Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Masa on stage in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. Happy day, Jim.

I saw that flute at his house. It was very nice. Why don't you send the mp3 to Ken and he can figure out how to post it? Sure we'd all like to hear that.

What about the flute in the photo that Chris posted....length? jinashi?  and it looks like its non-root end, right?

waryr wrote:

That flute appears to be a shaved root end?

Yeah, I'm kind of curious about shaved root end flutes.  Is it just a different look or does it result in a different sound as well?

No difference in sound. It just slides in and out of the bag with less resistance...

A flute can be made with near rootend stock that has the right bore profile, and performs wonderfully.

Seeing that picture of Masa playing on a warm sunny day and being in the moment, makes me happy to see. Thank you so much for bringing him to the awareness to those of us new to the greater world of the shakuhachi!

This Universal Flute section is wonderful! 

PS: Looking forward to an mp3 although I will break out the movies in question and have a closer listen to the music!

I just emailed a Mp3 of the Flock of Clouds to Brian and Ken. (I'm locked out of my server.)

Jim, who made Masa's 1.8? Some very famous guy who I never heard of, or can't remember, I know. -- I had the opportunity to attempt to play it a year or so ago. It is the flattest oval I've ever seen on the mouthpiece end. I really had to ride it high on my lower lip in order to get it to sound for me.

As for shaved roots? The major thing, I think, is the root choke point inside the bore, where the bore tapers the most ... and then, maybe, the reverse taper in the rest of the root bell area. The thickness of the bamboo has some effect, I just do not know how noticeable it is to the sound in the hands of an experienced player. The end of my shakuhachi is shaved root and it has a very resonant Ro.

The 3.75 that Masa made was this incredibly wide piece of timber bamboo. His entire chin sank into the utaguchi end when he played it for me. It did not have a root end, per se, so Masa doubled up the thickness in the root area by gluing an even wider cuff of bamboo over the main shaft of the flute. I'm not sure what that did except maybe provide a small shelf for his foot to rest upon when his heel wasn't covering the Tsu hole!

Chris Moran wrote:

I just emailed a Mp3 of the Flock of Clouds to Brian and Ken. (I'm locked out of my server.)

Jim, who made Masa's 1.8? Some very famous guy who I never heard of, or can't remember, I know. -- I had the opportunity to attempt to play it a year or so ago. It is the flattest oval I've ever seen on the mouthpiece end. I really had to ride it high on my lower lip in order to get it to sound for me.

As for shaved roots? The major thing, I think, is the root choke point inside the bore, where the bore tapers the most ... and then, maybe, the reverse taper in the rest of the root bell area. The thickness of the bamboo has some effect, I just do not know how noticeable it is to the sound in the hands of an experienced player. The end of my shakuhachi is shaved root and it has a very resonant Ro.

The 3.75 that Masa made was this incredibly wide piece of timber bamboo. His entire chin sank into the utaguchi end when he played it for me. It did not have a root end, per se, so Masa doubled up the thickness in the root area by gluing an even wider cuff of bamboo over the main shaft of the flute. I'm not sure what that did except maybe provide a small shelf for his foot to rest upon when his heel wasn't covering the Tsu hole!

Thanks Chris. You sped things up quite a bit. We just switched from a pc to a mac and now know even less about how to do that. I was thinking you might be of assistance.
      Bruce J. would have all the poop on Masa's 1.8. (Bruce- are you eavesdropping?). I couldn't play it either except one time I picked up and it sang like a bird. 
      As far as the attachment on the end of his 3.75 goes, I think that was added for length rather than thickness. I don't buy that the thickness of the bell has any affect on the sound at all. How the flute came into being is a story that reveals a lot about Masa's work ethic. John Williams had written a part for him in  Jurassic Park that was way too low. An easy fix. It happens all the time. You tell the composer - he says take it up an octave. Case closed. Not Masa. He went home, stayed up all night and made  a shakuhachi from a piece of bamboo he had been saving to make a rain stick and showed up the next day with a shakuhachi that could play the part as written. I can't think of another human being that would do that. There was no reverse in Masa's transmission. He was all straight ahead Ned.

Last edited by Jim Thompson (2010-03-30 04:20:25)

Chris Moran wrote:

So, I agree with Toby on this one.

It may be The End of the World.

Don't get discouraged Chris. There'll be plenty to fight about later.

edosan wrote:

Chris Moran wrote:

The thickness of the bamboo has some effect, I just do not know how noticeable it is to the sound in the hands of an experienced player. The end of my shakuhachi is shaved root and it has a very resonant Ro.

Chris, Toby seems to have quite competently laid this sort of nonsense to rest months ago. There is absolutely no scientific way that you
can test this sort of conjecture. My Ichijo 1.8 has a very resonant Ro, and it ain't shaved at all. Whatever does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

This is getting to be like being on a forum with the Odd Couple!

A Flock of Clouds

Jim Thompson wrote:

Thank you Chris and Ken for your kind assistance.

Yes, thanks. Damn, I love that album. Such a wonderful collaboration and gathering around this dieing musician.

Very nice! Is he playing all the instruments?