Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Eddie,

Looks great. I'll congratulate you one your photography as well, it is hard to photograph instruments well.

Steven

Geez, guys, I'm touched. This is what I consider my first "real" flute, so it's nice to see people liking it. I do this for myself first, but it's always good to get input from people that know something about it.

I'm going to start making flutes part-time in the Spring, if some connections happen for me in the near future. Hopefully, I'll be using Madake soon. I can't wait. I really enjoy making flutes.

Blue...playing the root-end is different than I thought it would be. In fact, after making a few flutes that weren't so great but playable, I got the Yuu, and really liked it. However, after using the Yuu, I got used to the weight of the thing, and I guess, somewhere deep inside me, I assumed that a solid root-end would be almost as heavy. I've tried one high-end rootend, and it's nowhere near as heavy as the Yuu, so that's good to know. Anyway, while my non root-end flutes were definately playable, my root-ends are much more playable by friends of mine who couldn't play the other flutes very well before. Most of my friends can now play a little melody, whereas they could barely get a note out on the old ones. I also had a fairly pro player here in Seattle try the 1.8 last week, and he got a lot of sound out of it. He really liked it, and is going to reccomend me to his friends.

So, to answer, yes, the tapered end really does give it much more focus than I thought it would, and the flutes project fairly well; It was funny to hear this guy playing so well on my flute, and it was MUCH louder than I thought it was. I guess we can't hear it the same way that people who aren't playing do. The notes glide much smoother from note to note, but I also gave the holes decent undercuts, after studying pics and diagrams for some time and figuring things out.

Funny, Steven...I didn't think the pics came out all that well, but I'm a perfectionist with that stuff. But after seeing them up, I do like them. Thanks for the compliment. I'm trying to set something up for next year that will let me take better pics easier.

I've been thinking lately about the idea of "transmission". Most people don't think of the teaching of a skill from one person to another as "transmitting" it; they generally think of it as "learning" it. However, in Japan and a lot of other cultures, they do use the term Transmission quite a bit in regards to learning. In the study of Shakuhachi, our Masters Transmit thier knowledge to us. I suppose we regard the word as a reference to Satellites and the like; they transmit information, usually in digital form, to recievers. There's no Master sitting in front of a Student, it's just Data.

Anyway...I think it's interesting that I made my first Shakuhachi, quite playable, before I ever held one in my hands. I spent a few weeks researching them on the Net, found some rudimentary info, took lots of mental notes, and made my flute. It wasn't very in tune, but it played fairly well. The next few were made after I did a little more research, and found better bamboo. Only three of those were seriously playable, and two not so much, but nice "folk" flutes nonetheless that my friends now own.

During all this, I was always fighting the idea of buying a pre-made flute from Perry Yung; I asked that poor guy a million questions, and went on an on (as you see I am wont to do), and he was very helpful. In retrospect, I should've approached him as an interested maker, trying to learn how I can, but I really thought I was going to get one of his Flutes. He has some nice flutes, don't he?   So, I ended up talking to Ken LaCosse, and asked HIM a billion questions, and, to my true sadness, lost out on a flute of his that I didn't have the money for. But Ken really helped out, and that PDF of his is the best thing I've ever found. If it weren't for that guide, I wouldn't be where I'm at now.

So, I figured that it wasn't in my financial cards for me to buy a flute; rather, it could be cheaper to MAKE good flutes, and it would fufill my ever-present need to create things with my hands. So, I got this bamboo on eBay, and, while thinner than I'd have liked, it was fine, and very cheap. And so you see it. I'm going to try and record some MP3s on it, and I'll see if I can post it somehow.

See? I have all kinds of blahblablah time on my hands, and I type FAST. 

Thanks agains for all the nice comments!

-E

Thanks, Toffe! I wish you all the best in your endeavors. Let me tell you something really awful, though, and maybe this will help you out: When I made my VERY first flute, just 2 years or so ago, I made it so the utaguchi was on the bottom lip side, and the end was plugged. I got something one could call a sound out of it, but that's about all it was. I realized I just hadn't researched it at all, just seen a few pics.

So, all in all, yu're doing fine. Let me know if you have any questions or anything. While certainly not an expert by any means, I've learned a lot about how NOT to make flutes!

-E

Still working on it, working on some sizing issues and tuning. Slowly but surely.

Thanks for the comments... I'm not sure I'll ever sell it, although I guess I should, since I'm jobless, lol.

Anyone need a 1.8? 

-E