing the flute, plan on time for listening practice as well. Put away distractions, turn off electronics, find a quiet room, and sit down. As you sit in this quiet room, listen to your mind, pay attention to your breathing and focus on your heart. This is a bit like meditation, focusing inward to calm the body and soul and slow down the rate of breathing.  
    If you have trouble letting go of thoughts and worries, take a deep breath, release the exhalation and write those thoughts down. They will still be there when you are finished with your listening practice.
    Often, people hear with their thoughts and emotions rather than their ears. If your mind is judgmental, critical or quick to think, it is possible that whatever you listen to will be judged, criticized and subject to assumptions. If your mind is open and calm, you are more likely to listen with wonder and curiosity. 

What Medium to Use
    To choose a recording, you might get a recommendation from a teacher, friend or colleague. There are literally thousands of available recordings on LPs and CDs or you can download tracks on iTunes, Spotify, or other apps, or subscribe to Naxos Music Library, Sirius XM, or Idagio. You can listen on YouTube, but you might find that you are watching instead of listening. 
    There are many playback options including earbuds, earphones, Alexa, built-in computer speakers, or separate stereophonic speakers. Generally, the larger the playback listening device, the more sound you will perceive. Speakers that have sub-woofers will transmit more of the overall sound spectrum than cordless ear buds. Computer or laptop speakers will transmit less overall sound than stand-alone speakers. In general, sound spectrums are compressed to make digital sound, and digital playback further impacts the sound waves in direct relationship to the size of the speaker. Try to find the highest quality method to play back the music that you can.

Getting Started
    Close your eyes, play the recording and listen. Focus on the following types of questions or come up with some of your own:
    •    Are you listening for the depth of sound? 
    •    Is it clean? 
    •    Is it warm? 
    •    Is the music moving you, or within you? 
    •    Does the sound envelop you? 
    •    Are you noticing technical proficiency? 
    •    Are you hearing breathing? 
    •    Are you distracted by the articulation? 
    •    Are you sensing ambient noises like key clicks or hums? 

    As you practice listening, notice what you are focusing on. It might be musical ideas, whether you are hearing the correct notes, mood, expression or feeling. See whether you can identify as many aspects of the performance as possible – the sound, musicality, precision, technique, dynamic range, articulation, breathing, and tempo. Above all, keep thinking about how the music sounds. 
    Listening intently will hopefully create questions of curiosity and wonder. Think about how the performer did something. If you get distracted or lost, make a mental note. Try to figure out whether it was your listening skills or something in the performance that led you away.  
    Try working both with and without a musical score. Notice whether you can hear the bass notes, Think about the texture. It might be full and luscious or come across as sparse or thin? 

Repeat the Process
    Listen to recordings more than once. It has been said that people retain only 10% of what they hear, so listen ten times or more. Find different recordings of the same piece and compare them. Music is more than the correct notes on the page with good technique. It should inspire listeners and performers and make them feel something. 
    This type of listening practice is especially important for aspiring orchestral players. Understanding the sound of an orchestra and the perception of the flute sound within it is an essential part of securing an orchestral position. Not only is the sound of a particular orchestra as a whole important, but the principal flutist and section within that orchestra will have a distinct flavor. 
    Because conductors and tempos fluctuate widely, it is essential to compare and contrast recordings. If you are not playing in a professional orchestra, try performing with a favorite recording. With Anytune and other apps, you can even slow down the recordings to a desired tempo without sacrificing pitch and key. 

Evaluation and Reflection
    It cannot be overstated that listening is a practice similar to practicing an instrument. There are no correct answers to “do you hear what I hear?” Musicians can exchange ideas about what to listen for and how to listen, but it is ultimately an individual experience. Reflect on your listening to establish what sounded good to you and how it made you feel. Try to verbalize or write down aspects of the listening experience as that will help you become more aware and conscientious. Were you distracted and why? Did you fall asleep with your eyes closed because your mind turned off when your eyelids closed? Did the recording give you chills, goosebumps, or inspiration? What did you learn from listening to multiple recordings of the same work? 
    Listening will help you grow as a musician and artist because hearing the possibilities of sound allows you to imitate it more readily than any instruction or method. The human ear encodes sound waves directly onto the brain. By instinct, and almost instantaneously, people know what sounds they like and dislike. The question for musicians is whether they have spent time listening for those sounds that they like and then figuring out how to recreate them. This effort will also allow you to record yourself and truly listen to and evaluate what you hear. Hopefully, with more focus on listening to music (and not just to flute music), you will be able to produce on an artistic level that which you wish to express.      

