Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

This is quite a worthwhile site (thanks radi0gnome); one of the features thereon is a flute/guitar duo (Billington & Gonzalez), with many mp3 links on the page sampling their wares.

Here's the page:

http://www.rdbflute.com/bg.html


Here's an mp3 of a Japanese piece I liked:

http://rdbflute.com/Shun-San.mp3



eB

Last edited by edosan (2007-05-29 17:22:36)

That's interesting about the Japanese teacher referring to a similar technique. From other posts I've read I was under the assumption that most shakuhachi teachers were like most silver flute teachers and had their students trying to contort their mouths in various ways and looking in mirrors to see what they are doing. In my (admittedly non-professional) experience, that kind of thing doesn't get you very far. It's OK to do, and it's probably a good idea not to stop entirely with that kind of experimentation, but too much time spent in that area can often be chalked up to time wasted.

My own observation is that while I can fool myself into thinking that I'm blowing with a very relaxed embouchure, a look in the mirror will reveal that there is a lot of muscular activity going on. Ie., those facial contortions you see the most flute players make aren't necessarily deliberate, but are just inherent in creating sound.

I agree about the limitations of reading about the techniques, and that the writings are probably best used as a supplement along with a teacher familiar with them. However, a lot of teachers have done a lot of studying in the best way to produce sound, have found what works well, but never document them. Another issue is that good teachers like that aren't exactly a dime a dozen.  I think the guy who wrote the thesis chose a very good subject.

Aside from just food for thought, I found that abstract inspiring. I just tried to see if I could hold a tone for 60 seconds like Robert Aitken says you should be able to do. I was just barely able to do it after many attempts. I could only do it on the note that has the thumb and first finger holes covered (I first tried on Ro, but 30-35  seconds was the limit there on the first few attempts so I doubted I could stretch it enough to get it to 60) and with a light breath (not the way I'd like to play) and those last 5 seconds were kind of shakey. This was on my Perry Yung 2.2, I'll have to try it with some of the other flutes I have sometime too. It's a good way to pass time, each attempt taking about a minute and about 1/2 to a full minute of recovering/breathing in between attempts.