u/certifiedwombat

I’m joining a local volunteer orchestra here in the coming weeks, and I’m super excited as I haven’t played my flute in an ensmble in about 3 years. 

Most of my ensemble experience has been in wind ensembles/concert bands and chamber groups, so I’ve never played in a full orchestra before. I’m especially curious about:

• How different is orchestral flute repertoire compared to wind ensemble repertoire?
• What’s the overall vibe of a community orchestra compared to a school ensemble? Obviously I know every group will be different, but since all of my ensemble experience has been through school/college, I’m curious what the general atmosphere tends to be like in community groups.
• Anything that surprised you when you first started playing in an orchestra?

Would love to hear what other flutists’ experiences have been!

Obviously since it's a reality show the drama comes off so intense and magnified, but whenever you step back and remember that they are only there for like 6 weeks, you realize it really isn't that serious.

Especially the relationship drama, it feels so intense and like these are months long relationships (probably because the season airs longer than it was shot) but then you realize these boatmances are the equivalent of those random short summer camp relationships that never went past camp.

Low key makes everything more comical when you think about it 😂

I find it interesting that both Kat and Gen have said on their WWHL episodes that Joe is a better bosun than Nathan.

Could very well mean nothing beyond the statement but it makes me wonder if Nathan’s gonna have a major screw up or something when he returns.

I found it really off how on this past episode the deck team was in absolute shambles. I get they were down a team member and Nathan was not in the right headspace but they were performing like they’ve never done a charter before.

I think specifically of the whole issue of getting the water toys and stuff set up. By this point they should already have a process of how they set these things up, and with Aesha’s extra set of hands, in theory everything should run smoothly, just follow the same process. But Nathan was acting like he’s never done this before. Like Nathan is the bosun has he not been the one explaining how he wants things done?

Cooper also made a comment later when Joe got everything in order and was like “these are the conversations we should be having” and jm just like why have these conversations not already been had? Like Nathan should have a system in place for this stuff.

It makes me wonder if maybe Luke was pulling a lot of the weight here on deck, and his departure is creating a huge loss.

There’s a lot of talk going around about Harry Shum Jr since he may be in the cast.

And while I think he will be a great addition to the season, this online discourse is really showing blatant sexism from the fandom.

The past several seasons we’ve seen female contestants with prior dance experience get ruthlessly dragged by the fandom for the perceived “advantage” from past dance experience. Whitney leavitt was dragged last year, Chandler Kinney before her, and Charli Damelio before her.

However most of the discourse around harry are how his dances are gonna be so great and he should win, and how he should be partnered with Britt.

Not much talk about his “unfair advantage.” And looking back it seems to go that way all the time. Jordan Fisher and Milo are beloved by the fandom and everyone talks about how great they are, and how Milo should’ve won despite having prior dance experience. But then the females contestants get so much hate for having dance experience: Heather Morris, Normani, etc.

If he is cast I really hope Harry doesn’t get dragged bc dance experience shouldn’t matter, but it is unfortunate that there is a clear bias when it comes to who gets a pass for having “dance experience”

Does anyone know what’s the difference between the thumb port and thumb port 2?

Is the 2nd one a better model?

I used to use the original thumb port but now need a replacement, didn’t know if I’d be better of sticking with the one I know or if the 2nd one would be an improvement.

I had a very long musical journey that landed me on flute and I always wonder if anyone else experienced the same 😂

When I started in band I initially wanted to play flute but decided on the trombone instead bc it was the instrument (along with the trumpet) that I was able to get a sound on. However I hated the trombone after a year and decided to switch to clarinet which I played through middle school and most of high school. My last year of high school I grew tired of the clarinet and swapped to bass clarinet but also was self teaching myself flute at home (with some help from my sibling who played flute at the time and to my benefit had an extra flute).

Then from there I played flute in college wind ensemble (even got to play piccolo) and took private lessons to grow my skills beyond self teaching and ever since flute has become my primary instrument (actually ended up donating my old clarinet).

Flute felt and continues to be so natural to me and definitely feels like the instrument that feels the most me, and I always wish I trusted my instincts and started on it from the beginning.

Did anyone else have a similar experience before landing on the flute?

I play on an inline g flute, but to cover the g key hole completely with my finger while playing causes discomfort in my left hand due to my ring finger being so short.

I’m not in a position to buy a new flute, so I just play with the g key plugged, which has worked fine but I heard somewhere that some people are able to get extensions added onto their flute to essentially make their inline g an offset g.

To me that seems more like an effective fix for than just playing with a plug in the g key, but from my online searches I haven’t been able to find anywhere to purchase one.

Is this something I can purchase from a flute dealer or is it more of a custom order type of thing?

So we know from the latest episode that Nathan is late getting to the boat and seems to be having some issues going on at home. The show seems to be hinting a lot of Nathan and Gaels home problems, so I'm predicting Nathan will be leaving the boat soon (probably will quit rather than getting fired) to help out Gael. May be far fetched, but I remember Gen on her WWHL episode when asked said Joe would be a better bosun than Nathan because of his skill level and I just wondered "how would she know Joe's skill level as bosun..." again could be far fetched but I thought it was interesting she said that.

Also I don't think we've seen the last of Luke. We know Sandy is struggling to find someone so I wonder if Nathan leaves, since it was him and Luke who were at odds, if she would ask or bring Luke back. We haven't see the scene yet where Gen throws a drink at Luke, so unless he just sticks around croatia and meets up with them at a later night out, I think he's coming back. Also it's been speculated Max is coming back, but if Nathan does leave then that means they need another deckhand too so I'm thinking that might be Luke.

