When some one inquires about the shakuhachi and study, I usually suggest that finding a teacher may be the best way into experiencing the rich cultural tradition that the shakuhachi music can offer. Even if it will just be used for meditation. Studying under an experienced teacher can open many doors. In this case, one would need a standard modern Jairi style 1.8 length shakuhachi.

Playing the shakuhachi in general is not an easy task. Modern flutes are easier and produce louder notes. Some feel the original essence is gone with the modern flute because of the bore work and need to play in an ensemble.

However, playing the older Jinashi can also be a wonderful experience for anyone. But, these flutes usually require more experience since the embouchure has to be developed in order to maintain the note and milk the tonal qualities. This however, does not mean a beginner's breath can not make great tones! Just not mature tones.

I sometimes use the analogy of the automobile to describe flutes. The modern Jiari is like a fast luxury sports car while the old Jinashi is like a 57' T-Bird or 55" Chevy -sluggish comparatively but with much more "classic" style.

Today, I thought of another analogy - climbing a mountain. The jiari is more supportive as there are ropes and clips. The jinashi requires the skillful climber who knows how to navigate and hug the mountain side.

These flutes came to me with some damage but have been refurbished and repaired here in my shop. I always respect the original maker's intent during the refurbishing process.

Enjoy the high altitude and breath a deep lungful of fresh air my friends! Perry

I am very happy and honored to be invited to participate again. I am still living off the fumes of the last camp!

From Michael:

I happy to report that we will be having our June Ro Camp June 20~22 at the home of Craig Ciola outside of Marion, Ohio again (check Camps and Retreats on the website at chikuzenstudios.com). Craig's place is a beautiful quiet country setting where we can play out in nature without bothering anyone (does shakuhachi really bother anyone?) and without us being disturbed by unwanted distractions. Craig has bamboo grooves, carp ponds, and I hear there's a newly built amphitheater of sorts! If this setting and playing shakuhachi for hours isn't enough, we also will be having Perry Yung join us again for Workshop Part 2 of Jinashi Shakuhachi Construction. It was a real treat to have Perry's guidance and energy last Nov. and we're glad he'll be able to join us again.


One of my goals is to provide educational opportunities at one camp a year that we cannot get without going abroad or at least traveling far. Although we did enjoy Perry's presence just last Nov., Perry and I both thought it would be more effective to have another workshop as soon as possible as a follow up. However, don't forget that the camp is a playing/studying shakuhachi camp and we will be playing until your lips are numb as usual!

The study format is as usual:

Two Groups: beginners & Intermediate/Advanced.
Some time will be spent in one large group studying together but we also split up into two groups according to levels.


Beginner's level:
1. Mt. Village at Dusk.
2. Pilgrimmage song "Goreika".
3. Etenraku: duet
4. various lullabyes and folk tunes


Intermediate/Advanced
1. Two main Honkyoku: Sany (Mt. Valley) & Soo Mukaiji:
2. One review song: Makiri.
3. One duet (review): Henro
4. One Fukuda Rando song:


Saturday night is duet night. Some of the duets will be:
1. Tohne no Funauta: Fukuda Rando composition.
2. Yabu no Sato: Miyata Kohachiro
3. Komori Uta
4.Shika no Tohne



Please register as soon as you can and indicate if you will need bamboo from Perry or not for the workshop. It is NOT mandatory that you join the shakuhachi construction workshop. I understand that there will be a few students who have little time to play daily and want to spend their time playing. That's very understandable. I will be teaching while Perry is instructing so you do have that option.

The cost of camp is as follows:
1. Including shakuhachi construction workshop: $300.
2. Not including shakuhachi workshop: $270.

*There will be an extra fee for the bamboo if you require a special piece of Root end bamboo -$80. Non root bamboo will be provided for no additional cost.

You may sleep indoors or outdoors at this camp (there are two extra bedrooms: first come first serve); or on the floor with mats and bags. Most people will sleep outdoors in tents. if you don't have one, I have a 10 man tent bigger than most apartments and ample mats and bags.

All participants help out in the kitchen for at least one meal. Maybe cooking isn't your thing so cutting and washing may be! Students living within driving distance will share the job of choosing a menu with another student. Participants coming from afar will add $30. to the registration fee for food, but still help in the kitchen.

Please send registration fee to Michael Gould in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Also, check out the website at chikuzenstudios.com to read more about camps and view the upcoming events on the calendar.


Michael Chikuzen Gould
2641 Idlewood Rd. 2F
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
(313)600-2610

Jinashi Contruction Workshop Part Two:
Making and playing your own shakuhachi flute can prove to be an immensely gratifying life experience. Part two gets deeper. This workshop will cover how to bind the flute to prevent cracking, apply Tung Oil in the bore to prevent mold and introduce my Spot Tuning Method. This method is based on the idea of pressure points in the bore and how manipulating select resonance spots can enhance the response of the shakuhachi thus creating a more musical instrument. This method was developed on my own since 1995 and then furthered with a trip to Japan where I studied formally under Kinya Sogawa. For me, Spot Tuning a shakuhachi is akin to color mixing for the fine art painter. Once the artist understands the concepts of hue and value in paints (tone color and balance in sound for the musician), she or he will be able to make choices on how to shape and direct the work. Understanding spot tuning is the first step into the fine art of shakuhachi crafting.

Those of you who missed the previous camp but would like to make your own shakuhachi will still have the opportunity. We can work out the schedule with Michael so that interested parties can have a separate workshop in making a flute before the Part Two workshop.

Those with construction questions can feel free to inquire directly at perry@yungflutes.com

Having participated in Michael's camp last November, I can not stress how wonderful this opportunity is for anyone. The camp provides an invaluable community experience where inspiration is abound. I personally left the previous camp inspired and energized!

