Welcome Home, Claire

One of the high points of my week home in Iowa was that I reclaimed my flute, Claire. Yes, I named my flute - we'll get back to that later. Since I wasn't going to be playing much/seriously when I left home for college, I left my good flute (and the piccolo) for my sister to use while she was in high school. I took the old Yamaha student model for playing around on when I felt like it, and that was fine for a while. But my sister just finished her second year of college, and I have ridiculous amounts of time on my hands, so I wanted the good one back. So now Claire, my open-holed, b-footed baby, is back in Chicago with me. She's in pretty good shape, too. One small dent in the foot joint and a two little tarnish spots, one of which is on the embouchure plate. And there was some sort of adhesive thumb-pad stuck on, but it was so old it came off without residue or harm. I should probably get the keypads checked out at some point, too, but for now she's in decent working order.

But back to the name issue. Claire is of Latin origin and means "bright, clear." I thought this was fitting for my flute, as, ideally, that is how she would sound. And when I was in high school, she did. I was good...first chair good. Unfortunately, after not playing seriously for 8 years - and not at all for 1 year - my tone was anything but "bright and clear." I'm seriously ashamed that I've let my talent atrophy like that. My lips were mush after 20 minutes, and no embouchure means no high notes. It's going to take several weeks of steady practice - lots of scales, tone studies, and etudes - to get back to something even beginning to approach an acceptable sound. Honegger, Bloch and Faure are just going to have to wait for now.