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#1 2010-02-18 18:34:02

mayberryjl
Member
From: Miami Florida
Registered: 2010-01-29
Posts: 29
Website

Practice schedule all outa whack....

So yeah I have been to the dentist and probably won't be able to practice for a week or so. I'm bummed out but what can ya do.  I gues this is a good time to start learning the fingering charts.......


Growing feathers is easy.  It's the flying that takes practice.
~JLM

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#2 2010-02-18 21:06:36

edosan
Edomologist
From: Salt Lake City
Registered: 2005-10-09
Posts: 2185

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

mayberryjl wrote:

So yeah I have been to the dentist and probably won't be able to practice for a week or so. I'm bummed out but what can ya do.  I gues this is a good time to start learning the fingering charts.......

I think you actually need to be able to play to get much headway in learning the fingering charts. You want to learn the fingerings (on your particular flute) so that you can automatically play the pitches correctly, and learn how the various intervals sound. Just looking at the charts ain't gonna do much for you.

In learning fingerings, at least in the absence of music, one good way to do it is to play a chart chromatically from bottom to top, then back down again, being very deliberate about pitch and getting the head angle and shading so you know what works, stopping along the way as necessary to work on any cross fingerings that match regular fingering pitchs.

Tough break, the dentist.

Last edited by edosan (2010-02-18 21:09:00)


Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.

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#3 2010-02-18 22:39:43

mayberryjl
Member
From: Miami Florida
Registered: 2010-01-29
Posts: 29
Website

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

Edosan,

Your advice is always useful but it's a bit ahead of where I am with my flute. I just need to learn the notes and the kanji for them so when I do manage to find a teacher I won't be totally lost....although I probably will be either way. Ah well that's the way the wind decides to blow and I can only bend in the breaze.


Growing feathers is easy.  It's the flying that takes practice.
~JLM

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#4 2010-02-19 00:41:27

Jam
Member
From: Oxford, England
Registered: 2009-10-02
Posts: 257

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

Take it easy, I had my wisdom teeth removed and didn't feel like practicing for a while. Just chill out and listen to some music. Sooner or later you'll be better again and you can take the flute on again under full steam.

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#5 2010-02-19 01:23:49

Matt Lyon
Member
From: North Eastern Oregon
Registered: 2009-06-30
Posts: 92

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

mayberryjl wrote:

Edosan,

Your advice is always useful but it's a bit ahead of where I am with my flute. I just need to learn the notes and the kanji for them so when I do manage to find a teacher I won't be totally lost....although I probably will be either way. Ah well that's the way the wind decides to blow and I can only bend in the breaze.

It is never to early to work on your pitch and trying to make each note sound as good as you can. If rhythm isn't tripping me up most of what I do is pitch, tone, and transition. I'll spend 3/4 of my time on that when I am learning a song and only worry about my phrasing and presentation after I have down those basics. These are just my thoughts tho. Everybody has their own approach and what keeps them motivated to keep playing.


For me learning the kanji went pretty fast. I did mess around trying to learn the basic notes out of a book but for me playing simple songs was the best. As you progress through the songs then more kanji, notes, and techniques get added and it didn't overwhelm me. If I tried to learn them all at once it would have been plain memorization and that would have overwhelming and a bit useless.

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#6 2010-02-19 01:32:19

airin
Member
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Registered: 2008-10-17
Posts: 303
Website

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

I agree with Jam, listening to some shakuhachi music can be a really good way to make your time away from actual playing quite meaningful.

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#7 2010-02-19 01:43:27

Megus
Member
From: Yoshkar-Ola, Russia
Registered: 2010-02-16
Posts: 15
Website

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

Matt Lyon wrote:

For me learning the kanji went pretty fast.

A little notice: it's katakana, not kanji.

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#8 2010-02-19 01:44:50

Matt Lyon
Member
From: North Eastern Oregon
Registered: 2009-06-30
Posts: 92

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

Megus wrote:

Matt Lyon wrote:

For me learning the kanji went pretty fast.

A little notice: it's katakana, not kanji.

Thanks for pointing that out. Would you mind also telling me the difference.

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#9 2010-02-19 02:33:09

Kiku Day
Shakuhachi player, teacher and ethnomusicologist
From: London, UK & Nørre Snede, DK
Registered: 2005-10-07
Posts: 922
Website

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

Matt Lyon wrote:

Megus wrote:

Matt Lyon wrote:

For me learning the kanji went pretty fast.

A little notice: it's katakana, not kanji.

Thanks for pointing that out. Would you mind also telling me the difference.

There are three components in the Japanese writing systems. Hiragana, katagana, kanji... and one could perhaps even add the Latin alphabet as it is used a lot too now - but anywa these three are the Japanese ones.

Katakana or カタガナ (very often pronounced katagana when talking) is a syllabary - so it is a set of written symbols that represent syllables. Katagana today is mostly used to write foreign words. It can also be used to emphasise a word or the like and used in notation as well.

Hiragana or ひらがな is also a syllabary. Hiragana have several functions. As the kanji system is imported from China, it does not really fit the Japanese language. Hiragana is used to write the grammatical endings after a kanji or even just ending of a word. It can also be seen on its own although it is rare to omit kanji as the symbolic meanings of kanji are important for the understanding of a text. Hiragana is more round than katakana and can be seen beautifully depicted in calligraphy.

Kanji or 漢字 is the writing system imported from China. They convey a meaning at the same time of a sound (in the case of Japanese several sounds - up to like 16 or more different sounds although in most case just a couple). For example hachi, the last part of shakuhachi (meaning 8) can be read as hachi, yattsu, yatsu and ya - just to take a familiar example.

