The end of January is a good time to review the New Year's resolutions. Are they working or have you already forgotten about them? It is so easy to fall back into the routine and change nothing in your way of living. 

     My own resolutions? Some of them are working well! I am much more diligent when it comes to practicing! I try to use more of my breaks between work. I fill them with scales or tone exercises. At the end of the day, these short breaks make a big difference!

     The New year is coming and most of us tend to reevaluate our life choices, our career, our... everything. It gives us a perfect occasion to change something and to improve. We usually promise to ourselves to start a healthy lifestyle, to lose weight, to get up 2 hours earlier in the morning, to practice a lot, etc. I have made many flute-related promises to myself at the New Year's Eve as well and then after two weeks, I have realized that nothing had changed at all. Why does it happen so? Why is it so hard to change something significant? 

​     2018 is almost over. Have you done your annual balance yet? Probably not. We are musicians we don't do these things. That's something a businessperson would do at the end of the year or some society or organization. But we..... we are artists. We tend to treat our profession more like a mission or some divine touch of destiny and forget that being a musician is like having our own business to run daily.

     Have you ever tried to write your own piece? You don't need a composers diploma to express your creativity! What are you waiting for? Here are some tips to start! 

     1. Look for the inspiration!
If you haven't even started to compose your own musical piece and already feel like all the inspiration has abandoned you at the moment your hand picks up a pencil, don't give up! Look around you! Do you see something interesting? There should be some objects around you that make particular sounds or rhythms. You can also read a story and try to portray it in music. There are so many options. Open your eyes and ears and be brave enough to give your music a chance to be written!

  How to become a better flutist? Here are 40 important tips!

1.   Remember that you can overcome every obstacle.
2.   Practice flute everyday – no matter how much time you have.
3.   Always play with your best sound.
4.   Set a goal for every practice session — and stick to it.
5.   Learn to record yourself, and do it whenever and wherever’s possible.