When The Dream
On Saturday, November 30, I did my first-ever music stream on Twitch. It was a great night! I still have to make clips of the songs I performed, but I also just want to bask in the energy from that night. Two-pronged, here we go!
The Good
I loved having my favorite people in the chat that night! It was such a treat getting to share with everyone the fruits of months of work practicing daily (or nearly daily)
My tone was better than it had been in any day leading up to the night! I thought I would struggle hitting a couple of high notes (D and E in the 3rd octave, especially), but they came out so smooth it was great.
I had a lot of fun! I can’t wait to do it again next year!
The Not Great
I missed some notes and forgot the music of some songs! I may not have prepared as well as I thought, or it was just nerves, but definitely had some issues with the songs I prepared. I think I also rushed through some songs, so I need to check my timing to stay on rhythm and on tempo.
My set list changed a few times in the lead-up to the performance. There were two songs I wanted to do initially but because I had not prepped them well, I scratched them and went with some others that I was stronger with.
My new camera had audio lag! It was significant enough that my camera showed me doing one thing and then the audio kicked in well after that thing started. So, the real source of truth for the performance, which I’ll make clips from, will likely be the recording I made during the performance. I need to figure out how to eliminate that lag for good.
Notes
For next year’s performance, I will drill down into my practice days leading up to the performance and get started maybe a little earlier so I can prep all the songs I want to play.
I had wanted to prep some additional songs that I could put into a request list for folks if there were songs they wanted to hear. Again, they’re just standard holiday songs, no pop versions, unless I wanted to get sassy. I was barely ready for my set list, so next time, I will need extra effort to get those ready.
Longer set list? More decorations in the background? I don’t know, I have some ideas floating in my head for next time that I’ll play with and see if I can make work. We’ll see.
When I picked up the flute two years ago, it was part of a larger effort I was making to learn music so that I could compose my own songs for the stream or animation projects I wanted to do. It also came as I was hitting a wall in my piano practice. There is so much literature written for piano study, from etudes to pieces, and even how to learn it, that I got very easily overwhelmed and was looking for a mental and creative cleanse that was simpler but still in music. While looking up videos and other knowledge on learning piano, I also digested flute content on YouTube (because all music learning was valuable, especially trying to learn theory!), and that’s where it started. I always wanted to play an instrument as a kid, join my school’s band, and even considered flute back then (thank you, Clarissa Explains It All), but that never went anywhere. As an adult self-learner, I figured now was the time to pick up a new thing. And here we are!
Naturally, I did pick up other instruments. Again, the goal was to write music for animations, so I have a violin and a cello to round out a simple quartet. But I’ve invested the most significant effort into learning the flute. Thankfully, reading music and learning music theory only has to happen once, so I can focus on getting the instrument basics down for whatever else I want to pick up. It just so happens that flute turned into a bigger diversion than I expected, and I really want to lock in and make it my main thing. I do frequently think of returning to the piano, though.
Ever since I took up the flute and started talking to friends of mine about it, especially other streamers I know, they often asked if I would do music streams. I’m happy to say that I will do more music streams after that successful holiday music stream! The trick will be finding the right days or events to make a flute stream feel special, especially as a performance. I want to show off what I can do, not necessarily the background learning process. So expect any music stream to be a full performance of pieces I’ve worked on for holidays, anniversaries, or for the performance to be a special event. As I continue learning my other instruments, those may make an appearance, too.
Speaking of anniversaries, the next guaranteed flute performance will be my Twitch Affiliate Anniversary in the summer, July 27th! I’ll be on the platform for five years and want to do something fun and special. I’m still putting together the set list and other activities for that day, but it should be lots of fun. I’m also looking at dates for the next holiday performance. It may be, again, the first performance of December. I’ll post about it in Discord as we get closer to the date and I know what I want to play. As for composing my own pieces, that’ll definitely take some work, study, and coordination as I learn my instruments. I’ll absolutely share those, too, as I do them so again, another “to be announced.”
Anyway, that’s it! Thanks for showing up that night.