My wife happened to look at that video with me, and her comment was, "you played like that for the last 20 years, and look someones making money explaining it."

I have played background keys for 4 different flautists 2 of them play in the local symphony, and my experience is, play around the melody, add 7 add 9 if minor, and stay out of their way on the melody, do one verse down a third on harmony, and another just away, and one with alternating a third or fifth above and below.

But, after all is said, I usually give them music that suits, they play in an orchestra where you get to go blat blat blat half the time, and try and watch someone else.

Give them the lead, a nice tune, and have them set the tempo as in up down 2 times with the flute and then go.

It amazes me how some people teach and learn, however I'm not done either yet, and hope to get a few more years out of these arms that no longer work right, and ears that have lost their way. Being profoundly deaf is not fun, but now that I've dampened the upper register on the piano (It rings way out of tune...just for me eh?) and taken some of my playing down an octave I'm getting by.

We are going to play a small bar in Scotland (Islay) next Wednesday, piano and flute to tunes I bet they never knew, yet are from there.
We leave on the morrow, and return mid May from France, and somehow I'm hoping to keep my stick on the ice as we say here.

It will seem odd, no Blackberry, but my trusty dual boot laptop in my backpack.

I'll try and post from 'over there' with links to some shots of interest and waypoints as I wander Europe on train, plane and automobile.

John Conley
Musica est vita