Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Since I still haven't had lessons, haven't gotten a book, or anything, I've been practicing on my own, trying to (unsucessfully as yet) decipher shakuhachi music, listening to many recordings, and mostly making stuff up when I play. I'm always found it easy to "sound like" someone who can play...I have "licks" I can play better on some instruments than on others, but I've never wanted to master an instrument the way I want to with the shakuhachi, and I want it for spiritual reasons. ANYway...I've become more serious about shakuhachi over the last year, and so on, so I've been practicing Kyorei pretty regularily. Sometimes I'm not quite "in the zone", and have problems getting the subleties or whatnot, so I start noodling around, doing some improv. I like playing like that, but I also want to know more pieces, but I'm being patient, and I'm really going to take lessons soon, I swear.

Anyway, tonight I was standing in front of the mirror to watch my new embrochure, so I can replicate it easier later. I was playing kyorei, and was going okay, but I don't know the whole thing...then I decided to play Amazing Grace, and it sounded great. I then played Danny Boy, and even got up into the 2nd octave (albeit squeaky)! I was pretty excited that I got to play through the whole song without cringing about that part. Now, I don't usually play more "celtic" types of songs, but they're tunes I know, and I can play in such a way that it has that kind of generic "ullean" sound. The shakuhachi has some of the same flexibility as some Irish and Scottish flutes, at least to my ears. Maybe if I get into ethnomusicology in school, I'll change my mind, lol.

So, that was my Golden Moment of the day. I finally got through a song without worrying about kan, and felt great. it's a small step, but it's a good one.

Namaste.

-Eddie