Your new biggest fans!
Meet your instructors.
Hi, I’m Chelsea Tanner! (flutist, teacher, and mindset coach)
Maybe your flute has been sitting in the closet for years, quietly waiting for you to open it again. If that sounds familiar, you’re in good company.
After working with hundreds of flute students and clients, I’ve noticed something beautiful: the flute never really lets go of us. There’s always this quiet pull to come back.
I created the Echo Flute Studio because I met so many incredible people who shared this story:
“I played when I was younger, then life happened… and I missed it.”
When I worked at tonebase, I spent years building a community and producing courses for adult musicians. Over and over, I saw how much people wanted to return to playing, they just didn’t know where to begin.
I’ve been teaching flute for more than 15 years, from middle school beginners in Austin, to graduate students at Penn State, to passionate adults rediscovering music later in life. The thread that ties them all together is the same: curiosity, courage, and love for this instrument.
Through the Echo Flute Studio, I want to help you make the most of the time you have (whether that’s ten minutes or two hours a day). You’ll have structure, guidance, and a group of people walking this same path as you.
Trying to figure it all out alone can be daunting. And you don’t have to!
Our next cohort begins January 6th. I’d love for you to join us.
Get to know my teaching.
I absolutely love breaking down concepts into their simplest form (using the fundamental physical principles of the instrument and our anatomy).
No more guesswork or wondering how to “open up” for a bigger sound. You’ll know exactly what that means and how to do it.
I love giving my students concepts and ways to troubleshoot, because after all, we all have different body shapes and sizes. Flute-playing can’t be one-size-fits-all.
Watch a video or two on my YouTube channel to see how I approach the instrument. and if you jive with it.
Hi, I’m Allison Asthana!
I’m a flutist, arts administrator, and teacher living in Houston, TX, and wearing many different hats depending on the day!
My goal as a teacher is to leave you feeling self-reliant to continue learning and growing after your time studying with me. I place a special emphasis on student ownership of lesson topics and repertoire, achieving freedom and experimentation in practice, and building confidence as performers and musical advocates. I am passionate about exposing musicians to a diverse range of composers, styles and genres.
I have a special interest in repertoire inspired by Hindustani music. My husband’s family is from India, and after hearing so much about it, I had the chance to visit in 2022. While there, I took bansuri lessons and subsequently created a practice eBook based on bansuri techniques, called Bansuri to Boehm. These techniques involve learning via modeling, repetition and careful listening - skills we can all benefit from!
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many students who were coming back to the flute after some time away, or decided to sign up for lessons after playing casually for many years. Some of the most fruitful discussions I’ve had about music and flute have come from these lessons! I love the journey, and challenge, of figuring out together what works best for each person to feel freedom to express their personal voice on the flute.
That’s where Echo Flute Studio comes in.
In EFS, we welcome students of all ages who are driven, curious, and willing to embrace experimentation and self-discovery. I hope you’ll join us!
Some of my latest projects.
My goal is to make any musical concept we talk about easy to understand, and I have (just about) a million ways of doing it.
Understanding the how and why of what you’re doing on the instrument is crucial, and because of that, my teaching relies heavily on body awareness, vocal-derived techniques, and comparisons to things you’re familiar with in your daily life - whether it’s sports, other traditions of music, driving (believe it or not, I use this one a lot), dancing, and more.
Together, we will find what clicks for you!
Check out the way I talk about music via some of my writing. I hope you connect with something, and if you have questions, I’d love to chat more!
This binder was used for flute students during one of my summer studios, and includes many of my favorite practicing exercises, strategies, and how to approach your fundamentals.
I created this book to introduce Hindustani techniques to the Western (Boehm) flute player. The book walks you through the techniques and includes play-along audio files and example videos!