Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Hi Alex,

There are numerous different ways to approach the shakuhachi. In the strict Kinko tradition, they study gaikyoku for about 5 years before approaching their honkyoku. In the Myoan tradition they start with honkyoku immediately. The Jin Nyodo style, which is my training, teaches both alongside  one another.

If you have a teacher the best thing to do is just follow his/her recommendations until you have enough knowledge to branch out on your own. If you don't have access to a teacher I would recommend getting one of the basic honkyoku instruction CD/Book methods and trying to learn that way. I like Takashi Tokuyama's method and Yoshinobu Taniguchi's. Tokuyama's has the simplest techniques. They are both available from shakuhachi.com. Many people say that honkyoku is more difficult than gaikyoku, but I don't personally agree with that. In any case I don't know of any teach yourself gaikyoku methods. Then I would get James Schlefer's workbook of practice excercises (long tones, scales, etc.) and its play along CD. It's lonely practicing on your own without a teacher but not impossible. Stan Richardson, who is an excellent player, taught himself.

Or you could try video lessons with our own Nyokai. http://shakuhachiforum.com/viewtopic.php?id=125

Hope this is helpful.

kyoreiflutes wrote:

Brian...

For those of us that are new and don't know that much, do you think you or one of the other pros could explain the difference in style between Gaikyoku and Honkyoku, or provide a good link? Is Gaikyoku more of a formalized, tempo-based style, or is it closer to Honkyoku? I'm still in the dark about the different types of Shakuhachi music.

I'd love to hear more about this.

-Eddie
Kyorei Flutes

Basically gaikyoku (outside music) also called sankyoku (trio music) is classical music performed by shakuhachi and koto (13 stringed harp) and/or shamisen (Japanese 3 stringed fretless banjo). Shakuhachi is always in a supportive role, the music is written for the stringed instruments and sometimes vocal.

Honkyoku is the Zen music developed and transmitted in the temples.

It is not difficult to find recorded examples of both styles.

Hi Brian,

Thanks so much for your answer. So I guess, as it often happens with Shakuhachi, there's no "correct" way of approaching it.

I thought it was better to focus on Sankyoku for a while, as the main difficulties appear to be to move smoothly from one note to the other, and to get a good pitch. I find that Honkyoku has much more things to it, but I guess both have their own difficulties.

I suppose it also depends on how much time you have available to practice. In my case is quite limited so I suppose it’s better to focus on a single thing. In this sense, that practice book you recomend looks really interesting.

Again, thanks a lot for your answer, your encouragement and your recommendations.

Happy days

Alex

Hi Brian!

Thanks for the tip. I did start with some folk tunes but I moved on to sankyoku after a while. Anyway, I think it's a good idea in order to do some very basic practice.

Thanks a lot

Alex