If we look at the phrase Matt is playing shakuhachi: マットは尺八を吹いています (Matto ha[pronounced wa] shakuhachi wo fuite imasu). Then we see that the name Matt is in katakana as it is a foreign word, then we have a hiragana for something gramatic added to Matt (it is Matt doing it). I forgot the grammatical term. Then shakuhachi in kanji then again the hiragana that indicate that it is shakuhachi that Matt play. 吹いています can be translated as blowing or playing and here we have first a kanji with hiragana ending the word indicating that Matt is playing in present time. Sorry I forgot all the grammatical terms... smile

Hope this clarifies even without the grammatical terms!


I am a hole in a flute
that the Christ's breath moves through
listen to this music
Hafiz

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#10 2010-02-19 02:42:14

Megus
Member
From: Yoshkar-Ola, Russia
Registered: 2010-02-16
Posts: 15
Website

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

Just a little addition to Kiku's detailed explanation:
A common word for katakana and hiragana is simply kana. All kana symbols are simplified variants of some kanji.

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#11 2010-02-19 07:16:35

purehappiness
Member
From: Connecticut USA
Registered: 2009-01-13
Posts: 528

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

airin wrote:

I agree with Jam, listening to some shakuhachi music can be a really good way to make your time away from actual playing quite meaningful.

Listen to some riley lee. He always keeps me motivated. smile Nesting cranes is a great album. smile

Last edited by purehappiness (2010-02-19 07:17:27)


I was not conscious whether I was riding on the wind or the wind was riding on me.

Lieh-tzu

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#12 2010-02-19 09:54:02

lowonthetotem
Member
From: Cape Coral, FL
Registered: 2008-04-05
Posts: 529
Website

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

If you are like me and lack any formal musical training before the shakuhachi, you might take the opportunity to listen to songs you would like to practice and slap the rythm out on your knees or by tapping your feet.  Timing is one of the things that I have the most trouble with, but when I practice, I like to just go ahead and pick up the flute and at least make some noise even if I don't play anything specific.  This generally gets in the way of doing more basic activities, like trying to temper my rythmless ways with a little basic 1-2-3-4.  Just a thought.


"Turn like a wheel inside a wheel."

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#13 2010-02-21 11:24:37

mayberryjl
Member
From: Miami Florida
Registered: 2010-01-29
Posts: 29
Website

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

I try to pick it up and make some noise everyday (except when having to follow dr's orders) Edosan was very kind and sent me workshops with the Kinko notation.  Phrasing is a term I have heard but not exactly sure the meaning of in regards to playing music or singing.  I have a general idea from observation, but I'm probably off the mark.

Thanks Kiku for the impromptu lesson.  I've read that once or twice in a few of my calligraphy books, but it wasn't explained as well as you just did.  I started working with sumi a few years ago, but again without a teacher it takes a LOT of patience and practice. I've stayed on the more western side of painting with the sumi, but I'm very happy with the results.  The nuances of the ink and paper are an interesting parallel to the shakuhachi.

My ostu scale is getting better and I'm happy with my long notes so far.  I never intended for all the dogs in the neighborhood to howl along with my Ro but I much prefer them howling than barking all day as they tend to do.


Growing feathers is easy.  It's the flying that takes practice.
~JLM

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#14 2010-02-22 14:34:41

Matt Lyon
Member
From: North Eastern Oregon
Registered: 2009-06-30
Posts: 92

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

mayberryjl wrote:

I try to pick it up and make some noise everyday (except when having to follow dr's orders) Edosan was very kind and sent me workshops with the Kinko notation.  Phrasing is a term I have heard but not exactly sure the meaning of in regards to playing music or singing.  I have a general idea from observation, but I'm probably off the mark.

Thanks Kiku for the impromptu lesson.  I've read that once or twice in a few of my calligraphy books, but it wasn't explained as well as you just did.  I started working with sumi a few years ago, but again without a teacher it takes a LOT of patience and practice. I've stayed on the more western side of painting with the sumi, but I'm very happy with the results.  The nuances of the ink and paper are an interesting parallel to the shakuhachi.

My ostu scale is getting better and I'm happy with my long notes so far.  I never intended for all the dogs in the neighborhood to howl along with my Ro but I much prefer them howling than barking all day as they tend to do.

Basically phrasing would be anything that breaks up the monotony and also how you make the piece yours. Basic things like where to breathe and then moving on into dynamics of the notes like volume and tone color. IMHO this is what sets the shakuhachi apart from other instruments is the amount of expression available and how much or how little you can put into each note.

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#15 2010-02-22 15:05:59

Christopher B.
Member
From: Berlin, Germany
Registered: 2009-03-17
Posts: 235
Website

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

Hey,

as I started playing I spend most of the time by playing each note as long as I can and working on the volume of the notes. Then when I was better in playing the notes I started with some easy pieces from Perry Yungs booklet, also a good thing to practice the reading is to write down the "Kanjis?!"...Later then I spend very much time by just moving Meri and Kari and half holeing the notes and improvising.

The best thing is just play each day even if you just do it for 5 min or soemthing.

All the best,

Christopher


In reality it is Ha,Ro,Ha,Ro... ~Sensei~
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#16 2010-02-22 16:42:06

mayberryjl
Member
From: Miami Florida
Registered: 2010-01-29
Posts: 29
Website

Re: Practice schedule all outa whack....

I do play everyday and right now I'm doing almost what you have suggested Christopher. 

Matt thanks for the definition of phrasing. I was actually dead on the mark with what I thought it was, so that makes me happy.  And dr's orders are lifted so I can practice for a few days before having to go bck to the dentist.  But the next trip shouldn't disrupt my schedule any more than one day....

Thanks for all the help guys I really appreciate it.


Growing feathers is easy.  It's the flying that takes practice.
~JLM

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