Seeting for a Small Ensembe

Seating for a Large Ensemble

    Players may change seats from one piece to the next if they are playing a different part or different flute. The chairs and stands should remain in place, and only the flutists move. 
    Some flute choirs rehearse sitting down and then perform standing. Be sure to practice the performance set-up in advance to check for any problems with balance, visibility, and space. In addition, when the ensemble performs standing, make sure flutists place their left foot in front and the right foot in back. Emmanuel Pahud mentioned in a Chicago Flute Club masterclass that the left foot should be at 12:00 and the right foot at 2:00. 
    A general rule to follow is that with fewer than eight players, standing is fine. However, if there are several rows of flutists, sitting is preferable as it may be difficult for all to see the conductor when standing. 

Music Stands
    All players should have their own music stand so they have sufficient space to play comfortably. Often less experienced players are comforted by raising music stands up high which shields them from the audience. Unfortunately, this also prevents them from making eye contact with the director and other players. Professional string quartets often use special music stands that go lower than the traditional black metal stands. This allows them to see more of the other players’ bodies in order to have good ensemble playing. These stands work well for flute choirs as well, but if this is not in the budget, keep stands low enough for good eye contact.
    Another helpful accessory is a shelf that attaches to the stand to hold a pencil and tuner. These shelves are well worth the cost to prevent the inevitable dropped pencils with each page turn. Depending on the lighting in the rehearsal or performance room, a stand light may be helpful. 

Watching the Conductor
    There is an old saying, “players who breathe together, play together.” This is certainly true for flute choirs. During each rehearsal warmup, the conductor and players should practice breathing together and then playing the first note of a scale. 
    Each member of the group should be able to conduct the basic patterns, including 4/4, 3/4, 5/4, 3/8, 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8. Being able to produce the appropriate hand motions will give them a better understanding of where each beat falls. Because the patterns look different from a performer’s perspective, have them conduct in front of a mirror to see what the gestures will look like when they are playing. Spend some extra time discussing the time signatures of 32 and 68 as they are confusing for many players. 
    Each of the six main articulation marks – detache, staccato, marcato, tenuto, accent and portato – should be practiced as a group with the conductor on a scale. The goal is for every player in the ensemble to approach a note in the same way and with the same note length. (See “Playing Quarter Notes Expressively” The Teacher’s Studio, Flute Talk January 2019)
    The conductor also helps the ensemble with balance and blending. Unless there is a solo, players should blend and balance with others on the same part. The balance between melody and accompaniment is often difficult. Players usually know that the melody should be more prominent but have trouble hearing the correct balance. Usually, the melody is just fine, but the accompaniment is too heavy. I once saw an orchestral conductor ask the concertmaster to play a phrase. Then he added the associate concertmaster, telling them that they should sound like one violin in tone and volume. One by one he added another violinist until all sixteen were playing together but sounding as one instrument. This is a good exercise for flutists who are generally less accustomed than string players to playing in large sections. Playing a solo line is different than playing a tutti section with many others. 
    Playing with varied dynamics is a curse for most ensembles. Research has shown that the difference in dynamics has to be 20% or more to be recognized. With an even distribution between six standard dynamics, each time players change from one dynamic to the next, they are only making an adjustment of about 16.6%. To be perceived as a change by an audience, players must actually make a greater difference between similar dynamics.  
    Other conducting indications include accelerandos, retards, fermatas, and cut offs for final chords. These should be discussed, and if the solution is an unusual one, players should mark the instructions, in pencil, in their parts. 

