Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Great subject! - I remember with great fondness blowing a bottle in an old air raid shelter (20 odd years ago, probably not even there any more), but that was the feeling of being part of a single acoustic system: just hitting that one note.
Since I've been carrying a Yuu with me for the last year or so my favorite locations have been:
   An underpass under the Leeds ring road at Meanwood - approx 3m diameter, 15m long, corrugated walls.
   The new pedestrian tunnels between platforms at York railway station.
   A boulder at the bottom of a gully in the cliffs near Eyemouth - not great acoustically, but the sun was shinning, the birds sang along, and the tide lapped ever closer to my feet: Magic. (K -? (sic))

There does seem to be something about transport architecture: I'd love to have a go in the near by motorway tunnels, but I don't think it would be good for my heath!

In Chichibu when studying with Kakizakai-sensei, we (the students) used to walk out at night to a lonely bridge, and play under a towering archway supporting the bridge below. It was all open air except for the arch above, and which although high would reflect the sound really well. That's where we'd go for ro-buki - great space.

Justin
http://senryushakuhachi.com/

I seem to remember there's a way to sample the acoustic properties of a space and then recreate them. A friend of mine had access to the technology a few years ago and created the sound of a piano in a stairwell where a piano couldn't physically fit.

Looking back at our correspondence at the time I referred to a hologram, so I think this must have been acoustic holograpy. But Googling that term I find it being used more for analysis of spaces than for recreating them. I'll have to ask the person who was working with this.

On a more accesible level, a lot can be done with something like a Lexicon reverb and a decent microphone....

Last edited by Sweep (2008-10-02 21:24:01)

practising in a place without revebr or delay is one of the best thing to do to develop a good sound.

Sweep wrote:

I seem to remember there's a way to sample the acoustic properties of a space and then recreate them.

Convolution is probably what you're thinking of.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolution_reverb

As others have mentioned, while it is fun to play with acoustic spaces, and that play is definitely a part of the music, practicing in dead space is important. Natural reverb can be almost as much of a crutch in practicing as artificial reverb is in recording.

My favorite spot was inside a large water tank that was being built on a ranch. The reverb was fabulous and had extremely exaggerated decay times. The concrete stairwell in my old University was also excellent.

Toby

Interesting that everyone's response to "sound gardens" is to talk about playing inside some enclosed space.

A couple of years ago, a swarm of bees that had split from an overcrowded hive settled on a tree outside my workplace. They were looking for a place to establish their new colony, but when the weather cooled, they clustered on one branch trying to keep the queen warm enough. When it started to warm up, they became more active, and the tight ball of bees became a cloud surrounding the tree. At lunchtime, I stood in the middle of it, closed my eyes, and blew shakuhachi. With the hum and buzz of the swarm all around me, I imagined that this is what it would feel like to be inside the flute. When I opened my eyes, I saw several people staring at me like I was crazy, and couldn't think of any convincing argument to the contrary.

Ever since, I have played bee-nashi shakuhachi exclusively.

rpowers, a VERY nice story!
I LOVE bees myself - having helped a bee keeper in Denmark in my teens and then later on in New Zealand at an organic farm. Now that I am trying to pull out of England and move 100% to the Danish countryside (not half the time as now), I am hoping to be able to have bees again soon. Then I will join you in the bee-nashi playing - staying away from the balls of bees! Must have been amazing, though. It was always exciting when a hive split in 2, but I never thought of playing shakuhachi whilst it was going on.

One of my best experiences of acoustics is also outdoors. I have been (am not anymore) married to a Swiss saxophonist. When we decided on a place to do our homemade wedding ceremony, it was winter and the Alps was, naturally, covered with snow. We just decided on doing it up there... on top of a lift we knew was operating in summer. It was something like 1800 m altitude. When we got up there a week before the big day, it was a horrible place with gravel all over. We walked around and found, by chance, a wonderful place that was shaped like a bowl and was protected against winds with grass and flowers growing. It had views to Mt Blanc and the mountain range on one side, and walls of the mountain we were on on the 3 other sides. We had to make the guests do a little mountaineering and walk over snow (grandmothers had to give up half way...). When we then at the ceremony played a duo (for the first time at that place) the acoustics was fantastic! The walls on the side threw back the sound but perhaps the open side made it not sound like echo. Anyway, it was a great experience, but the relationship didn't last... oh well!
I haven't been there since... but I have been thinking about going there to play!

Last edited by Kiku Day (2008-10-05 05:55:25)

It is interesting to hear the tension between the sheer pleasure of the sound and the indulgence that this encourages and the need for discipline and the caution required not loose oneself in the sound. This has been my experience and I wonder at it. I find myself thinking of the early development of this music and wonder if it grew out of soulful indulgence and how is that related to a giving up oneself to the sound.