what makes flute so addicting???

Irish Flute
1

I am curious.
Moved on from whistle to flute just this month and I do not seem to get able to pass by the flute without taking it up and play a few minutes.
If I am not playing, I hear fluting in my head :smiley:
It is addicting.
But I cannot quite get WHAT exactly makes it so addicting to play?
Not even talking about the FAD yet…although I have two flutes on my way (tallgrass was raffle prize and a tipple three piece)

Someone got a nice scientific explanation? :wink:
Would like to hear your thoughts/ experiences on this too.

berti

2

Immensely satisfying and maddening both.
Cycles of pleasure and pain make for
addiction.

3

Good topic! I wonder if there is some kind of physical addiction caused by the way we breathe when we play.

4

It is the excitement of getting up in the morning and seeing if any of them has cracked !

5

physical addiction? that makes some sense too…don’t you find yourself blowing against something else when you cannot play flute? I do…

berti

6

I think it’s akin to what makes golf addicting as well. You can hit bad shots all day, and then hit a perfect shot on the last hole and want to play again.

I can hit sour notes all day, and then play 1/2 of a B part perfect, and just want to keep right on going. :smiley:

Aodhan

7

All of the breathing we do triggers endorphins in the brain. This is akin to when you exercise or eat chocolate. When endorphins can easily be released, the body craves more. So this is why flute playing seems like an addition…every once in a while you play for a few mintues, trigger the release of endorphins, feel good, and go about your business till you need another fix.

This is the best scientific explaination I can give you.

8

but then…why doesn’t it seem to work the same on whistle?

berti

9

Well, for my part, the chocolate keeps gumming up the fipple !

10

the warmth of the breath, the perfume, the moistness, then, the muse’s sigh…ahhhhh psyche, from the regions which are holyland.

11

The flutes or the players?

Ever since band camp I have slept with my flute.

12

This would go some distance toward explaining
the addiction. But really, is this the place to enter
into these delicate matters?

13

Really?!? :slight_smile:

14

Darlings!
There is only one decent cure for flute addiction.
It is called narcissism …




:astonished:

15

My take:

The breathing as a workout certainly gets the adrenaline going. Additionally, the flute is the instrument which involves the most aspects of the physical body that I have yet to run across: fingers and hands, arms held “correctly”, posture (“sit like a soprano”), breathing, embrochure (which changes for each note), ornamentation, and then jumping the harmonics as one improves.

I’m experiencing the same thing, addiction-wise. I’m loving my Sweetheart blackwood 8-key and will be happy to get my McGee GLP 6/8-key after a while.

16

You guys are getting way too focused on the psychological/spiritual aspects of the addiction.

Personally, I think it’s the heroin that most makers use to seal the area around the embouchure that does it. That’s why everyone on this forum is always looking for a new flute every year or two, as the effects wear off. . .

17

I have a “And one time, in Band Camp…” sticker on my flute case :smiley: .

I don’t know what causes it, but I have played alto sax for over 15 years and since getting a flute a couple of years ago, I haven’t even touched the thing. Lately, the main purpose of my whistle has been to allow me to keep practicing while giving my lips a short rest. :slight_smile: