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October 29, 2007
Shakuhachi Camp Flute Making workshop
Hi All, I'm posting this event here in case you haven't read about it on the International shakuhachi Forum. Here's the blurb from Sensei Michael:
I am very happy to be having Perry Yung as our guest at my Shakuhachi Camp in Delaware, Ohio at the end of November. As a shakuhachi player, how you think and feel about your shakuhachi is so important. If you understand this, you can understand how indebted to and dependant upon the shakuhachi craftsmen we players are. I believe that there are ideas about shakuhachi which are born from inexperience of any 'hands on' work with making shakuhachi and from not having a chance to spend much time with craftsmen who make them. In my mind, this creates what I would call an unhealthy and 'improper appreciation' of the instrument and the craftsmen who make them. This workshop gives us all a chance to create a healthy and real relationship with the craft and craftsman. I hope many of you can join Perry and myself for a weekend of studying how to make the shakuhachi and also how to play the shakuhachi.
Camp Date: Nov.30~Dec.2
Place: Stratford Ecological Center, Delaware, Ohio (Near Columbus, OH)
Transportation to and from Columbus International Airport provided.
Fee: $270. Includes cost of bamboo, lessons and meals. Out-of-towners add $30 for prepared meals. For root end add $80.
Songs for study:
Honkyoku: Sanya: Yokoyama Katsuya version.
Modern: Makiri, Yokoyama Katsuya solo composition for 1.8.
Duet: Azuma no Kyoku for 1.8 & 2.0
Trio: Sanya Sugagaki for 1.8,2.0 & 2.4.
Kumoi Jishi for 1.8 & 2.0
For me info. Contact: Michael Gould, email: chikuzen@earthlink.net or Perry Yung at perry@yungflutes.com
Michael Chikuzen Gould
2641 Idlewood Rd. 2F
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
(313)600-2610
Making and playing your own shakuhachi flute can be a immensely gratifying life experience. For me, there are few things in this world more joyful than waking up and blowing Choshi on a flute that I made. Join me in a personal shakuhachi making workshop devoted to crafting your own unique Jinashi flute out of real bamboo. I will share some of the traditional techniques I learned while studying under Kinya Sogawa, a professional maker and player in Japan who was an uchi deshi (live-in apprentice) of Chikusen Tamai. We will focus on how to make a simple yet fully functional bamboo shakuhachi in the Jinashi style with no additives. Participants will choose a piece of bamboo and take that raw material from the beginning stages of drilling out the nodes, cutting the utaguchi blowing edge and drilling finger holes to refining the utaguchi angles and fine tuning the tones holes. By the end of the workshop, everyone will be able to play a shakuhachi crafted by their own hands. This experience will allow the participants to deepen their relationship with the instrument and the music it was made to play. Those interested in a root end piece can contact me directly for availability of lengths.
I hope you can come! - Perry
Posted by Perry Yung at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)
October 14, 2007
Violent Femmes Horns of Dilema Shakuhachi.
Saturday night, October 13, 8:49pm, I was finally indoctrinated into the infamous Violent Femmes' Horns of dilemma section.
Photo by friend Scott (after a beer and a shot of tequila).
I love seeing the Femmes! I was an honor to share the stage with these guys. It was difficult to get the sound out against the electric instruments and drums but I think it was successful.
Namaste, Perry
Posted by Perry Yung at 11:03 AM | Comments (2)
October 07, 2007
More on Jinashi and Jiari flutes!
Hi all, I received some great feedback on the previous blog entry on comparing the 2.4 flutes.
I should have pointed out that playing my CHIKUSING 2.4 required slightly more effort to get my ideal sound. The Kono Gyokusui reacted faster. More so, this is only MY experience with these two flutes. Another player will have different results. This is what makes the shakuhachi so interesting. I truly feel that playing the shakuhachi is a collaboration with the flute. They will collaborate differently for different people.
The other thing I should have pointed out was that my the comparison to the different forms of the guitar was done from a purely musical point of view. I'm also a 30 year player of the acoustic and electric guitars. I wanted to make the comparison to show that the different type of instruments can achieve similar musical goals. From a musical perspective, it's about which one will do the best job in the situation.
I love playing both the jinashi and jiari AND the acoustic and electric. Much of the joy comes in the decision to play what instrument when.
All musical instruments are gifts to humankind!
Namaste, Perry
Posted by Perry Yung at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2007
Jiari and Jinashi shakuhachi
Hi all, I have here in front of me two 2.4 shakuhachi. The Jiari is made by Kono Gyokusui, the senior. The other is my Chikusing 2.4.
Both flutes play very very differently. They feel different. They are constructed differently. In the shakuhachi world, this would be the difference between an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar. One thing that initially surprised me as I played them both back to back was how similar they both sounded. At least to my ears. When I first notice this, I started to examine the issue. Why did these two very very different feeling flutes sound so similar. I picked each one up and tried the same musical passage while comparing and notating the differences in playability. But time after time, I was stuck with the similar tonality even though the playing felt physically different. Then it occurred to me that I was playing them the way that I want a shakuhachi to sound. I was manipulating the tone to have the harmonic balance I like in a shakuhachi sound.
I am playing the Gyokusui first. I am sure you can hear differences but there seems to be more similarities.
As I thought more about it, I was reminded that my teachers sound the same even when playing on different flutes.
Namaste, Perry
Posted by Perry Yung at 08:06 PM | Comments (0)