Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Yooper wrote:

I suprised myself by being able to play a couple of the very first songs from Carl Abbot's book, and my friend insisted that I take the instrument, as he'd bought it at a Renaissance fair and been unable to play it.  Oddly, I find it easier to play than my more expensive instruments.

My experience is that shakuhachi are like human relationships. The ones that work for you aren't necessarily the ones that others regard as good. If you find an instrument that cost $1 somewhere and nobody wants but it plays perfectly when you try it, just go for it and ignore all that. I've tried some really expensive flutes that I wouldn't want to play at all whereas some really cheap instruments have been great for me. The trick is to try out as many as you can and get the ones you like. The most expensive flute in the hands of someone who doesn't like it would serve its purpose better had it been left to grow in the forest.

Welcome to the forum!

Zakarius wrote:

Unfortunately for me, my experience has shown that the makers do a pretty good job of pricing their flutes based (mostly) upon the instrument's quality... the sound quality I seem to get out of the flutes appear closely attached to the price (I hope it's not just psychological).

This is most likely true when considering the flutes of one maker and comparing them against each other. Say, most expensive flute from Ken is most likely better than his cheapest one. On the other hand, you may find that cheaper flutes from maker A are better for you than more expensive flutes from maker B. There are countless factors that can make a difference here and thus it's hard to compare flutes from different makers that are made in different ways. I've tried flutes that cost over five times as much as mine and I didn't like them nearly as much.

The problem gets even more tricky when buying flutes that weren't made by the seller. In cases where the maker is not even alive anymore you run into having to set a price based on all sorts of factors that may or may not reflect the value of the flute to you, the potential buyer. It may or may not matter that the flute was made by some particular famous person two hundred years ago. Yet, that is almost guaranteed to bring the price up a lot.

Suppose that I made a flute right now that plays exactly like another instrument made by the third Kinko. If price alone was a good way to tell how good given flute is, you'd think that my creation would sell for the same price as the equally good flute from third Kinko himself. Odds are, however, that there would be a huge difference in price. Furthermore, the flute wouldn't be worth much to someone who doesn't like that kind of flute to begin with.

My advice is to try as many flutes as possible. It might even pay off to not look at the prices too much before trying the flutes out. I know all too well that testing an instrument that costs a fortune basically forces you to like it for the first couple of times. Not knowing which flutes are expensive might be a good way to put all that aside and focus on if the flute really is good for you. The downside of this method is that you'll end up picking some extremely expensive instrument that you can't afford in the end. :-)

nyokai wrote:

But generally speaking, a very inexpensive bamboo shakuhachi is simply not going to serve you in the long run -- as you grow as a player and master new techniques -- as well as a more skillfully made, and hence more expensive, flute.

Good that you pointed this out. I was going to write something along the lines of "if your shakuhachi cost less than X, odds are that it isn't going to work for you". When I couldn't decide on a good value for X I left that part out. It would seem logical to assume that, say, shakuhachi under $100 are most likely not that great in the long run. I'm sure someone can find me an exception but it makes sense as a general rule. Under $500 is most likely not going to work for long on lessons unless it's a Yuu or something similar. I think my teacher was talking about roughly 1000 euros for a good flute for someone who is seriously trying to get somewhere, give or take couple of hundred euros to both directions depending on luck. Naturally it all depends on what kind of offers one happens to find.

The single largest advantage us current beginners have is that everything has been tried before and thus we have the luxury of asking for help before jumping into anything. For this I am very thankful.