Meet Pattillo, You Tube's Beatbox Flute Player

You Tube Shines a Spotlight on Greg Pattillo and Flute Beatboxing

Sep 1, 2009

Greg Pattillo's You Tube videos and persistence in the New York subways breathed new life into a classic instrument and launch his beatbox flute playing career.

After graduating with his Masters in Orchestral Flute Playing from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Greg Pattillo worked as a classical flute instructor and even spent a summer as the Acting Principal Flute in the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra.

He probably would have continued on his course as a classical musician, but a move to San Francisco brought his career to a screeching halt.

Greg Pattillo, Unemployed Classical Flautist

Upon arriving in California, Pattillo found free-lance flautists weren’t high in demand. To help ends meet, a friend hooked Pattillo up with a grocery job at Trader Joes. The job wasn’t exactly what Pattillo was looking for, but the friend was. When she was accepted into law school, Pattillo followed her to New York City.

A secondary motive for Pattillo’s move to New York was, of course, employment. But while he came across plenty of opportunities, the city’s high concentration of talent made it challenging to score free-lance work.

Pattillo Brings Beatbox Flute Playing to the Subway

Once again, Pattillo found himself among the ranks of unemployed musicians. This time though, his love for playing pushed him to take his act underground.

“I went down into the subway system to play music.” He says. “At first, I used it as an excuse to memorize these great flute tunes I’d always wanted to commit to memory. I thought, ‘I’ll bring a music stand and my music. If I play the pieces down there every morning, I’ll have them memorized in a month.’”

Pattillo’s plan to memorize the greats of classical flute repertoire worked well enough, except in the back of his mind, he’d hoped grateful commuters might toss a few bucks into his case every once in a while. “You know, Telemann’s Fantasia takes about 50 minutes to play through depending on whether you take the repeats,” Pattillo recalls. “I’d play all the way through, look down and find I’d made a dollar in change.”

Rather than becoming discouraged, Pattillo asked himself what he could be missing. What did his audience want to hear? From these questions, his unique style of flute beatboxing was born.

“I found myself trying to think of tunes people would know, like Sesame Street, Inspector Gadget, Super Mario Brothers, or Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf,” Pattillo remembers. “I added some beats, and that started bringing in a lot of money.”

Pattillo Finds His Audience Through Beatbox Flute Playing

Suddenly, Pattillo had audiences transfixed by his subway playing. Listeners of all ages barraged him with questions whenever the flute music stopped. How did he do that? Where was his microphone? And where did the backing track come from?

As Pattillo assured the clustered admirers that his melodies and simultaneous beat boxing accompaniment truly were created by simply him and his flute, their excitement became palpable. “The subways really are fun,” Pattillo remarks. “You can sense that excitement from people--just as much as you can sense when they aren’t interested at all in what you’re doing.”

For the next few months, Pattillo brought his flute with him to work at Trader Joe’s in Union Square. Soon, he was making almost as much in the subway during his lunch break as he made during his morning shift at the grocery.

You Tube Launches the Beatbox Flute Player

Then, on a whim, Pattillo uploaded the songs he played in the subway to You Tube. Millions logged on and marveled at his new take on one of the world’s oldest instruments.

“That completely launched my career,” Pattillo remarks. “Because of those videos, I was hired in a club in downtown Manhattan. I wore a nice tuxedo and was the front of curtain act between big sets.” Five or six nights a week, Pattillo had to show up for work at midnight and get home around five in the morning, but, all of a sudden, he was making a living playing the flute.

The Beatbox Flute Player Forms Project Trio

Pattillo quit the grocery store and persuaded his best friends from Conservatory--namely Peter Seymour and Eric Stephenson of Project--to move to New York. He got them hired at the same variety club, and suddenly, Pattillo’s flute beat boxing solo act was a flute, cello, and double bass trio.

Project Trio recorded Winter in June, their first album, and successfully promoted the CD with Pattillo’s You Tube momentum. The group has astounded audiences at live performances and entertained an online following for almost two and a half years. “It’s funny where these things come from, huh?” Pattillo laughs.

Currently, Pattillo and Project Trio are busier than ever. Three weeks ago they recorded a live DVD. Two weeks ago they finished work on their third album. And at New York’s international flute convention this August, Pattillo will promote his hot-off-the-press Introduction to Beatboxing for Flautist’s. After that, there’s a trip to teach in England and a huge West-Coast tour.

Project Trio regularly uploads to their You Tube channel, youtube.com\freedomworksfilms. The site houses 40 videos including the clips that started Pattillo’s career, interviews, videos of the trio goofing around, and live performances.

The copyright of the article Meet Pattillo, You Tube's Beatbox Flute Player in Flute is owned by Marcy Paulson. Permission to republish Meet Pattillo, You Tube's Beatbox Flute Player in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.