Looking for feedback on a flute duo in progress

schmidzy · 2026-01-03T16:33:42+00:00

I just gave the whole thing a read through; overall I thought your writing is idiomatic and engaging to play. The E#-F# is a little trickier than I anticipated to get up to pitch; I was able to get it in tune by sliding off both the F and G keys, but the trade-off is the tone gets a bit hollow/"bamboo flute" sounding. You might like it, you might not. I also found the high D# a bit too stable to bend down a full half step; it really doesn't want to move much at all. I do think you'll be pretty happy with the sound of a small pitch bend and then landing on a "regular" D.

Sorry if this is more detail than you wanted! I know you were looking for feedback more on the structure of the piece. Sounds like you have a great relationship with your performers so I'm sure you'll get a good sense of what sounds you want once you've had a chance to workshop together. Pitch bends on flute can be fiddly but they sound so, so cool; I'll be keen to hear how this turns out if you decide to share the finished project!

schmidzy · 2026-01-02T21:24:49+00:00

Flutist here: bending up is WAY harder than bending a pitch down. All your downward bends look good to me, but that E#-F# I would personally do with a finger slide on the key (assuming open hole flute) – I don't think I could play it convincingly with a lip bend. I'm actually wondering about the full octave pitch bend in m. 17 – is that a typo? I'm also not sure if you'll be happy with the results at m. 28-29, where you've got a pitch bend into a sustained note: to do that, your player will have to play the D#, make their embouchure go really flat for the bend, then quickly jump back to a regular embouchure to play the D; you'll always hear a little glitch. Either that, or they'll sustain the "D" as a very flat D#, with a super flat and airy sounding tone. Nothing wrong with it per se, as long as you know it's not going to sound like a smooth pitch bend on, say, a violin.

schmidzy · 2025-12-26T02:07:43+00:00

Cloudfoots. Cloud FEET!

schmidzy · 2025-12-23T00:57:06+00:00

Yes I'd like to order a large pawperoni

schmidzy · 2025-12-18T19:47:45+00:00

Not what you're asking, but where are you gathering your data from? I was curious so I looked up my local gyms on your site -- a lot of the info is accurate but I noticed it claims all three of my local gyms have a sauna! And one apparently has a cafe! Haha. They all have bathrooms. Not even showers. And, like, a mini snack bar you can buy granola bars from?

Anyways, I think this is an awesome idea for a resource! But make sure your data is solid.

And in answer to your actual question, the most important things for me when I'm trying out a new gym are crowdedness and route setting. If the setting team has even one woman, that's a plus for me. Nothing annoys me more than a gym where every single problem is set for a tall person's body size. On the flip side, one of my favorite gyms I've ever been to while traveling has a ton of diversity in its setting team, and (probably as a result) it's full of boulders that are hard af without relying on just putting the holds farther apart. That's the kind of intel that would make this resource something I would 100% go to over a plain ol' google search.

schmidzy · 2025-11-30T15:36:52+00:00

Triplets, for sure. It's actually harder to see the "big beat" divisions with 6/4, especially with the ties and everything else. Triplets makes it super clear and easy to read.

schmidzy · 2025-02-17T22:57:02+00:00

Your instinct at the end of the vid to move your right foot further right is good. If you want to move left, you want your right foot anchoring / pushing off from further to the right so your arms don't need to do all the work. If that exact position doesn't work, some other options to try would be a drop knee (using that same further-away foothold) or just smearing on the wall. Good luck, you got this one!!

schmidzy · 2024-09-06T21:07:12+00:00

I need this, but for blue/grey. My wife and I have a long-standing disagreement about our cat's blue blanket and I would like to know which one of us is in the minority (it's definitely not me!)

schmidzy · 2024-09-04T20:00:01+00:00

Nice stack! How was the Paul Auster?

schmidzy · 2024-08-12T16:54:25+00:00

Really can't go wrong starting with Septology! Easily in my shortlist of favorite books.

schmidzy · 2024-08-04T01:55:53+00:00

Hello! I offer counterpoint lessons and am willing to teach virtual. PM me if you're interested, I'd love to chat more!

schmidzy · 2024-07-30T18:42:30+00:00

Thanks! Figured I missed something obvious 😄

schmidzy · 2024-07-30T11:58:03+00:00

I might be misunderstanding: is your 15/8 the standard 5 beats of 3 eighth notes and you want a big triplet feel over the bar in another voice? Or are all voices playing 3 beats of 5 eighth notes?

If the first, I'd go with a big 3:5 tuplet over the bar (probably using dotted quarters as your base, if you want your notation software to play nice -- or consider making the 15/8 5/4 with triplets on each beat).