Ensemble Technique
    A primary goal of good ensemble technique is for everyone to play together in terms of timing. Because lower flutes have a slow response, flute choirs tend to drag. I encourage low flute players to blow on the G#, D#, C#, C, B and trill key pads, so there is a bit of moisture on the pad. Since these keys are either closed or open all of the time, they have a tendency to dry out. Adding a bit of moisture to a pad means it will seat more quickly, and the response will be a split second sooner which prevents dragging. 
    There is often a problem of starting late on the first note of a group of faster notes, such as sixteenths. There are two common reasons for this. First, players often do not subdivide rests and as a result do not enter at the proper tempo and then take a few notes to reach it. Another reason is that many flute choir members have limited practice time, and their fingers can be slow to get moving, especially for those who may have been away from the instrument for many years or who have developed flexibility issues.
    To improve initiation of notes, trill on a dotted quarter note followed by an eighth rest on each note of a one- or two-octave scale. Tell players to think about getting the fingers going as if they are playing on the quicker side of accuracy. I repeat this exercise every fifteen minutes during rehearsals because it solves so many problems and definitely gets the blood circulating in the hands. Players can add this exercise to their home practice using a metronome.

Clean Fingering Technique
    There are two kinds of technique: slow and fast. In many ways slow technique is more difficult than fast because it takes more control to move a finger very slowly than quickly. For example, play an E and slur to a G. Is the interval clean or do you hear a bit of an F on the way to the G? Now multiply that extra sound by 10 or 20 players, and you can imagine how the ensemble sound suffers. Players can practice wiggles between these two notes to clean up fingering issues. There are many other tough fingerings on the flute that need special attention – top octave F# to G# is the worst. 
    For fast technique, the secret is to have a thorough knowledge of the 24 major and melodic minor scales, scales in thirds and sixths, seventh chords and broken sevenths, and major, minor, diminished and augmented arpeggios. The better each player in an ensemble can play these, the better the group will play faster repertoire. 
    My flute choir is composed of flutists from a variety of backgrounds. When we started eight years ago, most were fluent in Bb, Eb, and Ab, but if we ventured out of these keys, it was rough going, and intonation was atrocious. Now after 30 minutes of working around the circle of fifths at the beginning of each rehearsal, they can play well in any key, and ensemble intonation is greatly improved. The work was very painful so some of the players told me, but now all are glad they put in the work. 

Vibrato
    There is some question as to whether flute choirs should play with vibrato. The answer is yes, but there is an appropriate speed and width for every passage to maintain a unified group sound. On lower notes the vibrato should be slower, but as the range goes higher vibrato becomes faster. Low flutes vibrate slower than C flutes or piccolo.
    Generally, the initiation of the vibrato is the challenge. It often sounds as if a note starts, and a player thinks, “Am I on the right note?” and then begins the vibrato. Just like in orchestral playing, vibrato should start at the beginning of the note. To practice this, play a vibrating pizzicato on each note of a scale followed by a silence. (See Marcel Moyse’s De La Sonorite, p. 15 for a discussion on the vibrating pizzicato.)
    A general rule is that the first person on a part (I always mark who is the leader for each part) selects the vibrato type, and it is up to the others doubling that part to match the vibrato speed and type. Melody lines are played with a more prominent vibrato, while accompaniment lines have less. 

Intonation
    Check cork assembly placement periodically at the beginning of rehearsals. Then carefully assemble the C flutes so that the center of the right-hand keys (D, E, F) is in the center of the embouchure hole. When playing, the embouchure hole and keys should be level and face the ceiling. Most flutes are built to a scale where the headjoint should be pulled out 1/4". Check this measurement with a ruler as most flutists pull out about 1/8" rather than 1/4".
    For low flutes, how much the headjoint should be pulled out varies between manufacturers. Use a tuner to check the octaves of low C, C#, and D until each is in tune. This is a baseline for exploration of exactly how each flute should be set up 

Listening
    If there are YouTube recordings of repertoire you are polishing, encourage ensemble members to listen to them. Once every concert cycle it is good to record the group and then send the file to members to review. Levels of perception vary greatly within most groups based on experience and even players physical location in the ensemble. This is a great way to get everyone more on the same page. At the next rehearsal, discuss observations and figure out strategies to address problems. 

Practicing
    While time for daily practice can be limited for busy members of a community ensemble, even a small amount of regular work can make a big difference. Many find that a set time each day reminds them to practice. If everyone in the group practices at least five days a week, the overall group sound will improve immensely. 
    During rehearsals, the conductor should make specific suggestions about how to practice problem sections or to improve playing skills. This can be especially helpful for those who do not have a private teacher or are returning to the instrument after many years away.  
    Playing in a flute choir can be one of the most rewarding experiences in music-making. Cherish the time spent rehearsing with the group and practicing alone. If each person does just a little bit more, the sky is the limit.       

