girl, so confusing featuring liz

my friend lent me a flute

my friend lent me a flute1 and it's become a huge distraction. my addictive (growth mindset?) and competitive personality has made it difficult for me to stop practicing. to be fair, i've only had it for 2 days, so maybe the excitement of learning something new will go away.

https://i.imgur.com/Ct7ml5R.jpeg

for the sake of my neighbors, i hope i improve soon because they're probably tired of me repeating the same note and playing mary had a little lamb 😇.

this experience has been very informative. as someone who loves teaching beginners, i haven't been a beginner in something for a long time. being a beginner is hard because there's so much you don't know. a few things i've noticed:

  1. the internet is overwhelming! there are so many youtube videos and articles. how do i know where to start? which videos are teaching it the right way? do i stick to one educator or watch 10 videos to learn?
  2. beginner books are all different! i downloaded like 4 books for beginners and they all start with different exercises.
  3. without a coach, i don't know when i'm doing something wrong. where do i put my lips? am i blowing in the right direction? is the sound i'm making right now good?

https://i.imgur.com/UFIsEyd.jpeg

beginners seem to be overloaded with advice online. as a design educator, i realized that i'm also contributing to the overload. in fact, even the small videos i make can have a huge impact on how people approach their design careers.

"@lalizlabeth said i should use framer, so i moved my portfolio completely to framer." 2

"@lalizlabeth's latest video says that she doesn't like the font Lato, so i'm never using it ever again." 3

as i use the internet as a tool to learn a new skill, it's helping me understand what aspiring designers go through. how can i help them navigate all the design "educator" content out there? what's truly important to teach students vs. what am i putting out there for more clout?

  1. my friend, a music educator, has access to many student flutes. my saxophone quartet was joking about doing a flute quartet during the summer for fun. the 3 other members all play flute to some degree and i was the only one that doesn't play! this actually is not unusual in the saxophone world. many saxophonists actually double on flute because several aspects of playing are similar, such as fingering and articulation techniques.↩

  2. this is not a real quote, it's a hypothetical one↩

  3. this is also not a real quote.↩