The most important part of learning an instrument is discovering how to express yourself through it.
I teach flute, guitar, songwriting, music theory, drum making, and a variety of music and experiential workshops, but the goal is always the same: to help you become fluent in the language of music so you can actually say something with it.
With the flute, that process can be remarkably direct. You breathe into the instrument, make a sound, listen to what comes back, and begin to discover what you have to say.
You don't have to know how to read music to begin. You don't have to arrive with years of experience. You just have to be willing to listen, explore, and discover what happens when you make a sound of your own.
You need a place to begin, someone who can help you along the way, and the freedom to discover your own musical voice.
The Way I Teach
I don't believe learning an instrument should be about simply learning a collection of notes, fingerings, and rules.
Those things have their place, but they're tools—not the destination.
My role as a teacher is to create a space where you can explore, experiment, ask questions, make mistakes, and discover your own musical voice.
I'll teach you the practical things you need to know: how to hold the flute, how to use your breath, how to cover the holes, how to produce a clean tone, and how to understand what you're hearing.
But I'll also encourage you to listen, experiment, improvise, and trust what you hear. As you become comfortable with the instrument, you'll begin to make more musical decisions for yourself.
The goal isn't for you to become good at doing what I do. It's for you to discover what you can do.
I've been teaching music for more than 25 years, and one thing I've learned is that every student comes to music differently. Some people want structure and clear steps. Others learn by experimenting. Some want to understand the theory behind what they're doing, while others need to experience it first.
There isn't one right way to become a musician.
My job is to meet you where you are, give you the tools and understanding you need, and create the space for you to discover where you want to go.
Ultimately, I don't want to tell you what kind of musician you should become.
I want to create the space for you to discover that for yourself.
Learning Music Like We Learn to Speak
Think about how you learned to speak.
Nobody sat you down and handed you a book of grammar before you were allowed to make your first sound. You experimented. You listened. You imitated. Little by little, you developed a vocabulary of sounds and words, and eventually you began putting those words together to express what you wanted to say.
You learned to speak by speaking.
I believe learning music can happen in much the same way.
When you begin learning the flute, I want you to develop a vocabulary of finger movements, rhythms, tones, and sounds. I want your fingers and your ears to become familiar with what the instrument can do.
At first, some of that may feel like practice. Eventually, something important happens:
You stop thinking about the individual movements.
Your fingers begin to know their way around the instrument. Your ear knows what different sounds feel like. And instead of thinking, “Which fingering comes next?”, you can begin asking:
“What do I want to say?”
That's where technique begins to disappear into expression.
Reading music is an incredibly valuable skill, and I teach music theory because understanding the language of music can open tremendous doors.
But reading and speaking are not the same thing.
I want you to have the opportunity to learn to speak first, then understand the language more deeply.
Eventually, theory, notation, and technique become powerful tools—not barriers standing between you and your ability to express yourself.
The goal isn't to think about every movement your fingers make. The goal is to give your fingers enough vocabulary that, when the moment comes, they can play what your soul wants to hear.
The Three Fundamental Principles
When I teach the flute, I come back to three fundamental principles.
BREATHE.
The flute is a breath instrument. Your breath is what brings it to life.
Before you worry about playing the right note, playing a song, or getting your technique right, breathe.
Feel your breath. Feel what happens when that breath moves through the flute.
Your breath is the beginning of the conversation.
LISTEN.
Once you've made a sound, listen.
Listen to the tone. Listen to your breath. Listen to the space around you. Listen to the way one note leads naturally toward another.
And most importantly, listen without immediately judging what you hear.
You don't have to decide whether something is good or bad before you've had a chance to really hear it.
BE PRESENT.
If you're breathing and listening, the third principle begins to happen almost automatically.
Be present.
Music demands your presence. You can't really listen while your attention is somewhere else.
When you're truly present, something changes. You're no longer simply operating an instrument.
You're having a conversation with it.
And this is where the three principles begin to work together:
Breathe. Listen. Be present.
The more you practice them, the less you have to think about them. You begin to settle into the moment, listen more deeply, and allow your fingers and breath to respond to what you hear.
This is where we begin to become hollow like the flute.
Become Hollow Like the Flute
A flute works because it is hollow.
If I filled the inside of a flute with garbage, it wouldn't matter how beautiful the wood was or how carefully I had built it. It couldn't do what it was made to do.
I use the flute itself as a metaphor for this.
We carry so much with us—expectations, fear, judgment, the need to get things right, the voices of other people telling us how we're supposed to sound or what we're supposed to play.
Sometimes learning to make music means learning to get some of that out of the way.
Becoming hollow doesn't mean becoming empty. It means becoming open and receptive.
When you stop trying so hard to make the music happen, something interesting can happen. You breathe. You listen. You become present. Your fingers begin to move. And instead of forcing the music, you begin to allow it.
The flute can teach you this.
The more you get out of the way, the more the instrument can become a channel for something that was already waiting to be expressed.
That's part of what I mean when I say there is medicine in the flute.
I'm not talking about medicine in the sense of a prescription or a treatment. I'm talking about what can happen when we give ourselves permission to slow down, breathe, listen, and be fully present with sound.
The flute becomes more than an instrument.
It becomes a companion on your journey of becoming.
What We Actually Work On
So what does that look like when you sit down with a flute?
We'll start with the fundamentals: breath, tone, fingering, articulation, rhythm, and learning to hear what you're playing.
From there, we'll begin building your musical vocabulary.
We'll learn songs, but I don't want you to simply memorize a collection of finger patterns. We'll use songs to develop your ears, your fingers, your sense of rhythm, and your understanding of how music works.
We'll also spend time playing without a plan.
I'll give you exercises that help you explore the instrument, improvise, and become comfortable finding your way around the flute without needing a piece of music sitting in front of you.
As your skills develop, we'll begin putting those pieces together—technique, listening, rhythm, theory, improvisation, and expression.
What we work on will depend on where you are and where you want to go.
If you're brand new to the flute, we'll start there.
If you've already been playing for years, we'll find the places where you want to grow and work from there.
The lesson isn't about getting through a predetermined list of material. It's about helping you become a more capable, confident, and expressive musician.
You Don't Have to Know Where to Start
Maybe you've never played an instrument before.
Maybe you played music years ago and want to come back to it.
Maybe you've been playing the flute for a while but feel like you've reached a plateau.
Maybe you can play songs but don't feel like you really understand what you're doing.
Or maybe you simply want to sit down with an instrument and learn how to make music of your own.
All of those are good places to begin.
We'll start with where you are, figure out what you want to be able to do, and build from there.
Let's Make Some Music
If you've been thinking about learning the flute, or you've already been playing and want to take the next step, I'd love to work with you.
I offer individual flute lessons as well as deeper instruction through The Sacred Medicine of the Flute workshop series.
Whether you're picking up a flute for the first time or looking for a deeper way to work with an instrument you've already been playing, we'll begin where you are.
You don't have to know what you're doing yet. You just have to be willing to begin.