Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

I play with a gong dude frequently and sometimes I just blow the honkyoku and let him fill in. Other times we improvise and listen to each other. He also makes patterns and I jam on top of that. They do have pitches so you will have fun matching them. Just go for it.

Maybe he looked mystified because each bowl isn't really in a 'key'--they just make a note.  If he has a ton of bowls, it won't matter, and you guys will be able to pick and choose which ones work best. 

I think this will be a truly awesome combo.  I'd love to have a big ol' fat bowl in the key, er, tuned to the note of D.

I first heard the shakuhachi a 4 or 5 years ago at a performance by "Life in Balance". Ami Sciulli played crystal bowls and her husband Steve on shakuhachi. http://www.lifeinbalancemusic.com/index.php/

I have since facilitated many meditations using crystal and tibetan bowls. The bowls are tuned to the chakras. You might want to Google crystal singing bowls and find out more.

C = root chakra
D = sacral chakra
E = solar plexus chakra
F = heart chakra
G = throat chakra
A = third eye chakra
B = crown chakra

The shakuhachi resonates very well with the bowls. Privately, I play my shakuhachi as particluar bowls resonate. It quite enjoyable.

Happy New Year!

I'd imagine a tibetan singing bowl would couple very well with a Shakuhachi. With most chakra resonance music, I find it most effective if an instrument hovers around (melodically) the fundimental tone (singing bowl). Because the Shakuhachi is capable of gliding through tones, returning to the fundimental note periodically (if applicable) would be very blissful considering the timbre of a metal (or glass) bowl and a stalk of bamboo. Stick your tongue on the roof of your mouth *while listening* and let it drone on!

I have a bowl tuned to A. Ironically, my Perry Yung flute is tuned to A. I can't wait to figure out how to play an A.

Last edited by Vevolis (2008-01-03 09:22:50)

Sorry if I was unclear. In chakra meditation, more specifically running the kundalini through belly breathing (look "Kundalini" up if you're interested) it is advised that you place your tongue on the top of your mouth while meditating to ground your nervous system, it's a bit weird. This is a meditation technique, not a playing technique.

African tribal music is unique in the sense that everyone participates; there are no "experts" or idols. In Western culture, we idolize specific individuals deemed professional musicians.

My take on the Shakuhachi VS Shakuhachi wannabe debate is that technically, a "Shakuhachi" is 1 foot 8 inches. Clearly there are exceptions to the rule. I own a 2.4 Perry Yung Shakuhachi. I'd imagine the word pays homage to the individuals who craft the instrument with the same respect and attention to detail as those in ancestry. After all, much of Japanese culture reflects honor in any given craft. I'd imagine yes, you could be considered a "Wannabe" Shakuhachi player if you're not willing to give a professional quality crafted instrument the honor it deserves by learning classical techniques.

That begs the question however; is a wannabe Shakuhachi really a wannabe Shakuhachi? Martial arts came from peasants revolting against the Samurai. A makeshift instrument is no less useful to the improvisational skills of an expert.

I suspect we’re all just a little proud of our babied and humidified grass stalks. 

Tairaku wrote:

Hi Charles, I think you're taking the whole "shakuhachi" vs. "sort of a shakuhachi" issue a bit too personally. It's perfectly fine to make those instruments, fine to like them, fine to play them, and fine to use them for any kind of music you like. We are free.

I think you are referring to my post about Ebay. My point there is about truth in advertising, not about people not making or playing whatever they like.

I guess I am taking it a little personally, but although it's partly about your "beware" post a month or so ago, it's also about your response to Chris on his Blog that some of them weren't shakuhachi and another poster over the past year who stated (I think twice) that the shakuhachi on Ebay looked suspicious. It's obviously true that most of the Japanese instruments are usually in states of disrepair, sometimes severe, or just plain bad playing instruments and that there are a bunch of others that are just bamboo sticks with shakuhachi mouthpieces and holes drilled to make them play a pentatonic scale. I thought that how you could tell that these weren't shakuhachi just by looking was that they weren't root end and had the wrong number of nodes. When I inquired, I found out that this wasn't the reason. I was told that most of them were made by people who didn't really know Japanese music and may not be suitable for Japanese music because of one or more notes missing (I may be getting this confused with a buyer's guide sitting out there on Ebay by grassandwind, but posts here seemed to say the same thing) and therefore were not shakuhachi. If the advertising were then to be accurate, these sellers shouldn't even be listing them under shakuhachi. I'm not the only one taking it (too?) seriously. I know this is true because a relatively new registered forum member mentioned that he sold his first few sticks as "bamboo flutes" instead of as shakuhachi. It's obviously too strict of a definition because some respected dealers are selling similar flutes that aren't suitable for lessons and don't have all the characteristics of a good shakuhachi but are still calling them shakuhachi. They sell them at appropriate prices as do most of the Ebay shakuhachi-wannabee dealers so I'm not seeing the same misrepresentation that you saw (occasionally I see some real wierdo flutes but they are usually accurately described in the description as being a hybrid or something). Calling them "bamboo flutes" is way too vague, but if they truly aren't shakuhachi, what are they? Maybe toy shakuhachi, but that implies that they're for kids even though they are suitable for adults. Bad shakuhachi isn't descriptive because some of them are kind of nice even though they aren't suitable for Japanese music. However, bad shakuhachi kind of fits your analogy to the Mexican food found in Australia. I kind of think Ken's term in one of his posts, "folk shakuhachi", fits well. I'm willing to agree that if an instrument can't play Japanese music that there is no way it can be a shakuhachi, but there are too many of them around to not give these "non-shakuhachi" a name.

   You know, this isn't the first time I've seen this kind of thing happen. One of my hobbies is dancing West Coast Swing. When some group of people take to breaking the rules of the dance in a certain way and it looks good, the West Coast swing community is kind of forced to give it a new name or call it a certain style. The mix of West coast swing and tango and calling it Swango is an example. Honestly, I'm not upset about anything here, I'm just trying to get things sorted out.

I a meet singer which plays the singing bowls. I am jaming with her this weekend.

How did your jam go?

thats Great!
You got a Gig:-)