Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

An easy way is to kari a liitle bit-raise the chin-when you put air into the flute. The function of an atari is to accentuate the note by adding air or pushing extra air into the finger hole to join the air coming into the column. If the atari is on the #4 hole, then it's adding air to a column of air that's already moving rapidly and is closer to the utaguchi than the #3 hole. This extra addition of air will make the sound fly up to kan easier or since it's a burst of air and less focused it will result in a screech as the harmonic appears. When blowing strongly the lips are often puched closer to the utaguchi too and if you don't kari-move them away from the utaguchi-thenit will want to jump up even more.  Doing an atari on the #3 hole is supposed to have a little otsu mixed in. It's easy to do if one karis just as one is putting air in the flute anf then returns to the normal position. This is much more pronounced effect than using the atari on #4 and is used to achieve such a result when desired. Messing with the flute as far as this atari is concerned isn't the answer because if you kari it won't happen. If it does and it's the nature of the way the flute is constructed you would notice it for the other regular notes when you played them before this. Some flutes DO want to jump up to kan quickly but if it's just when you're doing ataris then it's a technique problem and not the flute.

Hi all! 
 
I will keep working on the flute because I think it's not a technique problem, because in other flutes I have/play it doesn't happen... 
 
Another question: 
Does the points from a hole to the bottom work on tuning and toning the flute? I think I never saw anyone talking about this - it's always the spot tuning, between the hole and the blowing edge - and I always have the impression that the points from the hole to the bottom also affect the tone/pitch at the end of story (maybe more subtle, but is what I feel)... 
 
 
Thank you all for the posts! 
 
A big hug and peace!

Musgo da Pedra wrote:

Another question: 
Does the points from a hole to the bottom work on tuning and toning the flute? I think I never saw anyone talking about this - it's always the spot tuning, between the hole and the blowing edge - and I always have the impression that the points from the hole to the bottom also affect the tone/pitch at the end of story (maybe more subtle, but is what I feel)...

Henrique,

I think of the "pressure points" above the hole as good starting points to check because they are most likely to have a known influence on tone and pitch. However, everything is related in the bore so areas below the hole have an influence on problems as well. Also, as Perry noted, the area below the first hole is very important for the overall tone of the flute. As you've probably noticed, it helps to pay special attention to this area when playing ro before the holes are drilled.

There are many ways to approach bore work. When looking for fixes, I like to exhaust the known scientific possibilities as well as the clues gained from experience. After that, it can be helpful to check all areas in the bore to see if a fix can be found by accident. In addition, when checking any spot in the bore, it is informative to be aware of ANYTHING that is influenced by that adjustment. It may not apply to the fix of that particular flute, but it is knowledge that can be banked and used for future fixes. Of course it doesn't always work. There are many failures, but staying at it increases the odds!

Good luck!