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#1 2006-04-16 01:12:33

geni
Performer & Teacher
From: Boston MA
Registered: 2005-12-21
Posts: 830
Website

what are you guys practising

hey Guys,
i hope everybody is doing well.

i thought it will be good to know what people pratice.
Right now I learning Tamuke and I playing from a book of clasical melodical etudes for western flute.
Its challenging, some stuff sounds good, some.....no comment;-)

Geni

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#2 2006-04-16 02:43:00

dstone
Member
From: Vancouver, Canada
Registered: 2006-01-11
Posts: 552
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

Hi Geni.

I -love- Tamuke.  Even when I'm not in a meditative mood, that piece can draw me to practice.

Pieces I'm focussing on now are Shingetsu and Yamagoe.  Humbling.

Sometimes, I enjoy -trying- to play bits of western songs I can reproduce by ear.  In a long, drawn-out, honkyoku-ish sort of way.  I had the craving today to find sheet music for something ballad-like from Tool (maybe from Lateralus) and see how that would work out.  Weird.  The feeling passed.

-Darren.


When it is rainy, I am in the rain. When it is windy, I am in the wind.  - Mitsuo Aida

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#3 2006-04-16 03:13:52

caffeind
Member
From: Tokyo
Registered: 2006-04-13
Posts: 148

Re: what are you guys practising

I just bought a new flute so I am trying to get used to it. Going through Reibo at the moment, one of my favorite pieces.

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#4 2006-04-16 04:07:25

Josh
PhD
From: Grand Island, NY/Nara, Japan
Registered: 2005-11-14
Posts: 305
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

Hi,
  I just started Koden Sugomori (Suzuru) with my teacher. It's a wild piece I am listening to over-and-over to understand some of Yokoyama sensei's techniques (from the cd Take Ippon II). There are a lot of new techniques covered in this song. I just finished Gekko Routeki by Fukuda Rando, a completely different kind of song with much more western rythms, but I enjoy the balance of playing both honkyoku and gaikyoku.  It seems that everytime I do a honkyoku I start getting urges to play something more rythmical and modern, then I get the urge to play something more raw with traditional techniques and sounds. I guess it's a never ending cycle of not being satisfied wink But it keeps my motivation level quite high.
Josh

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#5 2006-04-16 06:51:27

Gitsuka
Member
From: Preston, UK
Registered: 2006-02-15
Posts: 7

Re: what are you guys practising

Im waaay behind the likes of most here im still practising my scales lol. Trying to teach myself and so far i think i've done pretty well. I never thought id get a sound from it and now i can put together quite a few sounds. An example of my newbieness would be to say i can play the first bit of silent night lol. Oh and i've been trying to follow Geni's piece 'Sugar' i love that track, Its just finding the right sounds.

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#6 2006-04-16 10:21:52

Tairaku 太楽
Administrator/Performer
From: Tasmania
Registered: 2005-10-07
Posts: 3226
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

An ideal day of practice for me would be:

1. Blowing Ro for at least ten minutes
2. Long tone exercises
3. Scales
4. Various technical exercises (intervals,muraiki, trills, tongueing, metronome, komibuki, etc.)
5. After warming up play freely for a while. This time can be used for improvising, working on writing something, testing the limits of the flute, whatever. Unstructured, just let things happen.
6. Play through a few gaikyoku, or if preparing for a performance, work systematically on the gaikyoku you intend to perform. This includes playing along with tapes of koto/shamisen players.
7. Play some honkyoku and minyo from memory.
8. Work on honkyoku from notation. Listen to recordings from various performers to see how they approach the piece and which stylings you want to adopt or reject.
9. Practice shinkyoku or jazz. From notation or try to learn from recordings.

Of course this ideal day never happens, but do as many of these as you can do every day. I am teaching myself at this point. If you have a teacher you should just practice whatever he/she tells you to and if you have any time left over try these ideas.

James Nyoraku Schlefer's book of technical exercises is a great resource for practicing shakuhachi and it's in Kinko notation. Available from James or at www.shakuhachi.com

John Neptune's practice worksheet has some excellent suggestions. Ed posted it:

edosan wrote:

Regarding organizing one's practice:

Here are two links to a scan of an info sheet (front and back sides) produced by John Kaizan Neptune. The files should print well to a letter sized sheet. There is a lifetime of things to work on and think about on these two little pages; nothing mysterious--just the ideas of one who has put in much time in the woodshed:

http://img439.imageshack.us/img439/1467 … ge10zs.jpg


http://img439.imageshack.us/img439/2782 … ge23rl.jpg

Please bear in mind that this is copyrighted material.