What predictions do y'all have for the rest of the season?

Hello, I’m considering joining a local orchestra and just recently learned that the Lake Norman Orchestra and the Lake Norman Philharmonic are 2 separate groups (I just assumed they were currently under a name change).

Does anyone know if there’s any major differences between the 2 groups? Wasn’t sure which I should reach out to inquire about joining.

Let me preface this by saying above all else I am team Joy. I can’t stand Gen and I think Luke’s been acting stupid.

Here we go: Luke is not the worst person we’ve seen on this show. I keep seeing this narrative being pushed on here that Luke is somehow the most vile evil narcissistic person we’ve ever seen from the franchise. Let’s be fr, we could name several past cast members who were far worse than Luke.

Don’t get me wrong I think Luke has made some stupid decisions:

1. trying to pursue both women at the same time
2. Not being clear with Gen about his intentions
3. Not being upfront with Joy
4. Violating his boss’ sheets

All of which are valid reasons for criticism

But to me, this whole situation isn’t much different from the messy relationship drama we’ve seen almost every season of Below Deck. Luke has been acting immature, and handled this horribly. But calling him the worst person in franchise history feels wildly disproportionate when you compare his actions to some of the things we’ve seen from past cast members.

Working my way through the LAU games and I just finished anniversary this evening. So far I like Legend more but I still found this game to be a lot of a fun and was a great retelling of the original.

As someone who played the original TR first, I have to say… I enjoyed anniversary more 🫣

While I did enjoy the og game (and it is a great game) one problem I had with it was the lack of storytelling and lore. Obviously we had the few cutscenes but I still struggled with understanding the whole story at large. I appreciate that anniversary was able to add in more context and lore which helped me feel more immersed with the story.

I also really liked how they handled boss combat sections. I like the approach of having to figure out the boss’ patterns to know when to strike rather than just run and gun shooting at it.

ST Francis Folly was by far my favorite level, the Poseidon room especially was chefs kiss and was my favorite music from the game.

Also loved the Croft manor in this game! Probably my favorite croft manor I’ve played through.

Overall great experience, and replaying this story has definitely got me even more excited for LOA

Currently playing through TR3 for the very first time via the remasters. Loved the India section, and then I went from Nevada to South Pacific and now London.

Nevada so far has been my favorite and South pacific was fun too and I started out liking London but now I’m hating it 😂 it’s reminding me of when I played through TR2 and grew irritated with the underwater levels.

Currently taking my time completing Aldwych but I’m dreading the next level Luds gate because I’ve heard it’s one of the most patience testing levels of classic tomb raider.

Without giving any major spoilers, does the game pick up after this?

I feel like in response to how extreme the feminist movement has become, we’re now seeing conservatives overcorrect with the “trad wife” trend.

There’s a lot of conservative voices who are now putting a lot of emphasis that young people need to focus on marrying young and having babies. Men need to go to work and provide while women need to stay at home and raise the kids. Which is ironic when a lot of these trad wife influencers are literally working/being paid to spew this rhetoric.

I feel like this is doing harm in 2 ways. 1 it alienates people in the Conservative Party who do not have that lifestyle. Not everyone meets their spouse at 19 and not everyone is able or wants to have kids, or has the financial ability to have 1 parent stay at home. I feel like if we want to gain more young people in the party we need to make these people feel seen and not less than because they do not meet a certain criteria.

And 2 we are now seeing conservative women advocating for the taking away of their right to vote, which is insane to me. Yes feminism has gotten extreme, but it also brought about a lot of necessary change that was needed to give women equal footing in this country.

First off, WOW, what an epic game. By far one of my favorites out of the entire franchise, definitely was not expecting it. I really felt like I was in a Tomb Raider movie/adventure. The lore was also really interesting to me, but the game ended so quick that I was still left with some questions:

1. What was Amanda's ultimate goal/motivation, why was she trying to get to Avalon, and why was she evil and hated lara? Was it because Lara left her down there or did that spirit that possess her?

2. The spirit that Amanda weilded, what was it? How did it fit in with the lore of the rest of the game?

It definitely felt like they were trying to leave it open to continue the story in future games. I know anniversary is TR1 so the lore probably won't be touched on in that game. So does the story continue in Underworld? or is underworld a completely different story?

ALDC would always get dragged for reusing the same choreography just in different order, which was done because it would be hard for Abby and Gianna to come up with new original dances every week.

However aren’t the dancers from all these other teams competing their same solos and group dances they’ve been doing for months and competed several times, so wasn’t ALDC essentially doing the same thing?

This is one thing I don’t blame Abby for doing because there’s no way on earth someone could choreograph multiple original routines every single week.

We're 3 episodes into the new season and so far Gael has been in every single one of them.

Nothing against Gael, but the truth of the matter is she isn't a cast member this season. To me it seems really unfair that the producers are featuring her and Nathan's storyline when they should be focusing on new cast members.

I'm hoping it's just a beginning of the season thing having familiar faces as people get settled in with the new cast, but with her staying in a rental near the dock (which was obviously set up by producers) I have a feeling her and Nathan are gonna have more storyline this season.

And let me finish by saying this is not me hating on Gael I actually liked Gael when she was on. I blame this on production.

I can’t believe I’m saying this but after watching these first 3 episodes I already know I’d take Ellie any day of the week over Gen.

Based on what I’ve been seeing online I think Gens gonna get worse this season 😬