It’s an age old question, really: Why the hell are you playing the flute while you’re driving!?
I’ve received a lot of questions over the past few years about this, and must first say that the Hive community has been the most gracious in their way of asking; Reddit was much more harshly opinionated about my choice to take on this particular risk.
I realize these days that my choice is unconventional at best, and to be honest, it comes down to a couple of factors.
First off, I couldn’t explain this without first telling you that I wasn’t always a car-based musician.
Before marriage, kids, home ownership and full time work, I was a dedicated guitarist and vocalist…it was what I did. I honestly didn’t drive much at all, except when we needed to load the van and haul our gear to some bar or another to play a show. I always found jobs within walking or biking distance from my house, and would even go months at a time without driving a car. I typically worked the minimum amount of hours I could work in order to cover my basic bills, as well as beer and weed expenses.
When I made the choice to become a husband and father, I accepted that my life would change drastically, and since then have had to adapt to make it all work in the best way possible for my family as a whole. That said, I remember my father always keeping a box of harmonicas in his truck for the commute to work - in fact, before we moved away, I asked him about this and found that the old guy still plays harmonica while on his long commute to work every day! …I guess I could really stop there and just say it’s a family tradition ;)
But for me this had not been a way of life until about two years ago, in 2020 - when I began playing the flute.
It started when I decided I wanted to get away from the singer/songwriter style. I wanted to play aimless melodies from my heart, without feeling the pressure of needing to fill some specific melodic role. My instrument of choice at this time was the violin. At this time I had a three year old daughter and my wife pregnant with the next child. If I was lucky any given night, I might have 15 minutes free to practice my new instrument…but I usually found myself spending the full available window just tuning the instrument. This drove me to the quena. It’s always in tune and ready to play, so any 15 minute window could be spent just practicing, with no time wasted on getting set up.
But quickly I found myself hungry for more than just a few minutes a night, and it was not too long after that that I remembered my dad’s habit of playing harmonica on the road. So I used my commutes to and from work every day as opportunities to practice major and minor scales, finger positions, circular breathing techniques and the like. Before too long, I felt I was gaining traction and becoming decent at the flute. I started wanting to share the flute online, and even found myself dreaming of posting fluting videos 5-10 years in the future, when my kids were a little older and my time opened up.
But as I dreamt of making fluting videos in some distant future, I remembered Eckhart Tolle and Buddha; I remembered that now is what we have - now and nothing else. I decided plans for future fluting videos were not enough for me, and that - while it isn’t ideal - my mobile practice studio could be as good a place as any to share my flute with the world, at least under my current circumstances. I figured, I’m already doing it anyway, why not just set up the camera and keep doing it?
While initially I was really bummed that all I had for recording videos was my commute, it became this cool niche that I was excited about. There are plenty of people who play the flute online, but how many are dedicated to doing it while driving? Again, it’s the only time I get in the first place, so the choice was under some sort of situational duress, but still, it’s a unique niche role, and I couldn’t wait for years to get involved in the community as an online flautist. So I took the lemons and made lemonade. When I’m home, I’m helping around the house and taking care of the kids. When I’m at work, I’m doing my job. …but when I’m in between and on the road, I feel no obligation to do anything for anyone, and that’s the kind of freedom I need to be musically and spiritually free.
Although most of you know me from the QuenaSabor Name That Tune Contest, I actually joined Hive to create an outlet for my madness in the form of a regular series called Car-Fluting, which is currently up to episode thirty-something. Here, I try different flutes and techniques, and often discuss my opinions and thoughts regarding different styles of flutes. Still, whenever I get a chance to play or record the flute outside the car, it is a real blessing for me and I sincerely enjoy the freedom of being able to pay attention solely to the music.
So I don’t know, I guess this isn’t all too eloquent, but the general gist is, if I don’t record while driving, I might put up a few videos a year - but I do play while I’m driving, and won’t stop anytime that I can see in the near future, so I choose to use that time also to record. I know it seems risky, but for all the concerned citizens out there, I want to assure you that o do this always with safety as my first priority. Not so much out of a sense of self preservation, but because it would kill me if I ever hurt someone else on the road. I only play when I know I can do so without putting others in harm’s way, and even then I do exercise great caution.
I know my risky choice makes many people uncomfortable, and all I can say to these folks is that I genuinely do appreciate the concern and care being expressed - and that I promise I will never put fluting above driving safely for the sake of myself and the others around me on the road.
I hope this makes sense, and that I have expressed this in a way that others can feel confident in my intentions and methodology, but if I didn’t do it this way, I wouldn’t really be able to do it at all…and as soon as a better way is available for me, I promise that I am very much looking forward to taking full advantage of new methods/time periods.
Until then, I hope you will continue to support and enjoy my work, and I wish you all happy fluting!
Thanks for checking out some more of my work! As always, I hope you enjoyed witnessing as much as I enjoyed creating!
© Photos and words by @albuslucimus, except where otherwise indicated.
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