What curriculum do you use to prepare students to become music educators? 
    Private flute teachers in southern Arkansas are scarce, so most of my students do not take lessons prior to college. I actually start working with some students before they attend college. When area flutists attend the band camp or all-state masterclasses we offer, I give them my Google Voice number and encourage them to send me recordings of their all-state music for feedback and then give them mini-lessons over text. (Google Voice is free and converts all voicemails to text. It is the perfect alternative to giving out a private cell number.) I will often respond with an unlisted YouTube video that caters to their particular issues. These exchanges are not replacements for regular private lessons, but they give these rural students some feedback to help them become more prepared for college. 
    HSU has ensemble placement auditions in August and November. A colleague and I judge these blind auditions using the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association’s all-state audition rubric. Each audition consists of 1-3 orchestral excerpts and sightreading. (Non-majors can choose to only audition on one excerpt if they are not vying for a position in a top ensemble. All music majors are required to audition on both flute and piccolo.) The audition is recorded and uploaded to Google Drive, along with the score sheets. Scores are posted on the private HSU Flutes Facebook group page, and students are invited to see their score sheets and hear their audition recordings. 
    I congratulate every student who has raised their score from a previous audition and praise the studio when the overall average score increases. We emphasize that individual progress is not as important as the progress of the studio as a whole. As a result, upperclassmen often volunteer their time to help the non-majors and underclassmen prepare for these auditions.
    The audition rubric has separate categories for pitch accuracy, rhythm accuracy, tone, and musical expression, so deficiencies are easy to identify. Theoretically, a student could collect these score sheets and track their progress from seventh grade through their last year of college. The students and I review their score sheets and jury evaluations every semester and create a Student Improvement Plan (SIP). Although I have required repertoire categories for every student in my syllabus, the grading scale and technique requirements are personalized through each student’s SIP each semester. 

Sophomore Kelly Foret finds a deceptive cadence in a lesson.

    Rhythm-reading is generally the weakest area for incoming freshmen. All students must demonstrate mastery of the basic rhythm cells found in the first chapter of Patricia George and Phyllis Louke’s The Flute Scale Book. Students track their sightreading progress through SmartMusic’s graded sightreading levels. I use Daniel Kazez’s Rhythm Reading and John Kember and Catherine Ramsden’s Flute Sight-Reading series for additional fundamental rhythm-reading exercises. We use the same counting system (a hybrid of the 1-e-&-a and Eastman’s 1-la-li systems) that is used in the theory and aural skills classes, with emphasis placed on musical homophones – rhythm cells that sound the same but are notated differently. 
    At the suggestion of Christie Beard, I start every lesson with a duet sightreading session with the student playing the top part. They know that the duet sessions are designed to address deficiencies in their rhythm-reading skills and will pick duets accordingly. One student recently declared, “I need some compound meter in my life,” as he searched through my duet books looking for a particular rhythm cell that was challenging him in wind ensemble rehearsals. 
    I generally try to match technique exercises to the skills that are being learned in the core piano, theory, and aural skills classes. For example, Piano I students are required to play all major and minor pentascales, so my freshmen’s first technique assignment is to memorize the major and minor pentascales found in The Flute Scale Book. (These are similar to Taffanel and Gaubert #1 and #2.) If the aural skills or piano professor alerts me that a student is struggling with this, I will further incorporate those skills into our practice. I will have a student play a major pentascale at the piano, sing it using moveable-do solfege syllables, and then play it on the flute in all octaves. Sometimes they simultaneously sing and play these pentascales, as Robert Dick suggests in his instructional YouTube throat-tuning video. They progress through The Flute Scale Book to tone color scales (similar to Taffanel and Gaubert #4) in order to become more comfortable with the minor scale forms and third-octave wiggles to become more comfortable with real and trill fingerings in the third octave.
    I use The Flute Scale Book’s harmonic exercises for tone development but also turn to other sources. I try to adopt a different flute method book every year so that students have a collection when they graduate. No one book meets everyone’s needs. The CD that accompanies Trevor Wye’s tone practice book is very helpful for students who need an aural model to develop their flute tone. Playing along with the backing tracks in Lisa Garner-Santa’s The Flute Theory Book is a fun way to practice scales, and Terri Sanchez’s warm-ups found on her website and in The Aspiring Flutist’s  Practice Companion are very inspiring. Who wouldn’t want to play along with Katy Perry’s Roar to practice double-tonguing?

