Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Residents of Northern Kentucky! Based in Union, KY....The Good Neighbor Podcast helps the residents of Northern Kentucky get to know local business owners as people. We allow the business owners and influencers in NKY to tell the stories of how they started their business and why. We hear about their families, their personal interests and why they love living in and serving resident of Northern Kentucky!
Good Neighbor Podcast: Union
The Art of Flute: Building Life Skills Through Music
When Jin Hand first picked up the flute at age 12, she couldn't have imagined how the instrument would shape her journey from South Korea to Northern Kentucky. Twenty-six years later, she's not just playing – she's transforming young lives through music.
"It's not just about playing notes here and there," Jin explains with passion during our conversation. "I'm teaching them how to not give up. I'm teaching them how to push through." Her approach at Hand Flute Studio treats each lesson as an opportunity for profound connection, where technical skills and life lessons intertwine.
The dedicated flutist brings impressive credentials to her teaching practice. After studying at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, she continued her education with bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in music performance. Now she balances performing with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra while teaching students throughout Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati.
Jin's perspective on musical education is refreshingly realistic yet deeply encouraging. She compares learning the flute to running a marathon – progress happens in waves, with plateaus that require perseverance to overcome. "You can play a song within a month or two," she notes, "but it's really about how well you want to play it." Her long-term students demonstrate the rewards of this patient approach, some studying with her for up to ten years and winning national competitions.
Beyond technical instruction, Jin builds community through creative activities like "sour candy challenges" during summer sessions and maintains an Instagram page showcasing student achievements. Her teaching locations – a home studio in Independence, Kentucky and Glory Baptist Church in Blue Ash, Ohio – accommodate families throughout the region.
Want to experience this unique approach to flute instruction? Contact Jin at 480-313-5699 or visit the Hand Flute Studio Instagram page to see her students in action. Whether your child is a beginner or advanced player, they'll find more than music in Jin's studio – they'll discover their capacity for growth, resilience, and joy.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Mike Murphy.
Speaker 2:Thank you, charlie. Yes, I am Mike Murphy, host of the Good Neighbor Podcast. We talk to local business owners and people who help enhance the lives of the residents of Northern Kentucky, and the person that I have with me today is somebody that I am now meeting for the first time with many of you. Her name is Jen Hand and she is the owner of the Hand Flute Studio, and I find it intriguing because I really have no idea what that means. I can kind of guess, but she's going to explain to us all about the Hand Flute Studio. So, jen, welcome to the podcast and tell us about the Hand Flute Studio.
Speaker 3:Thank you, mike. So yeah, the Hand Flute Studio is as it is the title. It's a place where, you know, I teach. I teach flute lessons, private lessons, to kids of all ages I mean, it can be adults as well but just to enhance their you know their both fluting skills and abilities, and of course it doesn't, and they set out goals, that I help them achieve their goals. And you know, just learning about life together and all that and so that they can also feel confident and you know, just enjoy, enjoy making music together.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Okay, so are you considered a flautist? Is that the proper term?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we both. Well, it's kind of still a thing. But you can call me flautist, you can call me flutist. You know it's really, flautist is a German way of saying it, and flutist is a Greek, you know. So either way is fine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Very good, thank you. So how long have you been doing this?
Speaker 3:How long have you been playing, so teach? I have been playing for 26 years now, so it's very it's a very big part of my life, of course, as you. You know, as early as I can remember, as I started when I was 12. So it was very, yeah, 26 years, and then um, and then teaching. It was about like 18 years ago, I think. Yeah, about close to 18 years yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So, um, as you know, you and I spoke a little bit before we began recording the podcast. You, you mentioned that you came from South Korea. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 2:All right. So how long were you in South Korea and how long have you been in the States?
Speaker 3:So I moved, I moved, I came. Actually I went to Canada, first when I was about 10, 10, 11. And then I was there for about eight years and then, for my senior year of high school, my flute teacher at the time suggested I should try, try for Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and that's like an arts high school in Traverse City. So that's where I in my senior year of high school and auditioned and and and I started and I lived in the States ever since then. But I moved around a lot to Michigan and then Indiana. That's where I went to, I went to my bachelor's and then I went to Arizona for master's and doctorate and then I came back here. So I moved a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you are well-traveled a lot. Yeah, you are well-traveled. Well, I'm from Michigan, so I'm familiar with Interlochen and familiar with Traverse City and, yeah, that's a very famous school and I think there are many famous people that have gone to Interlochen and so, yeah, I love always talking about Michigan, traverse City, et cetera. But it's not about me today, it's about you.
