Hon Shirabe take 3 - the yearly recordings

I once in a while record this Honkyoku song. Also in some of my first posts of this blog I did that. This will be the 3rd take online of this song. This one done as it should be played and thus I can record my progress -or lack thereoff- while playing it.
This version is played on my 1.8 Gyokusui.
>>Listen here<<

Playing and painting

When being busy with painting with oil paint -for the first time- I tought about the similarities. They're both a form of art of expressing yourself. One with paint, one with sound. When you do so, or better when I am into one or the other I forget time. You just play or just paint. Times seems to be no more, but it comes back when you consiously see or hear youself doing it. Both will get better - is my experience- when not thinking too much. And that is an aspect I really like. Many things in live desire decisions, choices or hard thinking. The flute, the music, the paint, the pictures makes me wanna do instead of think. Even more with painting, but also with playing: just start and you'll get somewhere. Here is my first painted self-portrait, taken with a cellphone camera.

 Selfportrait, oil on canvasboard. 30' x30' (cm).

Edo flute II

I've added a sound file to the add below. To get an impression!

For sale: Edo 1.9 Jinashi nobekan

For sale still is my Edo period Nobekan 1.9 flute. I bought this one from Brian Tairaku Ritchie as the 'el cheapo edo'. And that is what this flute is: not a great flute of that era, but an ok one and a good one if played soft with a little vibrato. It has a sweet sound, not too focused, with a lovely kan register.
A flute like this, dated to late 19th century, will give you a glimpse of that time and past. Due to the imperfect tuning, normaly to this kind of flutes, it is more suited for solo play and honkyoku. Originally bought for 375 $, Now for 325 $. Sending worldwide for 25 $. If interested please buy via Shakuhachi marketplace.
Later I will add some song played with this flute to this post, but first some pictures:
click to hear me play Fukuda Rando on this flute:
>>>>Sound file<<<<<

When beginning this blog I thought of doing it for tracking my lesson-tips, techniques and my own progress by adding recordings of my playing. The latter I have done -a little-  and the former not at all. I post about techniques in my first posts, but not after that. In general the blog has a more wider view on the journey of learning. Nonetheless I will post today the things that helped me the most in learning getting better at playing.

One of those things is the 'technique' of not blowing. I've read this somewhere on the net, and is about not blowing air out to get a tone, but getting the tension up in your abdomen and let the air get out controlled. It is more pressuring the air out, while the lip-opening defines the air speed. More open: lower speed, more closed: faster speed and thus making the difference in otsu or kan. Try imagening blowing a balloon, that feeling in your belly is what I mean.

Another thing I found helped me is blowing with this pressure on to my hand from 10 cm distance and try to focus the air like a tube of air. I feel a small circle on my hand. When I don't change anything in the blowing and replace my hand for the flute: tadaa! instantly Kan register without any effort (beside the balloon-feeling).

This way I succeed to blow kan and otsu as long a normal breath duration (blowing through your lips without flute).

Blowing this way I got kan in an okay matter, playing it more and more, seems to train my embouchure and lips. The smaller I can get the opening the easier it seems to play higher kan notes. For higher kan notes one thing has to change: more air speed. giving more pressure in my belly wasn't working: it was already pretty solid. So the mouth- opening should close. Well that comes with practice and time.

While I play kan that way, in a more focused like way, I tried blowing Otsu that way as well: a smaller opening of lips, but with a little less pressure. Otsu became more effecient in breath; ie you need less breath for the same effect.

The last tip or thing wich I think is most important: have fun while doing it. It is a hobby, not a chore. In this it helps me to just doodle around, not to practice sometimes and play silly things. It also makes it more easy not to set goals but just try and play. Only now in looking back I can see and feel that things get easier and harder: I also feel there is much more to discover!

more radio

More radio can be listend to here. It is the first of a series dedicated to the European Summerschool held in Leiden. The speech is in Dutch this time, though there might be a change some of the interviews on later broadcasts are in English. The music is international though! Music can be heared from Kurahashi, Gunnar Linder, Vlatislav Matousek and more. I'll post more when more broadcasts have been.
The series will be broadcasted on 'de wandelende tak' (logo above)

Cause en effect

How things can effect each other is interesting. A reader of my blog posted me about my previous post on my shakublues. Which now is better, maybe due to writing a bit about it. He (or she), Ronen, sended me a nice e-mail about it and posted a post about learning curves he wrote about learning the shakuhachi in general. Learning he experiences goes in stages. This reminds me of a post Michael Gould wrote about learning and floors of a house: you start at the bottom and after some time develop to the next floor, seeing new challenges and theme's on that floor, you couldn't previously see! There is also some scientific evidence that some learning, especially in childhood goes in this way and this is propagated by Prof. P. van Geert, who is a proponent of the dynamic systems view he developed and tested. I recall this because he was the professor of one of my main directions in study. Ronen write very nicely on his site and I recommend it. He also write more on his playing\ learning of the shakuhachi. You can find that here. He post on many more personal subjects though. The only thing though, you actually read the things he write, read his name (real name?) on his site, but never find out who he himself is, quite ego-less and still it is designed around a online identity.