Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

I don't know from predecessors, but I use these things as examples of diaphragm control for my students. I've heard them variously described as edge tones, whisper tones and flageolet tones, if we're talking about the same thing. 8^) I've heard them on recordings and sometimes they sound like artifacts, and sometimes sound like effects. I've found, that in my limited collection of recordings, that they are more like to appear on recordings of contemporary/original music than on recordings of classical honkyoku by more masterful players. Of course that's just my recordings, and my interpretations.
later...

philthefluter wrote:

I think you may be referring to whistle tones. These are often produced by accident at the start or end of a note but can also be played in isolation. The angle of the air stream has to be very exact to produce them. You also need to reduce the air pressure which is a good breathing exercise in itself. The whistle tones will fluctuate between harmonics so it is also a good challenge to keep a steady stream of air (to try to jump between harmonics).

Whistle tones are one of the secrets of developing a rich tone. A couple of minutes at the start of practice before ro-buki should do the trick. You may feel a tickling in the lip muscles afterwards. Whistle tones will work areas of your embouchure that normal blowing sometimes bypasses and will benefit from. You can listen to whistle tones here: http://www.shakuhachizen.com/warm-ups.html.

Cool! The reason I ask is because my teacher has an album called "Sacred Sounds for Sleep" and uses a lot of whisle tones (and reverb). I play it from time to time and find it very calming, I wanted to know if it was practiced anywhere in Honkyoku as a result. It really does open the gateway to a lot of strong tones.

I would like to add that whistle tones are probably not heard on classical honkyoku by more masterful players because they were actually not thought to be integral parts of the music itself, but artifacts.  Also, to hear those sounds, relatively close micing is necessary.  In most of the older honkyoku recordings I've heard, close micing wasn't implemented becuase it tended to pick up too much breath sound and those nasty little artifacts that show up at the beginning and end of a breath.  Aside from that, if any sort of reverb, compression or limiting was added to the recording (likely it was if it was done in a studio) those whistle tones could disappear altogether.  I personally like them in certain instances.