Do you have a weekly studio class? 
    Our weekly studio class is an opportunity for students to perform on the recital hall stage and to practice teaching. Students perform multiple times per semester and are asked to tell the class what specific feedback they want from each performance. Underclassmen generally ask for generic feedback about tone quality, vibrato speed, and dynamic contrast, but upperclassmen usually poll the collective flute mind on more complex topics, such as writing a cadenza. I try to host a guest artist for a masterclass once or twice per year and often take studio trips to flute festivals and masterclasses at other universities. For some of my students, these trips are the first time they travel outside the state of Arkansas. I am hoping that we can raise enough money next year to take the entire studio to the NFA convention in Dallas.

What performances does the flute choir play each year?  
    We perform with the clarinet choir and saxophone quartet on a shared woodwind chamber ensemble program every semester. I choose repertoire specifically to teach a certain concept or address a particular deficiency in the ensemble. When students were struggling with intonation, they played Christie Beard’s arrangement of Sleep. They combined with the clarinet choir to perform Chappell Kingsland’s A Drop of Golden Sun one year when students in both groups were struggling with balance and blend in wind ensemble and symphonic band. One semester, the twenty students enrolled in flute choir were struggling with matching articulation, so I programmed Ricky Lombardo’s arrangement of John Philip Sousa’s The Fairest of the Fair. The majority of these pieces are performed unconducted so students can learn basic chamber music skills, but I occasionally give seniors the opportunity to conduct. Student conductors are given easier selections from the state solo/ensemble list and are expected to lead rehearsals as if they were directing their own high school flute ensemble. 
    Once or twice a year, we go on a short tour to perform for area schools, churches, and hospitals. These performances generally feature pieces that appeal to these audiences, such as Michal Rosiak’s Angry Tunes and Lisa Ochoco’s arrangement of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. I reserve time after each performance for students to mingle and field questions so that they learn how to interact with different populations – middle school and high school students, nursing home residents, and potential benefactors. The music department has a very limited budget, so we rely on donations for van rentals, hotel rooms, and low flute purchases. When the department receives a request for an ensemble to perform for a benefit dinner or church service, the flute choir is the first to volunteer. We also give concerts in area churches, who take up an offering for us. 

In preparing the flute choir for a concert, what are the key concerns that you address?   
    I have always strived to make the flute choir open to everyone, regardless of major or ability, and it often consists of more non-majors than music majors. Non-majors drift in and out of the ensemble as their schedules allow. This results in a group of ten to fifteen members that may radically change each semester. I try to select repertoire that allows parts to be doubled in case we lose someone, but we often find ourselves in a bind when someone falls ill or does not continue after one semester. In these instances, I call upon an alumnus to sub on the missing part or play it myself.
    Developing a homogenous sound is difficult. We spend many rehearsals at the beginning of each semester playing rounds in different keys. Some of our favorites include Mahler’s minor Frère Jacques and Rose, Rose found in Flute 101. I ask students to play them in all keys, often with cello drones or various students acting as drones. The music majors transpose using solfege syllables, but I teach the non-majors how to transpose using scale degree numbers. I use rounds instead of a tuning pitch for most rehearsals and performances.
    Rhythmic independence is also difficult for flute choir members. I spend the first few rehearsals of a new piece doing activities away from the flute. If there is a recording available, I will play it for them as they follow along in their parts. I have them do a basic formal analysis by answering questions such as “where is the climax of this piece?” or “what musical elements contribute to the emotion in this passage?” 
    A few years ago, my friend Ginny Hudson introduced me to using various drum beats on YouTube rather than a metronome. Now they are a staple of our rehearsals. Students often will sizzle rhythms or chant rhythm words with a drum beat in the background sometimes while walking to the beat in a circle. As students develop confidence, they slowly begin to sing passages to emphasize dynamics, articulation, and intonation. They play in a circle, with the low flutes across from the C flutes, until a couple of rehearsals before a performance. When they perform, I place them in a traditional set-up. 

