Flute books

 301st day sober. I practiced last night, over an hour, on the shakuhachi. I *am* improving too. I'm still drilling away on the exercises on page 23 of the Koga book, but playing each one several times in first and then 2nd octave, and holding as long as I can so each one is like doing a long tone exercise too. 

I had my bank account up to $10,500.00 there for a bit but now it's $2k down, plus I plan to order the "Enhanced" Shakuhachi Yuu from Monty Levinson pretty soon. Then I can use my plain one to experiment on. I want to try polishing the bore and finger holes where it's rough, and also experiment with making the outside look like bamboo. I'd rather experiment first on the $200 plain one than on the $800 "enhanced" model. 

I think getting a conventional Western flute was a really good idea. What if I never make it back to Hawaii? It's an instrument I can make a modest living with here on the mainland, and a lot easier on me than the trumpet. I'll surely enjoy myself more on it, as so much of the trumpet was just struggling to get any "range" at all. 

I was struggling with the 2nd octave. There are a few notes below it (keyed and I could bend a half tone below that) written C below the staff on trumpet, and I had that first octave, C to C in the staff, down pat. I was working on the C in the staff to C above the staff, AKA "High C". When I was out busking, G on top of the staff was do-able until I got tired, then E in the staff was my top note and at times that was a stretch. 

So I was dealing with, on a good day, an octave and a half. There's a lot you can play within that but there's also a lot you can't. Plus it was really starting to piss me off that when I got tired, anything above C in the staff started to sound like a small animal being tortured. I was not out there to "make noise" as Rabbit Trumpet Guy used to put it. I was out there to practice, make some money, and make actual music in a world where "music" is increasingly something people never see performed live. 

I woke up around 3, with a damn headache again. Black coffee and aspirin for "breakfast" again.

I got going a bit after 4, I think. Maybe closer to 5. I visited the little free libraries on my way downtown, dropping off tea, OTC medicines, a 2022 calendar, and even some "insect bite wipes" with lidocaine in them. I found one book to read, "The Farewell Party" by Milan Kundera. 

I went over to the book store and verified they're open until 8, which they said they are, and said it's good they're keeping up with Google Reviews because those are the ones people use now; they have the hours, a map, etc all right there. I went over to the music books and went through them, finding The Complete Flute Player by John Sands, volumes 3 and 4, Mel Bay's Flute Handbook, and The Art Of Flute Playing, one of the "Art Of..." series. So, 5 books and a $20 bill paid for them all. 

I doubled back to Whole Foods and got groceries and things, including a bottle of thiamine, the kind that makes one flush, on the off chance that might help with the headaches. The place was full of hockey fans so I didn't eat there. Instead I had a can of black coffee and a "shooter" of elderberry syrup, because my throat was scratchy and it's good for heading off "bugs". 

I stopped by the Amazon place for a few bubble mailers and then headed home. I had time to think and did some hard thinking about my headaches and various things. I need to lose weight, the extra fat around my middle is going to harm my flute playing. There's a reason those "competitive eaters" who win are skinny people - extra fat around one's middle means that much less room for food. Or air. 

I also wonder if the headaches I'm having are at least partially due to my having departed from my "keto" eating habits for the past year or two. One of the reasons for morning headaches is sleep apnea which losing weight gets rid of. Also, being non-keto, I'd have the urge to snack including right before bed. That could cause difficulties. 

So when I got back here I had some dry salami and Greek olives, and soda water. I like near-beer, but I noticed the stuff I drank last night had 20g of carbohydrate per bottle. Since I drank the 6-pack, that was 120g of carbs from it alone. Generally under keto rules, you want to limit yourself to 50g of carbs a day. Hence the Whole Foods club soda, which is nice and fizzy, and cheap.

I got on Amazon and got the Trevor Wye beginner book, part 1, and also book 1 of The Complete Flute Player, both new. I found book 2 of The Complete ... with "slight shelf wear" from England, again through Amazon. They're almost opposite approaches, Wye apparently being strong on basic technique, counting time, and learning unfamiliar etudes to force the student to read music instead of just playing from memory. The Complete books lean on popular, well-known songs and look like more fun than Mr. Wye would have a beginner indulging in, but they *do* look fun, and can help me develop busking material.