Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Hi Ken, and welcome to the forum.  I'm an older beginner too (52), and have a 2.4 by Perry that I think is great.  I also came from a familiarity with the low pennywhistles and Irish flute, and blowing on a Shakuhachi is much like the sideblown flute, in that you need to focus your airstream onto the blade as if it were the opposite edge of the embouchure hole of a sideblown flute. 

You will need to just find the correct angle to hold the shakuhachi to get it to sound, and this can be accomplished by moving the flute up and down while blowing a focused airstream with your almost closed lips-except for the small opening at the very center of your lips that the airstream will be pushed through.

The angle of the shakuhachi isn't critical, but not horizontal-use what is comfortable to you and your arms.

The key it seems is just having the bottom of the blowing end of the shakuhachi on the area below your lower lip, and having a small distance where your lips will be across from the black blade that you are blowing at, but your lips not touching the upper part of the end of the flute, just your chin.  Your lips will be very close to the blade, but you will have to experiment with how much you focus your lips and how far away you blow, moving the shakuhachi up and down to find the sweet spot.

When you get it, you will know for sure that you are playing correctly.  It won't sound like a hum, or blowing into a digeradoo.  It will make music!  From there, to get the upper octave, your airstream will need to be focused even more, just like in the sideblown flute.

Hope this helps a bit.  Stick with it-if you play the flute, you can play the Shakuhachi.  It's very similar...only different!  Good luck, and let us know how it is going.  Listen to some recordings of shakuhachi-go to cdbaby.com, and type in shakuhachi in the search window, and it will give you lots to listen to for free!  And you will hear about how it will sound.  Only, it will be quieter, until you really get some familiarity with it, then you can play louder with just some more effort and breath support from your diaphragm.

Have fun and enjoy the journey along the way!

The exact angle at which you play will determine how in tune you play the note also.  Once you get a good solid tone, you can change the angle by moving the flute up and down with your hands to see how it changes tuning of each note.

Last edited by bluespiderweb (2005-12-26 23:29:49)

Hi Ken,
Barry's got some good pointers and if you're already getting sounds, you're ahead of the curve!
The Earth Model I sent you was the best of the batch I was working on at the moment. It should sound pretty much like this 2.1 Earth Model - no utaguchi inlay or lacquer in the bore:

http://www.yungflutes.com/samples/ohbambootree.mp3

I am employing half and quarter finger holing techniques to play in the Major Diatonic scale. Your flute is capable of this also...with a little practice.

I get emails from all over the world asking what is the best way to start playing shakuhachi if there is no teacher around. I wrote the following entry on my blog specifically for beginners:

Start to practice what I call Sasa buki - breath of bamboo leaf.
Visualize the shape of a bamboo leaf, thin on the ends and gradually getting fat in the middle. Start with the deepest breath you can hold in your lungs and blow the easiest note that you can and make the note last as long as possible. If you can hold the tone for more than 5 seconds the first few days, you are doing very very well. Time your self with a watch and see how much you improve in a few days. When you can get up to 20 seconds, you will notice some wonderful things happening around you.

Once you have a grasp on consistantly producing a long tone, start to manipute the sound into Sasa buki - thin at the beginning, gradually getting louder and back down to thin at the end, like the shape of sasa. Let your lips explore so that the tone is the most beautiful sound you can imagine, one that comes from nowhere, fills the room and then fades out in a way that makes your ears reach out to hear it dissipate. Imagine the sun setting with it's last glimmering rays reaching out before it dissapears behind the horizon at sunset. That wonderful shift in colors that happens to the sky at that moment is much like the "Ma" we all refer to - the silence that is part of the shakuhachi music. If you practice with an awareness of musical growth, you will notice major improvements in a very short time. Try keeping a shakuhachi journal of how long your tones are and see the growth every few days.

After a while (that depends on how much you practice and how well you can develope and retain the lips muscles), you will play longer, louder and more beautiful tones. Your lips will adjust to the natural pressure increase from daily build up of technique. Obviously, daily practice is important for skill developement. Your lips will learn when to bear down, when to open up, when to get close and when to pull back to achieve Sasa buki. Also be aware that Sasa can be a long slender leaf, or, a short fat one.  Just be aware of what is happening with your lips moment to moment, from the beginning of the tone to the end of the tone. Pay attention to the sound and what your lips are doing to get that sound. Something to strive for is volume. On the loudest part of Sasa buki, you should hear ringing harmonic overtones, but not so that the note pops into a harmonic. You'll be amazed at how your lips are constantly adjusting, however miniscule, to timbral shifts. Always take note of developements and use them the next time you practice to build your technique.  also, it's good to play at the same time everyday. It doesn't matter when. Keeping a daily "practice" helps you get into that frame of mind.

Over the years, I have found that this is the essence of shakuhachi playing. Sure, there are styles of music but for me, it all comes down to breathing into bamboo. Blowing Sasa buki is the basic skill neccessary to play and enjoy the shakuhachi as a musical instrument. After you can master long tones, moving the fingers in different combinations and applying Meri or Kari is a piece of cake.

Let your ears tell you what a good sound is, your lips will follow.
Happy Holidays,
Perry

Last edited by Yungflutes (2005-12-28 00:18:31)

hey this is great stuff for shaku beginners like me! thnx to kenwolman for deciding to play the shakuhachi, and many more thanks to those who helped out here in this post with valuable info

p34c3

kenwolman wrote:

SOUND, not gorgeous but real tones.  Then I lost it.  The exact combination of angle, mouth position and breath pressure...now it's there, now it's not.

Ken

I just received my first shakuhachi (PVC) in the mail today. I've been dreaming of learning the instrument for a long while.

I've read that the shakuhachi is one of the most difficult instruments, but I am always optimistic.

I removed the shakuhachi from the mailing package and immediately placed it against my chin [as I had imagined it should be placed]. After twenty seconds of nothingness, a VERY LOUD and STRONG deep sound echoed through my apartment hallway. I took another breath, and this time I moved a finger too. Wonderful rich sounds! I thought to myself, "Ha! This isn't difficult at all!"

I've been blowing for the last six hours and have yet to hear another sound. Aaarrggghhhhh! (I have a headache now.)

(I may need to drive across the country for a single lesson on how to make a simple sound.)

Life is thus.


Chris

61-year-old  !   Is distinguished!