Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

edosan wrote:

My guess is that this issue has little to do with whether your lips are dry or wet, but instead is because your
embouchure is not quite consistently 'there' yet.

Even experienced players sometimes have off days. I still have quite a hard time playing cleanly in the morning. If I
warm up for an hour, I can overcome this, but I don't have that kind of time.

I know my embouchure isn't to the level of players who get 4 to 6 hours a day in, but it's not bad and I'm pretty sure wetness and dryness effects it some. Worse even is if they've been so dry I've been picking the dry skin off of them. Gross, but I'm sure I'm not the only one this happens too, and it's something these single digit temperatures don't help much. Like you say, nothing a little warming up won't fix, but I find 10 or 15 minutes to be more typical than an hour. BTW, I know you were talking about an hour warming up, but if there are any beginners out there that aren't able to commit at least an hour a day to the instrument, you can probably expect at least a few more years for your embouchure to get 'there', where 'there' is a point that you feel like you're actually playing instead of practicing.

Rick, didn't you mention you played didjeridu too? Playing shakuhachi immediately after didj can be challenging. Again nothing some minutes warming up won't fix, and maybe tack on a few minutes just to get any tone at all, but if that's what's going on maybe putting the didj practice after the shakuhachi is an idea.

D.J. wrote:

As for an hour a day on the Shakuhachi: I am forced to work 50 hour weeks and then come home and raise my 12 year old daughter. I try to slip in a few minutes of play at lunch time. By evening I am shot. So this is a long term project.

Yes, I  know different lifestyles make more or less time for musical instruments. I think what is most important is not to have unrealistic expectations, get frustrated, and give up when there are time constraints. I've almost never been in a situation where I couldn't find at least an hour. Sometimes I had to sacrifice other instruments to focus on just one, and spent about 10 years without a television at one point. I never had kids, but better amateur musicians  than me seem to have tackled that OK and the number of pros with day jobs is frightening. At this point in my life I appear to have too much time on my hands... I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

I have, for lack of better words, been lead to the purchase of a certain collection of flutes and didgeridoos. As I stand back and take a look at what is now almost finished, I see a small orchestra of sound, all with their different abilities and reasons to be played. I have spent an embarrassing amount of money on musical instruments at first glance. But now as I can see what has transpired, it has become evident what is happening. I am not doing this for me. These are tools for the next few decades. Tools I use to heal. And when I look at it from this perspective, time and frustration leave the picture entirely. I love this path. It is endless, just the way I like it.

Of late, I am changing. I have practiced energy work for 20 years now, but this is new. All of it is coming together in a rather magical way. I am looking forward to Seattle weather clearing so I can play at the beach again. Then it’s not just for me. Just the way I like it.

D.J.

ROTFLMAO!!!!!

Gotta have more cowbell!

That I had not thought of, which is funny, as I have to do that with the didge. Thank you for that recommendation.

D.J.

Dryness is death to shakuhachi. Period.

wet lips, ~

At the Boulder Shakuhachi Festival, Yokoyama Katsuya taught  that you should play with the 'wet part of the lower lip'.  Basically what that meant, and as it was demonstrated, the lower lip should be relaxed and slightly curled out so that the air stream is passing over the upper most part of the inner lip rather than the front most part of the outer lip.  Naturally, this would avoid excessive tension on the lower lip which causes problems in good sound reproduction.  Unless you have a saliva deficiency, closing the mouth occasionally will keep that part of the lip moist.  This all being said, I'm not so sure that what is ultimately necessary here is 'wet lips' but rather a relaxed lower lip.

lowonthetotem wrote:

{quote}Is it the outside of the lips that need to be moist? If it is, doesn't normal playing dry them out?{\quote}

It starts inside the lip but gets everywhere eventually, and that is what your tounge is for. ~

Yes, but it looks awful to be licking your lips after every other phrase. I have a hunch that Jeff is right and my"dry lip days" are really "tense lower lip days", I've got to wait until I have the problem again to look further into that. If that is the problem, rewetting the lower lip occasionally by simply closing the lips when it gets dry from the air stream is a lot better visually than licking them. I was watching myself in the mirror and envisioning myself as a shakuhachi playing lizard, if I don't fix that I'll never want to be seen playing this instrument.