Where did you grow up?
    I spent my youngest years in Childress, a small town in the Texas panhandle. My mother eventually accepted a job as a nursing home administrator in Mt. Pleasant, a slightly larger town in East Texas about two and a half hours from Dallas. This is where my musical studies began. I took weekly piano and music theory lessons from Irma Barrett, a pianist and organist at the local Baptist church. She was a stern but patient woman who introduced me to the Texas Music Teachers Association music theory tests and National Piano Guild auditions. I honestly was never a very strong performer, but I excelled at the theory tests. The curriculum was fun to me; it was like solving puzzles. 
    My piano technique was not strong when I arrived at college, but my background served me well. I was able to test out of class piano and enrolled in lessons with Ann Rye, who remained patient with me as I struggled with polyrhythms in pieces like Debussy’s first Arabesque. Thankfully, Dr. Rye accepted me at my commitment level. I try to remember her quiet sighs and patient voice when I become frustrated with my students for not practicing enough. In my early years of teaching private flute lessons in Texas, I was able to accompany my own students for recitals and solo/ensemble contests. I am too embarrassed by my piano technique to play with students publicly now, but I often accompany them in lessons and play excerpts in theory classes. 
    My one major regret with piano is that I wish I had explored jazz piano. Irma Barrett was a graduate of Baylor University in the 1930s and a staunch Southern Baptist who regarded jazz and alcohol as sinful. When I asked her for help with my jazz band audition music, she told me that she did not play that type of music in her house. I had never played anything that was not explicitly on the page and had no idea how to interpret jazz chord symbols despite being quite comfortable with Roman numerals. Improvising gave me terrible anxiety, so I avoided it. During all-region jazz band auditions, I would bite the fingernails on my left hand while my right hand shook and dared to press a key. When presented with the opportunity to take a solo, I always politely declined unless I could locate a notated version. I think I may finally be ready to take the plunge and sign up for my colleague’s jazz improvisation class now that I am 40!

How did you start playing the flute?
    Initially, I wanted to play the oboe, but my band director told me that my “lips weren’t made for the oboe.” I have no idea what his reasoning was, but I decided to play the flute instead. My mother found an Artley at a garage sale for $100. It took me two weeks to make a sound on the headjoint, even though my clarinet-playing friend down the street could get a sound immediately. I started as one of two flutes in a sixth grade beginning band class under the direction of Carol Wallace, a saxophonist. During my seventh-grade year, our community chamber music series hosted the Virtuosi Wind Quintet, and my mother purchased tickets. I had never heard a professional flutist or much classical music besides the piano repertoire I played and heard in area recitals. It was an incredible experience. When I discovered that the flutist would be teaching at the West Texas State University band camp, I begged to go. I signed up for lessons with the assistant high school band director, Dick Eckstein, a trombonist, to prepare the audition music. He tried to teach me the mysteries of that magical vibrato warble I had heard in the professional flutist’s tone. Off I went to band camp, where      I was placed in the middle of the section of the fifth band. I was distraught; I was first chair back home. However, as I listened to the first flutist of the top band play a solo with that ensemble, I was amazed. She was only a couple of years older than me and was studying at the Juilliard Pre-College. I had no idea how to get to that level, but I was inspired to try.
    During my ninth-grade year, I started studying with a flute teacher who had moved to the area. Susan Farr had studied both flute and piano at East Texas State University, and she instantly became my idol. I was not very serious about flute at the time and never practiced efficiently; I preferred sightreading to practicing. My favorite lessons were sightreading sessions where I would read through a stack from a shelf, and she would accompany me at the piano. These lessons were so much more fun than the ones in which I slaughtered scales. She was such a patient woman and took me to my first flute festival, the Texas Flute Festival in Denton.