Speaker 3:No, it's okay, we can have a conversation about it. I loved being there. It was a very beautiful, beautiful place. Yeah, I enjoyed being there.
Speaker 2:So one thing I'm curious about, if we want to just talk briefly about Interlochen what was that experience like?
Speaker 3:So it's arts high school obviously. So there are students, you know, from all over the world actually to just have that one goal of enjoying music, making music and taking classes and taking private lessons. And of course, we would have like a weekend that's actually Sunday and Monday, instead of Saturday Sunday, it's like a Sunday Monday, and we would just like those weekends would be like we have a bus, like a school bus, that would take us to a mall or take us to church if we want to, you know, like so because there was really nothing around the school at the time that I went. So I'm sure it's different now.
Speaker 3:I actually haven't been back ever since I graduated, but yeah, it was really just kind of like an isolated area in a way. It's a very beautiful like summer camp kind of feel, but everybody was very serious and very dedicated and committed to making music and to be able to go to music schools that are widely known. So there were people. Yet, like you said, there were people who went to like Juilliard, like very famous musicians and artists and, you know, like drama, like there's a lot of just different people like arts people. But because we were in that school all going for the same purpose. I think we could also relate to each other a lot more because it was so focused in that area the challenges and the successes. I think we all felt it together.
Speaker 2:Have you ever played any other musical instruments, or was it always the flute for you?
Speaker 3:My parents, especially my mom. She was very musical. She did not do any musical instruments but she really wanted us to play. I have two any musical instruments, but she really wanted us to play. So I have two older sisters too, but she really wanted us to really do music, you know, and have fun and anyway. So then I started out when I was.
Speaker 3:I started with cello when I was four years old, because string instruments you can't start that young because it's small. But of course, as a four-year-old sitting down to play or to practice, you know like I would just run around not wanting to practice and my mom would chase me down and like you gotta practice, you gotta practice for your lesson, and I and I just wasn't interested. You know like I just couldn't do it. You know, now, though, I do enjoy cello and it's one of my favorite instruments you know to listen to. But yes, but I do play and I did learn how to play piano and I always encourage to, like my students or other parents around me, I actually strongly encourage them doing piano lessons first and then, because it gives you a lot of like musical background, like you learn how to read music both hands.
Speaker 3:It's multitasking, so a lot of different skills that you need to actually further if you want to get further into learning different instruments. Piano is a really good fundamental instrument to learn. So, yeah, I do play piano, but not I don't know. If you want to take lessons from me about piano, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, I just think that that's, I don't know. That's just a very cool thing that you have that skill set, thank you. So let's talk about the Hanford Studio. You have Northern Kentucky students and you have some students up in Cincinnati, is that correct?
Speaker 3:That is correct. Yep, that is correct.
Speaker 2:So what is the split there? Is it 50-50? Is it mostly Kentucky, mostly Cincinnati? What's that look like?
Speaker 3:So right now, my studio is very equally distributed, so I do teach equal amount, basically equal amount.
Speaker 3:So when I go to Ohio, though, I do have to split it to two days because it becomes too much, and back to back, and then I try to, and it and this is the thing about my studio is that I do try to fit everybody's preferences about their lesson times or lesson schedules.
Speaker 3:So for me to be able to do that and I wanted to open up more less than days for my Ohio students where Kentucky students I teach out of my house and I call it a studio, so there's a area in my house that I teach, and so because I'm out of my house and I call it a studio, so there's like an area in my house that I teach, and so because I'm teaching from my house with Kentucky students, I have a little bit more flexibility in terms of like, if they have to make up a lesson, then I have more dates that I can offer. But with Ohio students, it used to be just one day back to back lessons, you know, but it just became a little bit like, well, I can't offer flexibility with them, which I really want to. So I decided to split that into two days, so the parents have the option of taking this day or this day and work into their schedule.
Speaker 2:So OK, how many days a week are you teaching?
Speaker 3:So right now, I guess two days in Kentucky and two days in Ohio.
Speaker 2:Okay, so would you like to boost that up to seven?
Speaker 1:days a week.
Speaker 3:You gotta have some time off. That is true, yes, very true, yep, yep, maybe just a little bit, I don't know.
Speaker 2:So, if you look at your schedule, do you have a preference in terms of maximum number of students that you can take on, and how far are you from that?
Speaker 3:So I do have maximum number, I think, especially because I have two boys I have a 10-year-old and I have an 8-year-old.
