Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Here you go.

http://www.mejiro-japan.com/system/index_e.php?c_id=503

http://www.shakuhachiflutes.com/forms/f5.pdf

Last edited by purehappiness (2010-06-13 06:29:35)

Jeff Cairns wrote:

tddy934. where are you located?  It's unusual for a person of your age to come to the shakuhachi.  I would strongly suggest that you look for a teacher near you, and if one doesn't exist, look for a skype teacher.  There are several good teachers on this forum who would be of much more use to you than anything youtube or a video series could help you with.  Good luck with it.

I'm located in Victorville, Ca.
And, I've noticed there aren't a lot of younger people that play shakuhachi, can't wonder why, it's one of the most interesting and pure sounding instruments.
I'm sure that if I drive a little ways out, I could find a teacher, but there are to problems, I can't drive, and I don't have any money, nor do my parents have any to use on what they view as merely flute lessons..
Thank you very much for the help.

The symbols are basically the japanese name for each note. The fingerings show which holes should be covered. This is a very basic explanation but should give you something. You need to learn how to play each note and then maybe try making up some songs for starters.

tddy934 wrote:

I'm sure that if I drive a little ways out, I could find a teacher, but there are to problems, I can't drive, and I don't have any money, nor do my parents have any to use on what they view as merely flute lessons..

Geni Skendo teaches shakuhachi via Skype and says on his website that he won't turn any student down for financial reasons: http://www.genimusic.com/lessons.cfm He's good, I took lessons from him and I got a lot out of it.

You can also point out to your parents that playing flute makes you really smart, it worked for me More seriously, music lessons at your age will not only serve to get you better at playing music, but there are a lot of transferable skills learned by learning notational systems, different logical parts of your brain are exercised by studying intervals and chords and has been demonstrated to be beneficial for growing minds, and exercising the intuitive process, which is also a part of studying music, is also beneficial.

Show your parents this: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/pdf/ps/musiciq.pdf , promise to stay away from drugs, promise to keep your school grades up, offer to mow the lawn, do whatever you need to do, it's important to your future. You stumbled onto it yourself, and I know for certain from talking with many people about their early musical experiences that if you quit you'll regret it later on in life. Music is such an integral and enjoyable part of my life I can't imagine what it would be like without it. Point out to them that it's not it's not about becoming a professional flute player, that probably won't happen (just statistically, I wouldn't want to discourage you if that is what you are aspiring to). I'm over 50, started silver flute at 15, and hardly made a dime from it and in no way feel like my parents money was wasted, and I'm very grateful that they gave me the instrument and lessons. And BTW, I had to talk them into letting go of the money too. They want what's best for you, sometimes you might have to educate them to what that is.

And remember, it is your parents money, you'd probably be best off letting them talk to Geni first (or whatever teacher you choose) and keep them up to date on what you are learning.