Welcome to my blog!  My name is Rachel Taylor Geier and I am a freelance flutist and flute instructor in Davis, California.  I hold a DMA from the University of Minnesota, an MM from San Francisco State University and a BM from DePauw University.  I am not going to bore you here with the details of my bio but if you want more information about me and my experience, please visit my website at www.racheltaylorgeier.com .  My intention by creating this blog is not to promote myself but rather to promote ideas about flute playing and other musical issues confronting flutists today.  The objective of Go Flute Yourself! is to create a safe space for us to agree , agree to disagree or, in some instances, just plain old disagree.  We do not need to edit ourselves on this page.  There is no conductor to impress and no parts to fight over.  Here we can remove our filters  and talk about music without the fear of being “right” or being “wrong.”   Perhaps we can learn a thing or two from each other!

In this first blog post I am simply going to share with you one or two of my most favorite youtube videos of flutist doing what they do best.  There are many things that we can learn by analyzing these videos  but what is consistent in all of these clips is that the flute is  taken off the concert stage and into different forms of media.  I think one of the most important things that a flutist can do is to think outside the box.  Do what is not popular but what is interesting and unconventional.  We can all play Brahms  4 but can we beatbox?

 

Can you play like you’ve been possessed by a demon?

 

 

 

This headjoint slides to recreate the sound that a guitarist makes when sliding from one fret to another.

 

 

Perhaps not as “unconventional” as above, but how many flutists do you find on talk shows?