Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

amokrun · 2006-10-05 17:13:11

As I have mentioned before, I am a beginner with roughly a year of experience. I can play most otsu/kan notes with confidence and I also occasionally play some pieces with moderate success. I have had no teacher so far, although I'm getting some lessons in a few weeks.

Keeping that background in mind, I have a small problem. A friend of mine has gotten somewhat interested in shakuhachi. She has musical background but hasn't played any similar instruments before. Whenever she visits me, she wants to try to play with my shakuhachi. So far she has had maybe an hour or two of practice in total, divided into smaller sessions of maybe 10-15 minutes each. She can make a sound, although not consistently.

The problem is, I'm by no means qualified to teach anyone anything when it comes to shakuhachi. Although I love to help, I'm afraid that I may in fact explain some things wrong. Last thing I want to do is to propagate some flaw in my own technique without realizing it.

Do you think it's a good idea for me to help her as much as I can with my current skill level? Teachers are somewhat hard to come by around here and besides, she isn't really addicted enough yet to seek for one in any case. The way I see it, it's either my possibly flawed hints or nothing at all for her at this point.

Furthermore, if you think that it's fine to help someone get started, what kind of things should I talk about at first? So far I've not talked about specific techniques at all and have instead focused on the fundamental concepts like breathing properly as well as explained some mistakes I made early on and how to avoid those.

Any advice would be most welcome.

geni · 2006-10-05 20:53:29

I would say..
tell her (or teach:-) everything you know...
Doing this..you might discover some new things yourself.

geni

Last edited by geni (2006-10-05 20:53:56)

Bruce Hunter · 2006-10-06 03:46:33

Amokrun,
There are those who say that one does not really understand their instrument until one tries to teach someone else. Some of us have also found out a lot about ourselves in the process. One definition of a teacher is someone who knows something someone else doesn't and shares that information. You may find yourself learning more from her than she does from you (if you're lucky). We've all heard that thing about "When the student is ready a teacher will appear". Maybe "When the teacher is ready a student will appear" is something to be considered?

amokrun · 2006-10-06 04:06:55

Bruce Hunter wrote:
There are those who say that one does not really understand their instrument until one tries to teach someone else. Some of us have also found out a lot about ourselves in the process. One definition of a teacher is someone who knows something someone else doesn't and shares that information. You may find yourself learning more from her than she does from you (if you're lucky).

I'm fairly well aware of this. It's even more true in my case, since I've noticed that whenever I explain just about anything to someone else, it starts to make sense in my head as well. Having to put all those confused thoughts together into a coherrent message clears up many things for me.

What I'm worried about is that while I may end up learning a lot in the process (I already have, in fact), I may also end up passing on some bad habits and bits of misinformation. Although it's somewhat unavoidable when you don't have a teacher with lots of experience, I still wouldn't want to be responsible for some bad habit that ends up taking ages to re-learn at some point. Even though I sort of understand that getting some help - even if not entirely correct - is better than just trying and failing repeatedly like I did myself originally, I still can't quite ignore the issue. At least when I learned things by trial and error, I knew that anything I came up with could be totally wrong and I was thus able to get over mistakes more easily. If someone would have taught me wrong, I would most likely still be doing those things wrong.

Either way, thanks for the thoughts. I was rather expecting more harsh comments originally. I guess I'll keep doing it to whatever extent I can with my current skills. Thankfully I have a chance to get my technique checked soon with a proper teacher. That should help to clear up some misunderstandings.

amokrun · 2006-10-06 16:30:59

nyokai wrote:
Certainly there can be nothing harmful in fooling around on shakuhachi and having you show her whatever you know as long as you are clear about your level. What is probably most valuable is that you can pique her interest and point her to online and print resources that might inspire her further.

That was more or less my original idea. I'm not capable of teaching anyone how to play properly but I can hopefully make it seem interesting enough. Furthermore, my advantage over professionals is that since I have been doing this for such a short time, I am a decent example of what you can do in such a short time. It's hard to accept it at face value when someone with 30 years of experience tells you that it's easy to get started.

nyokai wrote:
It is actually quite refreshing to hear somebody concerned about this issue. In America many students (always men, in my experience) set up shop as experts way too early. Not only can I watch this happening around me, but I remember being very guilty of it myself (my sincere apologies to audiences, CD buyers, and students of years past, especially the 1980s). It's one of the hazards of studying an Eastern tradition principally in America rather than in its home.

I've heard of this in similar context with martial arts. I was doing iaido for a few years and have kept in touch with what is going on with martial arts all over the world. Apparently the problem spreading to other areas as well, but it seems to have happened in America first since that's where most of this stuff ended up first.

Today we have some places like that in here as well. Finnish people are traditionally rather modest. Unfortunately that kind of attitude is getting through here as well, which results in absurd things like students with few years of shady experience setting up martial arts schools all over the place. Perhaps it's because I was raised in here that makes me detest such behavior. If it would be done honestly and everyone would be aware what they are getting into, it would be perfectly fine.

nyokai wrote:
I therefore applaud your cautious attitude.

Thank you. I'm constantly being told by various people that the kind of attitude I have isn't good in today's world because it doesn't sell. It's of course true, I can't argue with that. On the other hand, I've come to see that I much prefer feeling good about myself and being generally well liked over being very good at selling myself for fame and fortune. Besides, teaching something to someone who can't tell good advice from bad is pretty much the lowest thing one can do if you do it in a fraudulent manner and end up causing more harm in the process. No amount of money or street credibility can make that right.

Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

#1 2006-10-05 17:13:11

Can helping be harmful?

#2 2006-10-05 20:53:29

Re: Can helping be harmful?

#3 2006-10-06 03:46:33

Re: Can helping be harmful?

#4 2006-10-06 04:06:55

Re: Can helping be harmful?

Bruce Hunter wrote:

#5 2006-10-06 16:30:59

Re: Can helping be harmful?

nyokai wrote:

nyokai wrote:

nyokai wrote:

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