Regards,
eB

Steve Lacy's book/CD set "Findings", although written for soprano sax, has a wealth of exercises and suggestions about scales, intervals and improvisation which can be adapted to the shakuhachi. Some things easily, others take transposition and a lot of work. Every serious musician should have this book. There is a lot of information about how to practice.

Marco Lienhard told me if time is an issue (you only have 10-20 minutes) he prefers his students to blow ro rather than playing music.

Use common sense regarding practice. If you are a beginner don't try to bite off more than you can chew. Your lesson materials, blowing ro, and a few scales should be enough. As you advance, add other techniques to your arsenal.

An interesting note is that everything I've written, aside from blowing ro and practicing gaikyoku and honkyoku, reflects Western thinking. In Japan they do not traditionally do technical exercises, they just take lessons and practice the songs.

Finally I highly recommend playing outside, especially for the long tones, scales, techniques and improv. When you are outside you blow harder and develop a strong tone. People who always practice inside tend to restrain themselves and never develop maximum output. There's too much emphasis in shakuhachi study on moving the fingers around and not enough on blowing.


'Progress means simplifying, not complicating' : Bruno Munari

http://www.myspace.com/tairakubrianritchie

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#7 2006-04-16 16:00:47

kyoreiflutes
Member
From: Seattle, WA
Registered: 2005-10-27
Posts: 364
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

I'm finally coming around to playing Ro; I have ADD, so it's hard for me to sit on one note for too long. I made this 3.8 flute with a great Ro on it, and I've been playing it a lot. I even took my girlfriend's headache away last night by playing Ro on it for 10 minutes.

Nowadays, I try to play Ro for a bit, then I start fiddling with improv, but I usually wind up working on the first few measures of Kyorei and Sanya. I like Kyorei because of its' seeming simplicity; no piece makes me want to sit still like Kyorei. Sanya is simillar, but has some extra stuff in it that jazzes it up. I just love both pieces, so I've been working on those.

Oh, and I also dink around with tunes that I hear...when I made my 3.8, I found that it plays a Trombone theme from Empire Strikes Back that I like, so I've been working on that, lol.

It all helps in the end.

-E


"The Universe does not play favorites, and is not fair by its very Nature; Humans, however, are uniquely capable of making the world they live in fair to all."    - D.E. Lloyd

"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."    -John Donne

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#8 2006-04-16 21:32:01

Bogert
Member
From: Amagasaki-shi, Hyogo-ken
Registered: 2005-12-05
Posts: 203

Re: what are you guys practising

I have been playing minyoo songs.  Tyrrell sensei has me working on my timing with sunayama right now.  I've never had any formal lessons on any instrument and am enjoying this quite abit so far.


理趣経百字の偈
菩薩勝慧者 乃至尽生死 恒作衆生利 而不趣涅槃 般若及方便 智度悉加持 諸法及諸有    一切皆清浄 欲等調世間 令得浄除故 
有頂及悪趣 調伏尽諸有 如蓮体本染 不為垢所染    諸欲性亦然 不染利群生 大欲得清浄 大安楽富饒 三界得自在 能作堅固利

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#9 2006-04-16 23:43:09

philipgelb
Chef, musician, teacher
From: Oakland, California
Registered: 2005-10-08
Posts: 135
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

on my music stand these days are:
Poeme 2 by Teizo Matsumura
12 fantasies for solo flute by Telemann
Shokangen Reibo
the Steve Lacy book that Brian mentioned
Yusef Lateef's scale book
Kajimakura
Keshi No Hana
The Art of the Fugue by Bach
Aki by Hozan Yamamoto
Ixor by Giacinto Scelsi (for flute)
Density 21.5 by Varese (for flute)
Tamuke
Jimbo Sanya


Philip Gelb
shakuhachi player, teacher & vegetarian chef
Oakland, CA
http://philipgelb.com  http://myspace.com/philipgelb, http://myspace.com/inthemoodforfood

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#10 2006-04-17 00:06:52

geni
Performer & Teacher
From: Boston MA
Registered: 2005-12-21
Posts: 830
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

Hi Phil,
Thats crazy. that`s some serious music there.
i would love to hear Density, Bach & Teleman.
Can you make a home recording and posted on the Forum?
Its really hard to play traditional (western) on shakuhachi. We have to have totall control of the instrument.
geni.

