Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

bananamusician wrote:

So, as a project at my school I chose to make a shakuhachi. But because of lack of time and not being able to get me some real bamboo I chose to make the shakuhachi in birch with the dimensions stated in this pdf: http://mujitsu.com/howtomakeshakuhachi.pdf. I might put up some pics later and information about the process, but for now I have some questions.

The thing is, I'm having a real hard time getting a note out of it and I'm wondering if I might have made a mistake somewhere or if it's just me being a total beginner. Because of how I put the pipe together (I put two pieces of wood together to make the pipe), the bore isn't fully circular so I'm wondering if that might be a problem. The mouthpiece looks pretty good in my opinion, but could the choice of wood make it harder to produce a tone?

Welcome Banana,

Pretty much any material will work to produce a sound. The bore can also be uneven. At the same time, however, the bore has to have enough characteristics to make a flute playable. Generally, you need a gradual taper to a little under the 1st hole. Then, a slight reverse taper to the end of the flute. Utaguchi depth, angle as well as hole size and undercutting will influence the tone as well. Photos would help a lot!

Ken

bananamusician wrote:

The flute is completely cylindrical, is this a big problem?

Do you mean the bore is completely cylindrical? If so, that shouldn't be a problem. That alone wouldn't keep it from playing. You might want to check for leaks in the seam. That WILL make it difficult to play.

bananamusician wrote:

And yeah, I'm a total beginner at shakuhachi, so I'm guessing me not getting a tone in the flute at all should be expected, however, should it be THAT hard?

It can take many attempts to finally make a first tone. Minutes, hours, days, etc. So, if you've never played before that could have a lot to do with it. Stay with it!

Ken

Hi bananamusician,

bananamusician wrote:

The thing is, I'm having a real hard time getting a note out of it and I'm wondering if I might have made a mistake somewhere or if it's just me being a total beginner. Because of how I put the pipe together (I put two pieces of wood together to make the pipe), the bore isn't fully circular so I'm wondering if that might be a problem. The mouthpiece looks pretty good in my opinion, but could the choice of wood make it harder to produce a tone?

I saw in one of the photos that the seam on the joinery is not aligned in the bore. This can make the airflow more difficult, but not impossible.

Judging from the photos, it looks like you are quite crafty with your hands. As an experiment, you can try to make a PVC flute to see if it's equally difficult to get a sound out of. PVC flutes are generally easy to play. This will help you deduce the culprit:)

Good luck! Perry

I've made similar flutes out of Pine, Oak and Maple. The bore photo makes it look like you need to either sand the bore so the two pieces meet better or use a filler of some sort to smooth the joints.