What led you to a career in music? 
    Honestly, I was not sure that music was the right choice throughout most of my life, and my career path has been haphazard and circuitous. During the fall of my senior year of high school, I was fairly certain I wanted to major in mathematics. I had no idea what one did with a math degree, but I liked spending hours working problems with concrete answers. Halfway through my senior year, someone asked if I was interested in majoring in music education. I could picture myself teaching band and math, so I began auditioning at schools throughout Texas that would allow me to double major in math and music. 
    The trumpet and low brass professors at Henderson State University visited my high school band class one day on a recruiting tour. I was practicing a Bach sonata in the band room after school when they approached me and asked if I wanted to come tour their liberal arts school in Arkadelphia. I had never heard of the town and secretly chuckled at the name, but I asked my mom that evening if we could go to Arkansas to look at colleges. 
    My visits to the Texas schools were scheduled during mass audition days. I played for the flute professor and had little time to ask questions. Scholarship money was scarce. When I visited Henderson, the band director spent quite a bit of time answering questions from my mom and me. After the audition, I was handed both a music and an academic scholarship offer. The amount covered all of my tuition, room, board, and fees for four years. My mom told me that the offer was too good to pass up. Without the pressure of high tuition bills and student loan payments, my parents were able to buy me a new flute and send me to camps, masterclasses, and workshops.
    I married during my senior year of college and followed my husband to East Texas where he was slated to begin working in healthcare administration alongside my parents. I was not quite sure what I wanted to do and initially thought I would join my family in a healthcare career. I quickly realized that I would rather teach music. Stephen F. Austin State University was only an hour drive from our house, and the assistantship they offered allowed me to obtain a M.M. in flute performance without taking out student loans. Diane Boyd-Schultz was so incredibly patient with me even though I had a lot of deficiencies in my technique. Her pedagogy class prepared me for a college-teaching career long before I ever knew I would have one. 
    My husband’s job moved us to Houston shortly thereafter, and I began studying with Sydney Carlson while teaching private lessons in the Deer Park and Pasadena school districts. She showed me how theoretical analysis can be used to shape musical expression, and I credit her with developing my passion for music theory. After my daughter was born, I needed health insurance and took a position teaching beginning band. After only one year, my husband’s job moved us again – this time to Bryant, Arkansas.

What brought you to HSU?
    When I began teaching adjunct flute at Henderson, I was teaching high school band at North Little Rock High School during the day. There were only four flutists in the entire HSU band program and only one flute (music education) major. I taught applied lessons to three students and coached a flute quartet one evening a week. Within a couple of years, the studio had grown to seven majors and two minors, and the flute quartet had expanded into a sextet. 

What advice would you offer about selecting a college program?
    If you want to major in music, weigh the cost of your education against your potential salary. The job market is flooded with so many unemployed music graduates who have six figures in student loan debt that cannot easily be paid back at the 5-7.5% interest rate. When you audition for schools, ask for their job and graduate school placement rates. Visit campuses outside of the normal audition days and ask to observe classes, rehearsals, and lessons. Ask what opportunities are available to you as an undergraduate music major, music minor, and non music major. Look for programs that will support personal development as much as musical skills. Interactions with faculty and students during the audition and application process will likely mirror the experiences you will have as a student. Relationships with peers and professors are just as valuable to your career as the curriculum, so choose accordingly.

As the mother of a young musician, what advice do you have for parents? 
    Music is a language learned through immersion. Students need ample opportunities to hear live music. My daughter, Madeleine, has grown up listening to music. I used to conduct flute choir while holding her on my hip. When Mad was three years old, she accompanied me to a gig with an oboist friend and declared that she was “going to play the hobo like Miss Shannon.” By the time she enrolled in oboe lessons with “Miss Shannon” in sixth grade, she had listened to countless recitals of both flute and oboe music. Like most kids, she did not always choose to practice regularly or correctly, but she knew what an oboe should sound like and what a practice session should look like, which put her light years ahead of me at that age.
    There are fewer opportunities for music students in rural towns, so it is often necessary to travel outside of the area. I am so grateful to my parents for taking me to flute festivals, camps, and masterclasses. Every year, I try to provide Mad with a new experience that exposes her to other young musicians. We attended the Arkansas Double Reed Day after she had only been playing for eight months. She attended band camp at HSU after sixth and seventh grade and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp after eighth grade. Although she does not plan a career in music, she intends to play in community and chamber ensembles throughout her life.

What do you tell students before they begin teaching in the schools? 
    Create a network of experts that you can call upon when you are having difficulties. Attend conferences and contests and notice who is the expert in each niche. In our state, Stephanie Williams is the classroom technology guru; Gary Meggs is the jazz king; and Krista Spainhour and Stewart Wright are both walking annotated bibliographies of fun, educational concert band selections. Don’t be afraid to approach people. The brightest minds share their expertise freely and are usually flattered when you ask for advice.