Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

rmunk wrote:

Can someone give me an idea of the breathing when playing the shakuhachi, particularly holding the breath in with pressure in the lower stomach.  When I try this my stomach gets very tight, is this normal?

If you mean tight against your belt, if you're wearing a belt or somewhat constrictive clothing, the answer is yes. If not, it sounds like you've got the idea but you're exaggerating it a bit too much. It's pretty much a normal deep breath, but not the normal "sigh" kind where your chest would fill first. For some people who have been taught to sit and stand always keeping their stomach tight the proper breathing (I think Nyokai says "from the bottom of the belly") might feel a bit unnatural, but it's still pretty much a normal breath, just deep. That's why some teachers demonstrate by having the student breathe while lying down, that way even students who maintain good everyday posture by sucking it in will often let their abdomen loose and breath naturally.

Yes, you feel some pressure, the air must ofcourse go out, but can not go to quick if you want to have a tone for some time. Both air pressure and liptension are part in this proces. Air pressure helps to make your tone loud or soft. The higher te tones, the more liptension you need. For the tonecolour you also use the combination of both.
But how much is the difficult part, because that differs from person to person. It's a proces of step by step, trial and error, a lot of patience (for some frustration) and for most of us a good teacher.