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#11 2006-04-17 05:12:51

Daniel Ryudo
Shihan/Kinko Ryu
From: Kochi, Japan
Registered: 2006-02-12
Posts: 355

Re: what are you guys practising

I'm also practicing Keshi No Hana, along with two gendaikyoku,  Sasurai Sextet and Kokoro No Mama Ni --  all for the same event coming up on May 7th (the latter two pieces have a number of parts and will have 12 or 13 shakuhachi players and more than twenty shamisen and koto players on stage...they're not so interesting to play by oneself).   Also working on Yamagoe, San'an, Okayasu (a Yamada gaikyoku), Midare, Kumoijishi (a three part version), Seiya No Kyoku (a Fukuda Rando piece), and the above mentioned book of scales, long tones etc. by Nyoraku James Schlefer.  That was an apt comment by Edo san concerning traditional practice in Japan.  In my teacher's lessons we just play the pieces; I had never practiced scales or any technical exercises until I picked up Nyoraku's book a couple of years ago.  The Steve Lacy book sounds quite good...  Happy Blowing.

Last edited by Daniel Ryudo (2006-04-17 05:22:58)

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#12 2006-04-17 10:34:10

edosan
Edomologist
From: Salt Lake City
Registered: 2005-10-09
Posts: 2185

Re: what are you guys practising

Daniel Ryudo wrote:

That was an apt comment by Edo san concerning traditional practice in Japan.  In my teacher's lessons we just play the pieces; I had never practiced scales or any technical exercises until I picked up Nyoraku's book a couple of years ago.

To be precise: Tairaku made that point...

eB


Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.

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#13 2006-04-17 11:05:20

shaman141
Member
From: Montreal, QC.
Registered: 2006-02-02
Posts: 154
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

Greetings Everyone!

Right now I am practicing Tamuke, Sanya and Daha, all in the Dokyoku style that I am learning from Alcvin Ramos.

I also do a lot of improvising, and practice long tones, blowing RO for atleast ten-fifteen minutes at a time, a lot of

muraiki, koro koro, and have been working on my nayashi as well. And since I'm practicing Daha, I've been

working on the diaphragm pumping motion, which is proving to be quite challenging!

Wishing everyone fruitful practice!

Sean


Find your voice and express yourself, that's the point.

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#14 2006-04-17 13:49:49

philipgelb
Chef, musician, teacher
From: Oakland, California
Registered: 2005-10-08
Posts: 135
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

the idea of only playing the pieces that one's teacher shows you can be very probematic to me!

Of course, one should study what their teacher shows you but it is often necessary to supplement this with other studies. This is starting to change somwhat as many teachers, and i hope to include myself in this category, have a greater understanding of the theory and technique and structural elements beyond just repeating what their teachers show them.

If one only learns pieces, then all they can play are those particular pieces. If one learns the theory, scales and structures behind the music, then they have a greater sense of what is going on and can actually use that to learn how to improvise, compose, etc and can most likely start to learn pieces on thier own to some extent.

It became obvious to me several years ago that many shakuhachi players and teachers really do not have much of a clue about theory and structure.  This is quite evident when you hear some players perform and extremely obvious when you hear a student ask a question to the teacher who then stumbles through an answer and then hides his lack of knowledge behind some buddhist jargon. smile
The worst part about this is so many students accept it and then worship their teacher because of the buddhist jargon and then they go on and teach in the same ridiculous manner perpetuating the problem and producing more inefficient players in the process.

