Super Phat Taimu !?

In this last contribution of my Malaysian travels, I'll post about the shakuhachi I made myself. You could call it a super fat Taimu! I made it from a big bamboostick lying around. It was in poor condition, a bit moldy and too wet. That ony made it easier to work on it with my old swiss army knife. A few blisters were the price, a lot of fun and a shakuhachi which was extremely difficult to sound. I succeeded to make 3 Ro's out of it, which were dull and uninteresting... On the picture you can see the difference with the Yuu which I took as a model, and the self-made one. Nevertheless it was fun to do and make me consider how difficult it is to make one which sound ok, how difficult it would be to make one which sounds great?? Well in respect to the Taimu's my creation better not be named that way. By the way I left it there, so when you visit Pulau Tioman, Juara village and John's place 'Riverview', you maybe will be able to make more sound out of it then I did. This place to stay is highly reccomended!

Sometimes I read on the forum about the zen and meditative aspect of playing the shakuhachi and therefore not needing good flutes. For me meditative aspectis a part of playing, but the potential of a flute as well. I like to make nice sounds, and learn to play pieces they can sounds. The meditative attitude is less orientated to development or learning the flute itself (it is probably orientated to learning more about oneself). Well I like developing in the field of the fluteplaying itself even more. So back in Holland I can go back to exploring my newest acquisition: a 1.8 Gono Gyokusai II. This is my best 'gem' until now.

Jungle Improv

Hi there, back to post some more! This time an improvisation I have done in front of a large bamboo vegetation. I dunno if it is Madake, but it was the only patch I saw growing in the Taman Negara Jungle. Here is the vid:


Even a Gecko adds soms nice touch to the end.
I played it on my Yuu, which is pretty travelsave.

Travelling Malaysia

Now travelling for almost a month in Malaysia and Singapore I miss my bamboo flutes a lot. They smell like 'wood' they feel comfortable to the touch, they play nice. I feel that a bamboo shak has a total different feel, aura or 'energy' then one made of non-bamboo material. So a few days and I'll be able to play my Seikado, the raw Mujitsu or my rather newly acquired Gykosui, with wich I am most content. Nonetheless I have been playing some shakuhachi over here as I took my plastic -nasty word- Yuu. It plays everything well and nice but lacks some spirit to me. But without it I wouldn't have been able to take one along after all. I could do it...the humidity is quite high here (85%) and bamboo originates as well and grows very well in this climate. But the traveling by air with a shakuhachi...I dunno...
When home I'll post some more of my small shak adventures in this nice country with friendly people!

Mindfullness all the way

Now being on vacation I type this in Taman Negara, well the small town besides the big ancient 130-milion year old jungle called Taman Negara. Earlier in another jungle -Malaysia has more then only jungles- on a track walking the Cameron Highlands I slipped and injured my foot at the ankle...I have somewhat weak ankles perhaps, but you forget that in a normal situation when you don't do anything challenging with them. Well it happened -fortunately not too severe- I could walk on, for 3 hours! But now much more mindfull of where I walked and how my body and feet felt not to slip again. It was like a cripple in the jungle! Well I made it, but was surprised what the concentration I needed for walking and climbing back, also to notice how tiresome it was. Today I walked another jungle with bandage to fortify it all and it went good, walked the long cannopy walkway and crossed for 4 hours through this old forrest. I made a film playing in front of a big bamboo plant wich I intend to add later (the film)...

Nifty video

Here a vid of very nice playing of Aoki Reibo and Goro Yamaguchi. Also a way for me to try to embed a youtube video. Thanks to a Dutch Kaito member for finding the video :)
If I have it right they are playing Shika No Tone (Distant call of deer).

Here it is:

Reaction of others

When playing or when carrying the flute, the reactions the flute elicits are quite various. Mostly people are curious and want to know what it is you are holding or playing. They seem quite interested! More so than my experience is with a more common instrument. Then there is the name of this flute 'shakuhachi', not a name which has a real pleasant ring to it. The reaction to the sound is more even: people like it and associate it with relaxing or spiritual, zenlike music. -or people are polite- :). the shrill tones of the kan register-practise aren't always relaxing!
The most enthousiastic reaction though is from children, they are quite direct and want to try themselves immediatly, just to give up short thereafter finding out it is impossible for them to make a sound. Fortunately there is the plastic flute, which can be washed of saliva.
Here above a picture of Januari this year, during skiing in Austria. With that 2 children hanging around while I practised.

Kifu Mitsuhashi plays Chikurai

Check out this very nice video:

Chikurai from naha Jaja on Vimeo.

Kifu Mitsuhashi plays Chikurai - series of five compositions by Moroi Mokota. Chikurai translates as sound of bamboo, it is composed for shakuhachi, japanese bamboo flute. The compositions synthesize contemporary and traditional playing styles, phrases and techniques. Footage was shot on the main concert of Prague Shakuhachi Summer School 08.