Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

I'm starting school again next quarter to go for my BA in Multi-Disciplinary Arts, after I get my AA. I'm a late bloomer, starting school at 38. Yikes.

Anyway...I'm thinking about possibly doing a Major/Minor, with my Minor being Ethnomusicology, concentrating on the Shakuhachi and Japanese music. I'm still not sure about this, since my ability to get Federal funding has probably fallen through due to an arror at Selective Service. I'm looking into other ways to fund my schooling, since I can't afford it. The first two years aren't that much of a problem, since it's at a Community College, but the BA will be at Univerity of Washington, and the price goes up quite a bit. I'm finding out a lot about things such as State Needs Grants and City Grants, so at least the first two years and some of the 2nd two are covered, hopefully.

What I'm curious about, however, is if I could possibly get monies from grants, scholarships, or something like that. I haven't looked too much into it, but I guessed that some of you might've been through something like this before, so any advice would be helpful.

One possible thing in my favor...even though the UW has an amazingly extensive ethnomusical instrument collection, including koto, shinobue, etc), they dont' have a SINGLE shakuhachi. Nothing. Nowhere. Doesn't even look like there are any shakuhachi players there, either. So, this could mean that I could forge a new trail there, although I really don't know how, per se. Any ideas on this?

Namaste.

-Eddie