Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Chris Moran wrote:

I still want to hear more discussion on "Dead Tongue".

Hush... We don't want everyone to find the holy grail.

Chris Moran wrote:

radi0gnome wrote:

Chris Moran wrote:

I still want to hear more discussion on "Dead Tongue".

Hush... We don't want everyone to find the holy grail.

Mr. Duckrabbit sez: Yes, we do!

OK. My first reaction is to say to take a Skype lesson from Chikuzen because it sounds like that probably is where most students on the forum run into the "dead-tongue" revelation (I know I did). However, in part of the removed discussion before "dead-tongue" was brought up a poster suggested using whistle tones for tone improvement. It was good stuff I was familiar with and I posted this link with additional  description of the tones in response: http://www.cyberflute.com/flute-whistle-tone.html

Maybe you think I changed topics here but hang on because this one is new to me too, with further research I find that part of the reason whistle-tones improve tone is because you can't control them with a "dead tongue". Look here: http://www.johnranck.net/studio/clinic/ … /abcs.html . Under the "whistle-tone exercises" section there is this excerpt:

"Have student whistle one pitch. Then have student whistle a song. Ask student how they made the pitch change when they whistled the tune. What moved? Answer: The tongue. The tongue is a mini-trombone. It helps you get different pitches when doing whistle tones. If student can't whistle, ask them where tongue is. Direct student's tongue to position needed for whistling."

Then it goes into an exercise of producing and controlling whistle tones on a flute.

This is extremely enlightening to me. Chikuzen has mentioned on the forum (in this thread: http://www.shakuhachiforum.com/viewtopi … 215#p12215 ) that he noticed people who can't whistle often don't do well with shakuhachi. Now we know why. 

BTW, I was able to whistle for the very first time in my life this morning using the tongue position Chikuzen taught me for shakuhachi. Revelations abound!