2 or 3 days a week i offer what i call, "basic techniques" classes for my students. This is an hour of long tones, japanese music scales/modes and intervals.  The students who attend these (and then practice what they are shown) tend to develop much faster than the ones who do not.

phil


Philip Gelb
shakuhachi player, teacher & vegetarian chef
Oakland, CA
http://philipgelb.com  http://myspace.com/philipgelb, http://myspace.com/inthemoodforfood

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#15 2006-04-17 13:52:23

philipgelb
Chef, musician, teacher
From: Oakland, California
Registered: 2005-10-08
Posts: 135
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

geni wrote:

Hi Phil,
Thats crazy. that`s some serious music there.
i would love to hear Density, Bach & Teleman.
Can you make a home recording and posted on the Forum?
Its really hard to play traditional (western) on shakuhachi. We have to have totall control of the instrument.
geni.

to play any music, one has to have total control of ones instrument.

Thank you for asking me to post recordings....i do not have any recording equipment at home. Nor do i plan to perform the "euro classical" pieces i practice every day. For me, besides being great music, they are etudes to help me develop my technique.

phil


Philip Gelb
shakuhachi player, teacher & vegetarian chef
Oakland, CA
http://philipgelb.com  http://myspace.com/philipgelb, http://myspace.com/inthemoodforfood

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#16 2006-04-17 14:46:26

Tairaku 太楽
Administrator/Performer
From: Tasmania
Registered: 2005-10-07
Posts: 3226
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

philipgelb wrote:

the idea of only playing the pieces that one's teacher shows you can be very probematic to me!

Of course, one should study what their teacher shows you but it is often necessary to supplement this with other studies. This is starting to change somwhat as many teachers, and i hope to include myself in this category, have a greater understanding of the theory and technique and structural elements beyond just repeating what their teachers show them.

If one only learns pieces, then all they can play are those particular pieces. If one learns the theory, scales and structures behind the music, then they have a greater sense of what is going on and can actually use that to learn how to improvise, compose, etc and can most likely start to learn pieces on thier own to some extent.

This may be part of the reason this stuff is not taught in Japan. It seems to me that teachers try to cultivate exclusivity and loyalty through controlling their students by developing exclusive notations, forcing students to play a specific makers shakuhachi, and perhaps by not imparting certain knowledge. After all they can't make money off a student who knows how to teach themself.

philipgelb wrote:

It became obvious to me several years ago that many shakuhachi players and teachers really do not have much of a clue about theory and structure.  This is quite evident when you hear some players perform and extremely obvious when you hear a student ask a question to the teacher who then stumbles through an answer and then hides his lack of knowledge behind some buddhist jargon. smile

The worst part about this is so many students accept it and then worship their teacher because of the buddhist jargon and then they go on and teach in the same ridiculous manner perpetuating the problem and producing more inefficient players in the process.

This kind of depends on what background the teacher and student have. For example my teacher James Nyoraku Schlefer has a background in western classical music so from the beginning we used a lot of Italian jargon in the lessons.

philipgelb wrote:

2 or 3 days a week i offer what i call, "basic techniques" classes for my students. This is an hour of long tones, japanese music scales/modes and intervals.  The students who attend these (and then practice what they are shown) tend to develop much faster than the ones who do not.

phil

That sounds good. I start out lessons with 15 or 20 minutes of that, which is good for me and the student. Learning the Japanese scales is useful for the gaikyoku and honkyoku. Knowing about Western music theory is essential for shinkyoku and any other jazz, rock or whatever you want to play on shakuhachi.


'Progress means simplifying, not complicating' : Bruno Munari

http://www.myspace.com/tairakubrianritchie

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#17 2006-04-18 16:10:47

geni
Performer & Teacher
From: Boston MA
Registered: 2005-12-21
Posts: 830
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

That`s so much information here..
But I have noticed something else.
This is not for everyone...Students dont like to go deep in to the things.
There are some exepctions (they are the one who make it).

I have noticed this with my self. I get access to o alot of information, but I dont practisis all, some here some there. they all are good.
So, I am focusing one thing at a time. I am being more productive (i think;-)
Geni

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#18 2006-04-18 17:09:13

Gitsuka
Member
From: Preston, UK
Registered: 2006-02-15
Posts: 7

Re: what are you guys practising

Oh i just got an order i placed through the other day. I purchased a book 'Shakuhachi' by John Kaizan Neptune and some other bits from Mejiro. Only had a quick read, i just need to start to learn to read music in english and japanese so it seems. Should be intresting. yikes

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#19 2006-04-18 19:43:27

nyokai
shihan
From: Portland, ME
Registered: 2005-10-09
Posts: 613
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

philipgelb wrote:

on my music stand these days are:
Poeme 2 by Teizo Matsumura
12 fantasies for solo flute by Telemann
Shokangen Reibo
the Steve Lacy book that Brian mentioned
Yusef Lateef's scale book
Kajimakura
Keshi No Hana
The Art of the Fugue by Bach
Aki by Hozan Yamamoto
Ixor by Giacinto Scelsi (for flute)
Density 21.5 by Varese (for flute)
Tamuke
Jimbo Sanya

Hey Phil --

You might consider adding Scelsi's Pwyll to your music stand -- hard on shakuhachi, but not impossible...

