Published: July 03, 2009 10:20 am      

Bit by the Flute Bug

Summer band camp brings woodwind instruments to the forefront

Janelle Martin knew even as a child that the flute was her instrument.

Its sound is closer to her vocal range, making it easier for her to hear and imitate it in her head. She likes that the flute is quiet, but deceptively powerful. She likes to imagine a pied piper bearing a flute and skipping through town.

“It’s hard to imagine a trombone player skipping through town,” she said. “I started playing flute in the fourth grade. I fell in love with it before I was even told what I was supposed to play.”

Martin likes the flute so much, she designed a camp around it.

And this isn’t just another band camp.

The third annual Flootapalooza will be held for exclusively flutists July 13-17 at 218 Country Estates Drive in San Marcos. Flootapalooza is open to all middle school and high school students, or any student with at least one year of instruction. The camp includes a combination of flute trios, quartets and choirs that prepare for a concert at the end of the week.

Run by university and professional flutists, Martin says instructors focus on helping participants fix the common problems not normally attended to in the band classroom, as well as exploring different musical topics such as music history and music theory.

“I felt like I didn’t really experience music until I got to college,” Martin said. “I want to give younger students the opportunity to experience all aspects of music, not just playing in band.”

The students spend much of the week working on classical improvisation and even transcribing songs that they create themselves. Such things are possible, Martin says, with the one-on-one attention they get at her camp.

“Kids get so glued to the page of music. We want them to know it’s not against the rules to do other things,” Martin said. “It’s not just about the music on the page. It’s about the creation of your music.”

Martin is currently attending Texas State, where she plans to graduate in August 2010 with a music education major. She is a 2005 graduate of San Marcos High School, where she served as the band president and flute section leader. Band quickly became a focal point in her life throughout high school.

“If I wasn’t in class I was in the band hall,” Martin said.

Three years ago she began teaching lessons at San Marcos High School, where she began to notice shortcomings.

“All my private rehearsals were the same. Five flute players would come in and I would teach the same five things to all of them. I began thinking ‘why not put them all in one room and teach the same lesson all at once?’”

Which is what she’s done with Flootapalooza: Seven hours of practicing that long, silver woodwind instrument.

“It’s not a band camp. It’s just flutes. And that’s all you’re thinking about for a week,” Martin said.