Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

purehappiness wrote:

I just recently made my first shakuhachi and am having a very hard time trying to play RO. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Does the force of my blowing need to be changed when trying to play RO? Slowing down my breath did seem to get a note for a second or so.I am having trouble with tsu also. I suppose these two notes are probably the hardest to master.

Try this:

ALL holes open; blow long tones on that note: I ["eee"]. Continue until you're very comfortable with that note; take your time. By long tones, I mean one full outbreath, paying attention to the point where your airstream hits the blowing edge, and how it affects/controls the tone and pitch. Do this repeatedly for several minutes (at least...).

Then close hole 5 (thumb) and do the same thing; take your time. Loooooong tones (most important and useful thing you can do on the shakuhachi to develop your embouchure and get your 'sound').

Then close hole 4 (index finger; Chi). Get familiar with it. No hurry.

Continue doing this, taking your time (have I said 'take your time'?), until you get down to Ro.

Now, it's true that the lower you go, as a beginner, the more tricky and unstable the played note can be; nature of the beast. Bear in mind that your new flute may be part of the issue here: making a flute that blows a good, solid Ro can take some time and experience.

Last edited by edosan (2009-01-18 13:05:39)

Is there any way I can check that my flute is made correctly so that I know I can get a good RO?I did follow these instructions to build my shakuhachi.

http://mujitsu.com/howtomakeshakuhachi.pdf

Last edited by purehappiness (2009-01-18 15:47:17)

purehappiness wrote:

Is there any way I can check that my flute is made correctly so that I know I can get a good RO?

Only way I can think of is to find an experienced player to evaluate your flute for you. Second best would be to get your hands on a flute that's a known good performer and see if there's a big difference between the playability of it and yours, bearing in mind that 'good performer' can sometimes be somewhat subjective.

purehappiness wrote:

I would hate to get discouraged by a flute that is not made correctly though.

So, don't get discouraged, make another, and then another.

With respect, it is folly to think that the first shakuhachi you've made, especially as a beginning player,  will be a great performer. Ask Mujitsu and Perry Yung and Justin what they think about that.

Great. You're just at the beginning here....meantime: long tones, loooooong tones

Five to ten minutes daily. Really. You'll be quite surprised at the results, I think, no matter the status of your first shakuhachi.

purehappiness wrote:

I would not even know where to begin to find someone in my area. I will have to assume that my RO is at least somewhat correct for now.Later, if I still want to pursue this I can get a real shakahachi made by a professional.I would hate to get discouraged by a flute that is not made correctly though.

Do you know any silver flute players? There's a differenent embouchure between shakuhachi and silver flute but most silver flute players can get a halfway decent sound from shakuhachi with just a few minutes of trying. It's not at all unreasonable to think that you can get a playable shakuhachi by simply following some instructions. The tuning will probably be off and the utaguchi can be somewhat difficult to get exactly right, but if you don't have any cracks or leaks almost any shakuhachi with the right dimensions should be able to play Ro.

You all are very right. I want to enjoy the journey. Also, I want a flute made of bamboo because it is so close to nature. Last night I realized that my holes dimensions were way off. I drilled the holes but did not continue to get them to 11mm and 10mm. So, after some more work the flute does play better. I still will need to get holes 1,2,4,5 to 11mm. Right now they are all approximately 10mm.So, I am learning another valuable lesson about hole size. I have been trying RO more and it is coming to me. It seems everytime I pick up the flute I learn something new and old problems become easier. This will be a fun journey. It may take some time but the harder a thing is to accomplish the more rewarding it will be in the end. The beginning can always be the hardest hurdle but once I get past this hopefully, things will get easier.

Thanks everyone

Mary Ellen Miller is at the Community Music School in Springfield and has several students in the area.

Last edited by nyokai (2009-01-20 02:54:33)

I'm with you--enjoying the journey is the thing. And great satisfaction comes from making music with an instrument you crafted yourself-- no matter how imperfect it may be. I'm doing the same thing.

I've run through a fair amount of bamboo already building a repertoire of mistakes so I will know how not to make them in the future!

One thing that has really helped me is to purchase a 'yardstick' to compare my efforts against. I ordered a Shakuhachi Yuu and I have a chromatic tuner so when I learn to do something with the plastic shakuhachi that I can't do with my latest bamboo stick, that means I've found something I can improve in my bamboo!

I prefer to play the bamboo for the character of it but I really like the Yuu because it is a mirror on my own playing skills (or lack of them.)   

Greetings,
Chuck

purehappiness,I can relate to your efforts to play Ro as I am not much ahead of you in terms of learning to play tones on the shakuhachi.  I have been chronicling my journey in a blog.  If you care to look through it some time you may find a few tips there that could assist you (or at least amuse you) on your own bamboo journey.  You can find the blog here: http://ashakuhachijourney.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the input perry and airin. Unfortunately, last night I cracked my flute. I tried to enlarge the bore a little and the drill bit I was using cracked the bamboo    Now , I will have to start all over again. How important is bore diameter to playability? The diameter of my flute was approximately 1/2 inch. The specs I was using said the inside bore should be 3/4 of an inch at the utaguchi. Will this make a big difference? I should have expected my first attempt to not be perfect. Now, I also know when to try and drill out the inside bore (if needed). Before, the utaguchi is made(the drill caught the edge of the utaguchi and cracked the bamboo).

Last edited by purehappiness (2009-01-20 06:10:43)

purehappiness wrote:

I just checked out your blog airin. It is very informative.  All I can say is that this little taste of what the shakuhachi can do has made me want more. Now, I need to find some more bamboo(with the right dimensions).


Thanks

Good luck on your hunt for bamboo purehappiness.  I really admire you starting your shakuhachi adventure from the very, very beginning....making the flute yourself is such a noble beginning to developing a (lifetime) relationship with the instrument.