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#20 2006-04-20 02:46:25

philipgelb
Chef, musician, teacher
From: Oakland, California
Registered: 2005-10-08
Posts: 135
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

Hey Phil --

You might consider adding Scelsi's Pwyll to your music stand -- hard on shakuhachi, but not impossible...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phil Nyokai James
nyokai@nyokai.com


Good idea Phil. I will try to find a score as that is an interesting piece!
Scelsi should have written for shakuhachi....

Had a very challening and enjoyable gig earlier tonight; playing in Vinny Golia's orchestra along with 40 other musicians.

phil


Philip Gelb
shakuhachi player, teacher & vegetarian chef
Oakland, CA
http://philipgelb.com  http://myspace.com/philipgelb, http://myspace.com/inthemoodforfood

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#21 2006-04-20 03:55:55

Alex
Member
From: Barcelona - Spain
Registered: 2005-10-17
Posts: 138

Re: what are you guys practising

philipgelb wrote:

It became obvious to me several years ago that many shakuhachi players and teachers really do not have much of a clue about theory and structure.  This is quite evident when you hear some players perform and extremely obvious when you hear a student ask a question to the teacher who then stumbles through an answer and then hides his lack of knowledge behind some buddhist jargon. smile
The worst part about this is so many students accept it and then worship their teacher because of the buddhist jargon and then they go on and teach in the same ridiculous manner perpetuating the problem and producing more inefficient players in the process.

phil

Hello everybody,

Just wanted to comment on what is mentioned above. Phil, I find rather offensive that you reffer to some ways of teaching as "ridiculous". I think you are assuming that a better Shakuhachi player is that who is more technically skilled and who can create its own music with it. I would agree that from a certain point of view that seems to be the case but there are many of us who approach Shakuhachi in a different way, perhaps as a way of expression free from all that technical jargon of scales, intervals and structures that is so present in Western music.

In that sense I would like to quote Goro Yamaguchi's father who used to tell him ""Cleverness with your fingers is meaningless", and to point out what Goro Yamaguchi itself used to say: "During performance your whole self comes through. Work on improving it." Perhaps that "Budhist jargon" can help improve oneself and hence become a better player, for example, I found that understanding certain concepts has helped me improve my playing greatly, but of course, that is my case and it doesn't have to be that way for everybody.

I'm quite sure you didn't intend to be offensive, and please don't take this as an angry reply from an offended reader, I just wanted to remind you that in Shakuhachi playing, as in many aspects in life, there are not bad and good ways, just different ones.

Salud y alegria para todos

Alex


"An artist has got to be careful never really to arrive at a place where he thinks he's "at" somewhere. You always have to realise that you are constantly in the state of becoming. And as long as you can stay in that realm, you'll sort of be all right"
Bob Dylan

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#22 2006-04-21 01:43:23

philipgelb
Chef, musician, teacher
From: Oakland, California
Registered: 2005-10-08
Posts: 135
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

i certainly did not mean to offend you, Alex or anyone else. My apologies!
When i posted that message, i was thinking of an experience i had the evening before. A student came for his first lesson with me after studying with another teacher for almost 3 years. This student could not make any meri sounds even though he had been practicing daily for a while and taking lessons regularly. That student never recieved what i would think of as very basic advice on achieving meri notes such as lower your head (he figured that part out from observing), diminshing the breath output, and relaxing the embouchere, how to use their fingers, etc.  Thus many incorrect habits were developed which will take a long time to correct. By the end of this student's lesson, he was able to achieve a nice sounding tsu chu meri and tsu o meri, much to his surprise and delight.

