Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Matt Lyon wrote:

Do a search for on the forum for a user named Horst. If you read some of the posts you will get the inside joke.

Mike and Matt, it is NOT a joke. In fact this is probably the closest thing to an online tutorial you will find. Also the elusive zen concept of "End of History" is explained in detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIELIt06L-w

and feel I'm on the verge of a breakthrough

Stay close to the crapper.

Tairaku wrote:

lowonthetotem wrote:

and feel I'm on the verge of a breakthrough

Stay close to the crapper.

But make sure to keep this shakuhachi inspired device handy!

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc12 … samain.jpg

Dammit, that's my old Taimu!

Mike Raftery wrote:

One last chance: Still like to know if anyone can say something about those first 2 notes of Azuma Jishi, what is HE doing? Is is yuri, or a CHI before the U, then slide up to RI?  If not, I understand, because I don't have a teacher, I don't deserve a specific reply.

I know very, very little and I'm not certain what you mean by the 'first two notes,' but I can see and hear Yokoyama using a lot of furi in his playing, a rapid dip in pitch and return to pitch. The dip in pitch is significant, no less than a complete half-tone flatter. Some players dip lower than a half tone. Yokoyama sounds like he often uses two in a row or one in front and one in back of the note, etc. It's a very subtle and precise ornament

Furi, like the various forms of yuri and other ornaments (and "tricks") only confuses the main issues of playing your instrument and the music well. You can learn Azuma Jishi perfectly well with never having to do a furi. Furi sounds really great coming from a seasoned master player, but it sounds utterly bush league coming from beginning students. It puts the cart way in front of the horse.

I sympathize with you. Azuma Jishi is a beautiful piece of music (it has a Meian school cousin, Azuma no Kyoku). Azuma Jishi is vastly under-recorded. See if you can just play the basics you hear and not worry too much about all the wavering and warbling and see what you can glean from the written Yokuyama score for a while. Work on your breathing, getting long tones that decay smoothly without any vibrato or yuri. Work on relaxing as much as possible while you play. Listen, listen, listen. Then wait for a teacher well-versed in Yokoyama styled music to visit SF.

There simply is no such thing as Shakuhachi-Made-EZ ... although I think I'll trademark that.

Mike, Chris' explanation of what Yokoyama is doing at the beginning and all through Azuma Jishi is absolutely correct.  As an intellectual exercise, it's good to know.  However, Chris' continued admonition to first learn to play the notes as they are written with attention to breath and even decay with the intention of waiting for a Yokoyama-style teacher to give you the proper details of furi execution is dead-on.

Mike Raftery wrote:

Sought [sic] of like pulling teeth to get a answer to this rather simple question, I think.

Point is, and it should be fairly obvious by now, that it's not a 'rather simple question'.

At all.

Hey. A new 60's flick.

When you are taking a lesson you play together with the teacher. The notes you make and the teacher makes are either in unison or they're beating against each other hideously or slightly. When you nail it, the notes you play and the ones the teacher play blend into each other in such a way that they disappear into each other. It's a beautiful thing. That's also when you and the teacher know that you "get it" for that particular piece and the pitches, vibrato, etc. that are required for it. It's not only that the teacher can see what you're doing wrong and correct you, as people have mentioned. It's also the Pavlovian element of hearing that you are off and adjusting to the teacher's pitch and phrasing. Nothing need be said. You can't have that experience on your own, on Skype, by watching youtube, reading a book, reading a post here on the forum, playing with a sequencer or any other way. This is why face to face lessons are the essence of the learning process and the rest are supplemental. Expecting the supplemental sources to replace the essential source of information is like taking vitamins without eating actual food.

Tairaku wrote:

When you are taking a lesson you play together with the teacher. The notes you make and the teacher makes are either in unison or they're beating against each other hideously or slightly. When you nail it, the notes you play and the ones the teacher play blend into each other in such a way that they disappear into each other. It's a beautiful thing. That's also when you and the teacher know that you "get it" for that particular piece and the pitches, vibrato, etc. that are required for it. It's not only that the teacher can see what you're doing wrong and correct you, as people have mentioned. It's also the Pavlovian element of hearing that you are off and adjusting to the teacher's pitch and phrasing. Nothing need be said. You can't have that experience on your own, on Skype, by watching youtube, reading a book, reading a post here on the forum, playing with a sequencer or any other way. This is why face to face lessons are the essence of the learning process and the rest are supplemental. Expecting the supplemental sources to replace the essential source of information is like taking vitamins without eating actual food.

Great post, Brian! It not only captures the essence of a teaching situation but also the essence of how ensemble musicians play together.

2 shakuhachi playing in tune..thats a serious challenge.

geni wrote:

2 shakuhachi playing in tune..thats a serious challenge.

For some people!

Do you play your silver flute in tune? What's the difference between that and the shakuhachi?

Tairaku wrote:

Do you play your silver flute in tune? What's the difference between that and the shakuhachi?

The difference is the shakuhachi is a poor, primitive design and difficult to play in tune. It sounds cool though if you can.

BTW, don't you get the sound merging and disappearing when playing along with recordings too? Not as special as when it happens with a teacher most likely, but you can still experience the phenomenon.