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Flute Rock has been 35,000 years in the making!
It all started when a musician living in the Ice Age made the first real flute. It was carved from the tusk of an actual wooly mammoth! The flute was held vertically and had holes that could be covered with his fingers to change the notes. Since then, humans have tinkered endlessly with the flute’s design. They have moved the holes around, added keys and made flutes out of different stuff – like bones, wood, metal and plastic.
In 1847 in Germany, Theobald Boehm perfected what we think of when we picture “the flute.” Finally the blasted instrument could play in tune with the violins! And the violas! And the cellos! Hooray! Because of him, important European composers began using the flute in their important compositions, and it took on its stuffy reputation as a “classical” and “serious” instrument.
In 1982, a girl in Texas started playing the flute. Her name was Audrey. She liked the flute. In fact, she liked it so much that she set out on the adventure of a lifetime trying to discover all of its possibilities.
Audrey discovered that she could make different sounds on the flute. Did you know that it can sound like a drum, an electric guitar or a tea kettle? That it can be played really loud?
Playing those sounds made Audrey like the flute even more. In fact, she got so excited that she decided to share them with as many people as possible. She joined a famous rock band, The Polyphonic Spree, and began touring the world. She’s played the flute in front of millions of screaming fans. She played the flute for the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. She’s played the flute on the radio. Her picture has been in hundreds of magazines and newspapers. She’s even been on television a bunch of times.
One day, when Audrey was in Brooklyn, New York, she met her biggest fan – Fafa – a small groundhog. She also met his friends, Mario, Flink and Gorilla. They liked the flute and each other so much that the five of them decided that it was high time to make a video about how to play the flute, and the video should be called Flute Rock.
Audrey’s new friends did not know how to play the flute, but because of her thoughtful teaching, they learned not only how to play the mysterious instrument, they learned a lot of cool stuff about it too: the flute is not just an instrument for pretty classical music, but it’s also been an important instrument in popular culture and history for tens of thousands of years. George Washington never told a lie, but he did play the flute. Robots have learned to play the flute. Boys can play the flute!
Flute Rock will teach and entertain you, whether you are a classically trained flutist, a first-year student or someone who is just curious. Flute Rock answers some of life’s most perplexing questions: “How do I put this thing together?” “How do I make a sound on it?” “What’s up with all those keys?” “Was Beethoven a rocker?” “Will Fafa overcome his terrible fear of playing the flute?” “How can I make the flute rock?”
Wow The flute is cool. And given the right tools, anybody can play it. Flute Rock makes learning how to play the flute easy for everybody. And Flute Rock is really fun too. It’s fun for aspiring flutists, patient parents, music teachers, and people who just like to watch weird videos!