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Unless I'm confusing my terms here, ro-buki refers to blowing ro repeatedly while paying attention to details and trying to get both long and accurate sound. Reasonably correct simplified description? I began doing this after several people mentioned it as a good way to train. So far it seems to work very well for me and I've noticed several things that help me produce a sound better than I used to be able to.
What I was curious about, however, is the reason why ro in particular is used here. Would it make a difference to blow, say, chi here? Does it have something to do with the difficulty of getting a clear ro as opposed to something else? I noticed that problems with my technique materialized with ro whereas some other notes still sounded reasonably fine, but that could have been just my imagination. Is there a trick to this that I'm missing?
As an unrelated note, I'm going to visit a teacher in a few weeks. I had a brief conversation with him earlier. With any luck, I don't need to bother certain members of this board all the time privately anymore. :-)
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Hey Amokrun,
I'm no expert on this but I've been blowing ro daily for a few months and I've been giving some thought about it.
My conclusion is that ro is ideal because with all holes closed you get a higher air resistance than with any other holes open, hence you exercise more whichever muscles are involved in the process of blowing.
Also, with all holes closed I think it's easier to realise in which spot the flute resonates optimally.
Well, there go my thoughts.. I'm sure someone with more experience can add something to it.
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There are some dangers in blowing just Ro.
I found this out myself the hard way. I was blowing Ro for about 20 minutes every day, and finding that my Ro was getting better and better, but my high notes were getting harder and harder to find, even Ri. I took this to my teacher. His opinion is that one should spend time on all notes - and pointed out that I had adjusted my embouchure and blowing angle to make Ro easy, at the expense of the higher notes. He said that Ri should be the easiest to get, and Ro the hardest, not the other way around.
Nowadays, I start on Ri (Otsu) to get a good full tone, then work down to Ro with long tones (about 3 times each one). I stay on Ro for about 10 minutes, then work back up with long tones to Ri again (2-3 times each note) and keep going up into the next octave. I can get to the top Ro (at the start of the Dai Kan register) at my stage of development, then I come back down again to Ri in the Otsu register.
So I guess I am spending more time on Ro than the other notes, but not to the detriment of overall development.
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When I started shakuhachi I blowing ro for about 30-60 min.
And I could see the diference in sound.
The stronger the lower notes are, more easy are the high one. Its true with all woodwinds.
Geni
Last edited by geni (2006-09-19 20:51:32)
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Another possibility... blowing other notes besides ro is relatively easy. You can make a clear sound without it breaking into kan. To play a full ro and keep it in otsu is a challenge, thus better for finding an embouchure that suits you.
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I also had such an experience of developing my otsu-low register at the expense of the kan-high register.
My low RO was booming but my high register was always squeaky and harsh sounding. And when my kan started sounding sweet I found my low register was hard to hold and my low notes would often slip into kan.
Eventually the problem was solved by continuing the low ROs (can't ever give those up!) but I found one exercise in James Schlefer's shaku workbook very helpful - his interval scale exercises. After blowing RO for 10 minutes, I follow up with 10 minutes of interval scales which develops my embouchure flexibility and now I find I can hit low and high with far greater fluidity.
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