See you there, Perry

Looks pretty good. Right?

In general, yes. But on inspection, it needs quite a bit of work. Didn't see this hair line crack on the auction photos.

Didn't see this damaged utaguchi in the photos.

The cracks at the front was also not shown on the photo.

Work has started.

It's begining to play well but needs adjusting at the top.

This flute was purchased for around $100. So far, $200 of repair labor has gone into it.

Please read the auctions clearly. And when they say look at the photos, look at the photos.

All the best, Perry

This one is a 2.2 that had an utaguchi chip refilled,

joint tightened, cracks bound

and Ro made stronger.

It's a nice instrument with a new lease on life!

Namaste, Perry

Press the play arrow on the bar below to play this video.

Old flutes like this have a rustic sound that brings to my mind a misty temple on the side of a mountain. These old flutes have all the usual bumps of a natural bore flute but they feel good in the hands. Well, in my hands at least.

Enjoy the old sound.
Namaste, Perry

Well, having been there fairly recently (twice in the last five years) all I can say is, "Forget about practicing"!

My skill level of playing have pretty much froze in time from the moment my first was born. Lessons when from four a week in Japan to one ever few months these days, if I'm lucky. In my experience, every lesson requires around two additional hours of practice to absorb the material. Imagine how many hours a I was playing a day!

Nowadays, my practice time is based in "free improvisation" while playing with the kids. It's not focused but it's fun! Jet is playing a Hocchiku almost twice his height. His embouchure isn't quite right yet, he prefers to play it like a didgeridoo.

Namaste, Perry

Please feel free to let me know if you enjoyed watching this video. If so, what did you like about it. Would you like to see more? Or, if you found it annoying!

Thanks! Perry

Today, I'd like to express great gratitude for those who have supported my work. I'm very lucky to be doing what I'm doing. Those who support me in turn support my family and my endeavor to grow in this arcane process called shakuhachi crafting.

I often receive very flattering emails about my flutes, which humbles me greatly. Sometimes I receive cards which really means something because someone took the time to write! Every once in a while, someone sends me a special gift. A few years ago, jewelery maker and holistic doctor Jeff A. sent me a rattan wrapped silver ring designed after the nakatsuki on a shakuhachi. That was pretty cool.

A few months ago, someone stopped by and gave me a metal medallion imprinted with a Fuke playing a shakuhachi.

And last month, this came in the mail from Ray F. in Washington.

I had been working with Ray to get him a flute to start with. Ray also makes the Native American Flute. Here's what Ray had to say about this special gift:

"I made that from a "shed" deer antler. A deer will naturally drop it's antlers and grow new ones every year. This discarded antler was found in the woods by a friend. I like using the sheds because they will naturally bleach out a little and they gain character. That piece is the very bottom of the antler, it is sometimes called a rossette or button and like bamboo, every piece is a little different.

I love your bamboo leaf logo so thought you would like it. Don't know what you can do with it but I guess it's the thought that counts.

Yes, the thought certainly counts. But Ray goes beyond thoughts by using his time and expert hands to say a meaningful thank you.

My bamboo leaf logo is special to me. It represents not only my philosophical approach to life and work, but was greatly inspired by my daughter Sasa whose name means bamboo leaf in Japanese.

A deep bow to you my friend (s), Perry

Explaining the origin of the shakuhachi, how it probably originated in India and migrated through China, Korea and finally into Japan.

Most Chinese celebrate their ancestors on the Lunar New year. I am improvising in honor my great great grandfather who migrated here from Guangzhou, China but was stuck on Angel Island, San Francisco in the 1880's.

Happy 4075th new year of the Rat!
Perry

Notice how the single inlay stopped the crack from going through to the top. It was originally added as a preventative measure and it certainly did it's job. It was bound very tight. Had it not been for this, the crack could have forced it to come apart and come through the top. I've seen that happen many times.

Even though through the crack was huge on the exterior, the bindings on each end prevented the ji paste inside from cracking open.

If you look carefully, you can barely see the presence of the binding inside the bore pressing into the Ji paste. It's very minimal but it's there. This is a sign that the binding was performed with a lot of tension.

Ji paste is plaster. Like plaster on the wall of an old house, it will crack if there is movement on the foundation. The best thing to do is bind the bamboo as tightly as possible to stabilize in order to prevent more movement. This may result in the interior walls showing the pressure of the bindings slightly protruding in. I've seen this on many old flutes repaired by masters. I always ask everyone I've done inlays for whether the flute plays differently afterwards. No one has every siad that there was. The usual response is, "It plays great!" My own opinion is that it's very difficult to tell if there is a difference resulting from the bindings. A flute feels different to some degree from moment to moment, hour to hour, day to day, season to season, on stage or off. To be able to attribute any difference in playability to the bindings would mean that the player probably only plays that one flute and has a very special connection with it. Most players I know plays several flutes.

Have a great day and keep your flutes humidified to about 50%.
Namaste, Perry

I normally do not ask people to help with donations but my artistic home, La MaMA E.T.C. in New York City is in a fund raising drive to win a $50,000 grant.

Presently, there is a contest where the the top four non-profits that gets the most $10 donations wins the grants.

Why should you be interested? Well, aside from being responsible for introducing me to the shakuhachi, the founding artistic director Ellen Stewart holds the highest medal of honor from the Japanese government for her tireless work in presenting the Japanese culture (among others) through the arts in the USA. To begin with, she presented a young experimental rock group called Tokyo Kid Brother in 1970 that produced an Off-Broadway hit called The Golden Bat. Tokyo kid Brother was in residence at La MaMa at the time. In the group was a young Akikazu Nakamura. