I spoke recently with my friend Patrick  – my old friend from Lakeside flutes – and asked him when he warms up what he's actually talking about if he means more than his fingers and his mouth.  Not surprisingly that was of course what he meant just his fingers and mouth I wonder if it made him think of all that there is actually more to it than just the fingers and the mouth which by the way are connected with all kinds of stuff in between.  Joyce always talks to me about the importance of the rib cage and how it moves – in French they call it a nest under like that idea because cage doesn't imply movement. 

So yeah it's been a very new experience for me as I get back to flute playing but it's been a good one and I'm using different skills since I'm not reading music yet.  And I used to worry that my sound would be good because of the time I took off from playing but I play every day first thing in the morning and I think I'm building toward sounding better than I ever have before, and playing in this way that's kind of like music therapy – freeform and by ear is probably something that every musician should do at some point. 

I've also noticed that when I'm thinking about a melody that I'm playing by ear my body feels different than when I'm just doing freeform and I suspect that this is true of many musicians.  In fact not just musicians but artists in general – that when you're just letting things flow out of you it's a different process.  There's a different kind of thinking for each process and I think the body responds differently.