Ipad Zen Brush Shakuhachi Notation Images

Hello All,

I’ve been working with a program on my ipad called Zen Brush. Very cool program and I created these shakuhachi notation characters with it. Little by little I plan on doing a whole set of Kinko notation characters.  More to come…….

 

 

    

 

 

About our August Shakuhachi Gathering

Along with the 2 people from our Meetup group there were also 3 others who were going to attend and several  maybes. We ended up with 4 players and had a great time. We used the Honkyoku piece Choshi to talk about reading notation, fingering and styles/schools of shakuhachi playing. We also talked about types of shakuhachi flutes. My wife even made us a Asian noodle salad for lunch. Great time!

Our next gathering will be on the 24th of September. Hoping to see a few more new faces!

The Core Spirit of Shakuhachi

by Yoshinobu Taniguchi

The spiritual core of shakuhachi manifests itself in what I will call the yureru oto, [Translator’s note: a dynamic fluctuation of the tone] which also mirrors the essence of Zen. Nowadays, most sects of shakuhachi – Tozan, Kinko and current Meian, among others – have forgotten this exquisite yureru oto, which exists in the space between the notes and is what compromises the soulful sound of the shakuhachi.

One must not attempt to play the notes of a shakuhachi song “accurately” or “skillfully”. Playing only the precise pitches prescribed by the notes on the score leads to boring, soulless playing that neither expresses the spirit of the music nor the heart of the player.

Instead, the traditional lifeblood of the shakuhachi is to let each note vary subtly within its permissible scope. This expresses the soul of wabi, sabi, and ma, and leads to the yureru oto. [Translator’s note: wabi can be thought of as an austere, refined beauty, sabi as a solitariness combined with age and tranquility, and ma as timing, or the delicate interval or emptiness which exists between the sounds.] Playing only the average pitches will extinguish these elements, and the soulful sound of the shakuhachi will be lost.

Expressing the sounds that exist between the notes is also the traditional lifeblood of the shakuhachi, and is what helps give rise to the yureru oto’s exquisite reverberations.

It takes a long time and much effort to develop these qualities in one’s playing. During this time, trial, error, and original experimentation are key to success. Five or ten years may pass yielding little progress but much frustration and confusion. At the point your heart and soul become free, however, satori, or “enlightenment”, is experienced, and you think “Ah! It was so simple all along!” At this moment, that which was hidden becomes obvious, and that which was difficult becomes easy. The player and the sound become one, resulting in a deep, profound sound that resonates in the spinal column and touches one’s soul.

Every sound of the shakuhachi can be expressed in a multitude of ways depending on the brilliance of the player’s soul. Thus, all life is study, and this study is dynamic and alive. Your experience of the shakuhachi’s sound never stops evolving.

New Shakuhachi (Japanese Bamboo Flute) Hobby Web Site

Charles Koeppen who setup the Facebook group called Shakuhachi (Japanese Bamboo Flute) Hobby Group now has a new web site called Shakuhachi (Japanese Bamboo Flute) Hobby Pages. The link to his new site is http://shakuhachi.atspace.cc/
His site is well organized and has a lot of good information. It’s worth checking out.

27 August Shakuhaci Get Together

Hello all, we had our last get together on the 9th of July and our next get together will be on the 27th of August from 10:00 A.M. to about noon. 

I'd like to invite anyone who even thinks they might have an interest in the shakuhachi to come by, everyone is welcome.

A couple of our members went to the Shakuhachi Camp of the Rockies and will be discussing that experience. 

Chuck Peck

Choshi

My first public recording. This is a piece called Choshi it's one of the original meditative pieces also known as Honkyoko. I’m playing this on a 1.8 Japanese shakuhachi flute.
Choshi Honkyoku by chuckpeck56

Traditional Meanings of the Shakuhachi Holes

I came across this on a wonderful blog called Myoan Shakuhachi.

http://myoanshakuhachi.blogspot.com/2011/06/traditional-meanings-of-shakuhachi.html