Funagawa Toshio Memorial Concert Recordings

Check out the

Shakuhachi Stuff Writing Ten Minutes a Day

 and some nifty recording of a concert: free music!

see the blog and the music here 

 original Japanese source here

Full tone

I have been intruiged with sound and full tone of instruments; what to do to play its best to my ears. With a recorder, the instrument I started on, there was little to no room for changing or influencing the tone itself. Then I played saxophone: a whole lot more room for change! Soft, loud, roaring, sharp, fat etcetera. It was not really hard to make the sound, sound good and fat: relax your jaw and blow with a concentration\ steady pressure. On the shakuhachi is is harder to grasp. There is just as much room to change the tone, maybe even to a larger degree than the sax. But making a flute 'sing' is another thing. I sometimes have that sensation. Mostly after playing a more difficult part when I played more tensed then usual. After that I relax and doodle around on the flute, it sounds very nice! Then it really sing, it feels as a focused relaxed way of playing, which 'unlocks' this sound. I can't do it on demand -yet- though, which will come perhaps. When it comes now it feels as a little gift and gives a glimps of the most beautifull aspect of the shakuhachi: its complex sound.

shakuhachi Void

Momentarilly I feel I am in a shakuhachi- void. I keep on practising, playing and that is it! Hah. In the beginning I experiences much more: more progression, more oohs and aaahs, I had more questions about flutes, about playing and learning with the flute in the beginning. Now I just play...Maybe I am not in a void after all but just something of a phase in my learning.

The picture above is of my 3 1.8's: a Kitahara, the Yuu (tainted) and my fav: Gyokusui. This pic is to see the difference in backhole position. I am thinking of letting the hole of the Kitahara (top) getting replaced for better tuning. In that flute, the hi and go no hi were pretty high compared to the rest of the flute. so hope that helps. For the repair the flute is in good hands (Perry Yung).

one year of playing and blogging

At the beginning of this month it has been a year that I first choose to purchase a Yuu-shakuhachi. I contacted a local afficionado and he wrote me a letter back if I was certain to want to learn an instument as difficult as this one. The answer now is yes! I like that part of this flute. It holds secrets in itself and in its traditions. It seems to be a simple thing: a bamboo stick. My friend always say something like "whoa: 1000$ for a piece of bamboo!", that I can understand from a 3rd person's view of perspective...but then adds: "why don't you sell it?"...and that I will never do...
This was a wonderfull year shakuhachi wise: I learned a lot, practices a lot, meet a lot of new interesting  people, met two very different and wonderfull teachers who help me along the way. One is at the other end of the world, but with a lot of help from the technology today online lessons is possible as well!
I underwent a very energetic 4 days of summerschool and I have learned a lot of new things. Now that I am one year on the go, I notice the learning slows down more. At first there were more 'oooohs and aaaahs' then nowadays. The music or pieces I can play now are actually more interesting then in the beginning, so one reccomendation to beginners: start and keep at it.
Thank you as well to the readers up till now!! The interaction via this blog adds more depth into my playing and experience. Thanks!
For fun: I recorded Tsubaki Saku Mura to listen to. More of Fukuda Rando I recorded can be listened. I recorded this song (name doesn't come to mind) with my Edo flute.
I like to play his songs; they are quite diverse and moving.

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!