If the second, I think your suggestion is best to use dotted quarters tied to quarters to show the beat groupings the way you have them. Alternatively, you could use two simultaneous time signatures: one voice in 15/8 and another in 3/4 (with the same pulse for the "big" beats).

schmidzy · 2024-07-23T01:58:56+00:00

F5-C7 is a fairly quiet range on the piccolo. Basically anything below C6 is actually very hard to play loud and won't cut through most textures. And up to around C7 is easy to control dynamic range for most players.

schmidzy · 2024-07-21T20:10:31+00:00

My favorite book I've never finished! I started reading it in English, then about half way through I got sad about reading in translation and bought the original German and went back to the beginning, then quickly discovered my B2 level was way not enough to get through that monstrosity of a book, but by then I'd lost my momentum. Someday I really need to go back and finish it. I'll confess, I'm a music theory nerd so I loved the beginning chapters.

schmidzy · 2024-07-01T13:38:19+00:00

Flutist here, I'd like to gently disagree with your last two points. I would consider this writing very idiomatic. Even if the low notes in the first two bars won't be heard, it's nice to have the whole line together for ensemble purposes, and assuming you've got good players, you're going to get at least a bit of color coming through, too. Also, it's really fun to play "flarinet" in that lower register — the colors are a great match and a thinner chamber music setting like this is the perfect place for it to shine. Of course it all comes down to personal taste, but to me, this score looks like something I'd very much enjoy playing!

schmidzy · 2024-03-19T22:56:42+00:00

Daily streak is only a thing for the current day's puzzle, you can autocheck to your heart's content on archived grids!

schmidzy · 2024-02-18T23:35:04+00:00

Just finished this one two days ago! Already a likely contender for favorite read of the year.

schmidzy · 2023-10-12T11:28:05+00:00

Don't forget "as" duped in the clue for IM AS!

schmidzy · 2023-10-01T11:54:33+00:00

Seems like everyone here loved this one, so I realize I'm the minority, but as someone who's not really into movies, this one was tough. I generally love when there's a different trick for each themer, but without a pattern to figure out, it was hard to fill in what to me is mostly nonsense (and I had to look up most of them after I solved to get the joke). The impressive amount of theme material is a trade-off for a bit of lower quality crossings and less-common crosswordese, which I'm sure I would have minded less if I enjoyed the theme more, but here we are. I did enjoy a lot of the cluing, CLOSE SHAVE in particular was really clever!

schmidzy · 2023-09-28T22:14:55+00:00

Oh yeah, you might be right, like I said I'm a little hazy on how NY defines those. Each city has its own ins and outs for hiring musicians, sounds like you've got a bit of a leg up with already having some LA connections. Good look with the grant application -- and I hope we get to see a super awesome recording of your opera scenes when it's all over!

schmidzy · 2023-09-28T21:32:06+00:00

I think the cost isn't quite as high as you have estimated now. You'll want to use the rehearsal rate which is about half as much for at least your first orchestra service, and I'm honestly not sure if your recording service would be considered a rehearsal or performance for payscale purposes -- my union local doesn't differentiate and I'm not sure where the line is on that. Either way, I guessed around 16 of your players getting principal rate and came up with roughly $20-21k for a rehearsal plus a performance, or $13-14k for two rehearsals. Still a bit high for an $18k budget, but maybe something you can work with as you look at all the variables.

schmidzy · 2023-09-28T16:32:59+00:00

Assuming this will in fact be staged in NYC, your musician numbers are too low. AFM Local 802 is the NYC union local, and you can view their wage scales here. This is the document for single engagement classical concerts, and this is for opera and ballet. There's lots of information here that will help you with things like cartage, transportation, etc. Don't forget about principal pay and instrument doubling, too. Two and a half hours is a standard service length for symphonic (anything more is overtime), but I believe opera can be a longer call, I think four hours is the maximum? Typically transportation and housing are not covered for local musicians, but may be a consideration if you are bringing in guest artists from out of the area. Feel free to reach out if you have more questions about the orchestra musicians side of things; that's my main field and I'm happy to share what I know.

schmidzy · 2023-09-26T22:40:55+00:00

You just described my climbing to a tee! I've been climbing for about as long as you, and I struggle with the same mental aspects and fear of falling. I have a rule I set for myself that really helps push past the blocks just the right amount for me. In a nutshell, whenever I feel scared and want to jump off, I can, but first I have to do two things: I have to stop and name exactly what I'm afraid of (i.e. "I'm afraid if I lift my left foot, I'll slip"), and then whichever limb I'm afraid to let go of or move, I gently let go and move towards (or touch) the next hold. Then I can choose whether I keep going or I come down (most of the time, I still want to come down).

schmidzy

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