Speaker 3:And so that I do have to. Like you said, I do have to balance out my life too, of course, and the teaching really does happen after school, but during the day I play in a schoolhouse symphony. That's a symphony that goes around schools in the tri-state area, so during the day that's my job. My full-time job is that to be a flutist and going around teaching not teaching flute, but teaching them about music and we play shows depending on different age groups and stuff like that. So, yeah, I definitely do have a limited like number of kids, of students, that I can take but, I'm not stopping in a way, like they want to take lessons with me.
Speaker 3:I try not to stop that because that's really a privilege, you know. So I do have a limited number of openings, but it would be nice to still expand it as much as I can, so when you sleep at night. If that answered the question, I don't know.
Speaker 2:It did. I'm just, you know, like, if the goal of this podcast is to build awareness and get students, that's, that's, that's great, that's one thing. Um, but um, yeah, you know, I just, I, I just think that right now, um, you know, one of the the things I like to do is just to introduce interesting people to the community, and you have a lot of interesting things in your background to talk about. Thank you, and one of the things I'm wondering, as we're talking, is because music is so ingrained in you. When you sleep at night and you dream, do you dream of music? Do you have normal dreams, like I do, or is it all about music?
Speaker 3:um, well, you know it's. I think it's one of the job dreams that you might have. Like for me, the dream that I would have is one of those things like I'm supposed to perform in front of these, like big audience, big crowd, and I have no idea what I'm supposed to be playing. Or I haven't had it, I haven't memorized the piece, like like that panic feeling, you know. So, those are the dreams that I call it nightmares in a way, because I don't wanna be in that position in real life.
Speaker 2:Right musical nightmare I did dream, yeah, exactly. So you mentioned your boys. I think you said eight and 10 years old. What are their names?
Speaker 3:So my oldest boy is Jonathan and my youngest is Ryan.
Speaker 2:And then you were married correct With a husband at home is that correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, I am married to yes that's correct.
Speaker 2:What's his name?
Speaker 3:His name is Matthew Hand. Matthew Hand.
Speaker 2:All right, Matt Hand.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's right Hand.
Speaker 2:Okay, I may have met him. I mean, there's not very many hands around. I mean other than at the end of our arms. Right. So when you guys are, when you're not teaching and when you're not playing, what do you and your family like to do for fun around Kentucky?
Speaker 3:So we, you know, because I have boys and I'm the only girl we try to do, I'm not much of a sports person. You know, I never really liked doing sport, like gym classes. I always had a hard time with balls, you know. But because we have boys.
Speaker 3:We love going to the sports, you know. So we love going to the Reds game and we love going to the SC Cincinnati games and all my boys are in sports teams. So that became a really big part of me, of course too. So, yeah, we do sports and we try to travel to closer areas. But we love to travel and we just like to kind of hang out and just kind of talk sometimes, and I like to go shopping and sometimes my boys sacrifice their.
Speaker 3:they whine and complain about it, but they end up doing it with me, Just so that I can be happy too.
Speaker 2:Are they into music? Do you have them playing instruments?
Speaker 3:So, yes, from their school we do, they take piano lessons and that's one of those things that I do actually like say even myself, like I mentioned earlier, like the piano is going to be an instrument that you will be learning, you know. But then my oldest, he's in band now, so he's doing percussion. So my husband, matt Hand, used to be a percussionist. Hand, um used to be a percussionist. Um, so he that's how we met um in music school. Um, so he used to be a percussionist and I'm a flutist. And then we, we met in arizona. That's where we met. We did our math for my master's and doctorate, but, um, so he did his master's in arizona and that's where we met and he came here.
Speaker 3:He moved here as a doctorate in percussion at UC, okay, all right, and then, after getting married, I moved over here too. So then after a year or two, he decided not pursue his doctorate degree in percussion and decided to go into a field that's a little bit more financially stable, let's say, you know, because a lot of music things, it is a lot of freelancing, and we discussed that we wanted to make family, we wanted to grow and and build a family together. Um, so he, um, he became an internal auditor, so he's, um, he used to work for great american and now he's at mass mutual ascent. Okay, um, but yeah, so he's. We are big, we are in a way, musical family, we call you know, because he's still and he does.
Speaker 3:He plays drums, drums now at our church, yeah, so the praise team. So he's still a drummer. So, yeah, my son, my oldest son, watching that he wanted to learn how to play percussion. So he's in dance, in percussion, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, at first I'm thinking. You know Matt's using both sides of his brain. He's got the music side, but music is kind of too, you know I mean so good for him All right.
Speaker 3:So Blue Ash, when you have students up there. I believe you said that your studio is in a church. Is that correct? Yes, so it's called Glory Baptist Church. It used to be a Korean church, actually. That's the church we used to go to. We attended there for 10 years, but because we moved to Independence and the distance became a little bit too far and um, so and then we just kind of like that's just where the our chapter of being in that church ended, um, and we just we had to just find a different church um in our area. Um. But yeah, they were. They've been super generous about letting you use their space um to be able to teach, because they think it's again, it's outreach to the community and you know, and they're doing amazing things. They just helped me have a place there because I couldn't let go of the students in Blue Ash, so they offered that I could use their space.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then when you have your Northern Kentucky students, they're coming to your home studio, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, and a couple of students though, I do teach out of. A couple of students are from my boys school, so I'm also teaching at their school and I teach students from there.
Speaker 2:All right, so putting a lot of miles on your car. I know, I know yes, for sure car, I know, I know, yes, for sure. So your South Korean culture, do you ever get back to?
Speaker 3:South Korea. When's the last time you were there? So yeah, I was there about three years ago, three summers ago. So we tried to go as often as we can, you know, for even for my boys to be exposed to the culture as well. You know. So, when I was a student, just by myself, I used to go there almost like every year, like especially in college. You know, every every year, I would be with my parents and spend time with my parents there. So, that being said, my parents live in Korea.
Speaker 3:So all the time that I was in America or in Canada, I really was away from my parents during that time and I think I mentioned it to you. Like I have two older sisters, so we were three sisters were all together. We're living together, we were doing, you know, going to school together, you know. So we so all this time my parents were in Korea and so they really made sure that we come and see them every year, and my mom would just come every three months to be with us too, like that. So now, after having family though of course it's a lot of I mean, to be honest, it's a lot of money to be able to go back to Korea, and now kids are in school, the school schedules and all that stuff made it a little more complicated. So my parents come and visit me, visit us, mostly, but then we try to go there maybe every other year or something like that.
Speaker 2:So we try to go there often yeah. Yeah, and when you can't, then there's always FaceTime, exactly.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:So if somebody is taking flute lessons from you, you know what's the timeline look like in terms of you know, from lesson number one to when they can sort of become proficient at it.
Speaker 3:I know, everybody's kind of on their own timeline. But what's to be expected before somebody finally can say, yeah, I play the flute, got you, yeah. So that's one of those things where you can play a song, let's say hot cross buns. Right, you can play hot cross buns within a month or two, but maybe two months, let's just say two months, given you know we have to blow, learn how to blow into our instrument and learn how to finger all these notes. So maybe two, two months, um, but of course it's also the thing about well, how, how well, how well do you want to play hot cross buns, you know?
Speaker 3:So I think sometimes there is that misconception. I feel like, where we're taking flute lessons or less, or any music lessons, instrument lessons, is that, oh, by the by the six month period? I, I think I should have my student, my child, be able to do this, you know, or. But then it's to be honest, it doesn't really work like that. You know what I mean?
Speaker 3:It's I want them to be able to see that it's a long run thing, it's a long journey, it's like a marathon, you know, like so you can reach certain point, but then you hit a plateau and then it becomes a little bit like dull. This is boring, but then you overcome that plateau and then you, you are again improved so much after that plateau. So it kind of is a wave of things. But it's really about how well do you want to play the hot button? So usually I say like after maybe two years, one year and a half or two years, then you really have the ability to play harcotspans with vibrato, with musical lines, and have more understanding of how every note has meaning, things like that more in-depth, and then that becomes more skillful sounding.
Speaker 3:Let's say so it is a long journey. It's not something that oh, oh, let's just do it for six months or for a year and then and let's quit. You know it's, it's really about a lot. You gotta look at it as a long run, because I have students who learn, who study with me for 10 years, um, and that students that started when she was eight and then she graduated high school, um, so it's like, and then she ended up becoming a really good flautist. You know, she won like all national and she won like youth orchestra and she won like competitions, like things like that. You know what I mean. Like it's. You see the actual result of it throughout the years, after year two, you know.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I kind of wanted to tell the listeners.
Speaker 2:You mentioned Hot Cross Buns. That's the first song I played when I picked up the saxophone 50 years ago, and my parents were tired of hearing that coming out of my bedroom. I will say that my heart wasn't in it, so I did give up. I was more of a percussion guy, but then I just never really picked up the drums. But you know, there's music in all of us. It's just a matter of finding you know how to express it. Yeah, there's something for everybody within the world of music, even if it's just listening to it and appreciating it. But music is a big part of everybody's life.
Speaker 3:Yes, well said, I love that. Yes, I agree 100%. Yes.
Speaker 2:That's why I'm here. So if somebody wants to reach out to you and maybe become a student of yours, what's the best way for them to reach out to you?
Speaker 3:Of course, you can email me, you can reach out, like you can text me or call me, of course, and I also have an Instagram page of my studio of of students and what we're doing.
Speaker 3:Sometimes I post I mean, of course I do get permission to upload their pictures and stuff like that but, like I do sometimes again, it's my studio. It's not just about bigger, big things. You know my studio is about, you know, just maybe one song that I record with my students and we're having fun, you know. So, like you get to see different students with different songs or we're doing different things or it's not, and sometimes it's not about flute.
Speaker 3:Sometimes what I do also is this past summer, with my summer students, I did this sour candy challenge where, like, how sour, like, are you good at sour candy? Challenge. Where, like, how sour kids like, are you good at sour cane, eating sour cane? So there's things like that where we just really have fun. You know it doesn't have to be flute too. Yes, we do flute, but again, we do have. We know how to have fun. So definitely check out my Instagram page for things like that. I make videos of the progress of my students and all that we just you get to have more of a better idea of what I do in my studio with my students.
Speaker 2:Okay, so they can look you up on Instagram, the Hand Flute Studio you mentioned. You know they can call you. What is the preferred phone number? I want you to say it so that we can have it noted in the podcast transcript.
Speaker 3:Let's do it. My number is 480 3, 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 9.
Speaker 2:Very good, okay, and you live in independence, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, correct.
Speaker 2:So before we go, just give me your impressions of independence. How do you like independence? How do you? How do the kids like the schools there?
Speaker 3:Oh, I love it, I, I love, I love, and it's growing, and it's growing. I mean. I mean, there's, of course, mixed opinions about it, but I love it. You know, I think, and we, we, we love the house that we're in, we love the neighborhood that we're in, so I can't say anything better, you know okay, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2:I mean, independence is growing like gangbusters, I'd say. Um, independence and union are both kind of on the same track where there's yeah, you drive down the street and you see a new building popping up and a new sign. And yes, it's a fun, dynamic time to be a part of either community.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So, before we go, is there anything we haven't talked about that you want to make sure to mention? You know, I know, you play. You're not just teaching, but you're playing too. Do you have any concerts coming up? Anything that you want to promote?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I actually I think I talked to you about it, mike where I do, I'm a like I play frequently with Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, so we have a concert coming up actually on Halloween day. So, yeah, we have, I have that concert coming up and usually with other local orchestras that I play in, we do have like Christmas concerts, which I love. I think that's one of my favorite concerts and then so throughout the year I do have concerts here and there playing with different symphonies in the area. And then about just to say a little more about my studio before I go, okay, before you let me go Again. I want the listeners to know that my studio, I mean I know all the music students, I mean music teachers, feel the way, feel the same way.
Speaker 3:But of course, for my studio, for sure, I do value what we do in our lessons. You know it's not just, oh, let's play the flute for 30 minutes or 40 minutes or an hour and go home. You know it's for me. I really view it as building relationship with these students. You know I do value what they go through in life. You know and I just briefly talked about my background and my experiences, but I always tell my students, whatever they're feeling, like their struggles, their challenges, let it be with about the flute or not about the flute.
Speaker 3:I've been there, I've done that, I've done every. I felt those feelings that they feel, you know. So I always relate to them in that way. So it's not just about playing notes here and there. I'm teaching them how to not give up. I'm teaching them how to push through. I'm empowering them with the life struggles you know, like challenges. It's not just about let's not give up. I'm pushing them, let's say let's try this competition so you can be better, you can play better, and I'm teaching you to persevere, you know. So it's about really life skills also aside along with the skills.
Speaker 2:That's what I wanted to actually share with you today. Okay, so it's apparent you have the heart of a teacher and, whether that be music or just seeing what a child needs to thrive, and you're kind of helping to elevate them and fill in the gaps that you can identify. That maybe you know every student's different and you're able to connect with them however you need to to elevate them as people.
Speaker 3:Okay, yes, perfect yes.
Speaker 2:Good Well, jen, I'm glad we got to meet today and I'm glad that I got to introduce you to the residents of Northern Kentucky and I really enjoyed our time together. So you, you, you tell Matt that Mike Murphy says hello.
Speaker 3:I will Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it too. I really had a lot of fun talking to you.
Speaker 2:I look forward to meeting you in person and seeing you out in the community and hearing you play one day. Yes, sounds good. Well, that being said, this is the wrap up of the latest episode of the Good Neighbor podcast. I will always say to everybody out there everyone, be good to your neighbor and until I see you again, so long, everyone, Bye-bye.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Union. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpnioncom. That's GNPUnioncom, or call us at 859-651-8330.