I found this students experience,  very upsetting as i cannot comprehend why this other teacher did not teach this student what was necessary to learn how to play. I asked this individual if he asked questions to the other teacher and he said he was told that questions were not welcome. The only advice he was given regarding meri notes was to focus inwards. No technical explanations were ever offered and unfortunately this student could not figure it out by himself and thus became very frustrated.

Of course, any kind of spiritual knowledge should help one in any aspect of life.  But there are more concrete explanations necessary in order to  learn an instrument as complex as shakuhachi. With the technical means to play an instrument, one can develop a vocabulary and language and thus can then apply their spiritual life into the instrument.

i realize that many people who play shakuhachi have no concern for how it sounds. They prefer to blow in one end and move their fingers. And some  call this Zen.

Of course there are multiple approaches to any instrument possible and multiple approaches to teaching any instrument. But i think teachers have a responsibility to teach students how to play in as efficient a way as possible.  Perhaps i am crazy for thinking this way.

phil


Philip Gelb
shakuhachi player, teacher & vegetarian chef
Oakland, CA
http://philipgelb.com  http://myspace.com/philipgelb, http://myspace.com/inthemoodforfood

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#23 2006-04-21 02:06:49

evan kubota
Member
Registered: 2006-04-10
Posts: 136

Re: what are you guys practising

"i cannot comprehend why this other teacher did not teach this student what was necessary to learn how to play."

Maybe his own knowledge was fairly limited and he wanted to "stretch it out" for as many paid lessons as possible? wink

I agree that in any kind of teaching some instruction is necessary. Simply telling a student to "focus" is not going to magically give results unless they play for decades and decades. Some degree of technical proficiency is necessary for true expression, IMO. I've played guitar and until very recently I felt like technical issues were impeding my expressiveness. It's not perfect yet but getting closer...

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#24 2006-04-21 04:15:59

Alex
Member
From: Barcelona - Spain
Registered: 2005-10-17
Posts: 138

Re: what are you guys practising

Hey Phil and others!

I see what you mean. I think you are right, a decent amount of technical explanations are always welcome, otherwise, as you say, it can become a very frustrating experience. I’m sure this leads to many people abandoning Shakuhachi, thinking they are hopeless!
And I completely see what you mean when you say that a teacher should teach a student to play effectively so as to be able to express more of that spiritual side.

Sorry but I thought you were discarding completely the philosophical/spiritual approach of teaching/playing and as I think it is quite important I had to say something. I guess it is as bad to focus only on spiritual things (as if some degree of technical development was not going to improve your expressiveness and enhance your playing experience!), as to focus exclusively on rational approaches to playing music; like certain guitarists I can think of that are more “gymnasts” (i.e. playing really fast and accurately but with no feeling) than artists (i.e. using the instrument to express inner feelings, not technical prowess).

Maybe I was also in a particular mood when I read your message (I've just spent a couple of weeks with my wife's family, whose father is a Buddhist priest) and it just didn't sound right what I read. Sorry if I sounded a bit harsh, I was just trying to make a point.

Salud y alegria!

Alex


"An artist has got to be careful never really to arrive at a place where he thinks he's "at" somewhere. You always have to realise that you are constantly in the state of becoming. And as long as you can stay in that realm, you'll sort of be all right"
Bob Dylan

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#25 2006-04-21 08:45:38

nyokai
shihan
From: Portland, ME
Registered: 2005-10-09
Posts: 613
Website

Re: what are you guys practising

Alex wrote:

I would like to quote Goro Yamaguchi's father who used to tell him ""Cleverness with your fingers is meaningless", and to point out what Goro Yamaguchi itself used to say: "During performance your whole self comes through. Work on improving it."

I suspect that when Yamaguchi Shiro said that to his son, Yamaguchi Goro was already pretty proficient -- or at least it was spoken in a context where a high level of proficiency was assumed as an absolute baseline for playing the instrument. There is a difference between gratuitous flash and impeccable technique -- I am quite sure that Yamaguchi Shiro was dissing the former, as the latter was apparently very important in that family.

As for what Yamaguchi Goro himself said, it is great advice. And one's whole self includes one's attitude to the tradition, to discipline, to mastering technical difficulties. Much of improving my own whole self involves deeper concentration, deeper dedication, and making my communication more subtle and finely tuned. That means practicing more and working on details more meticulously.

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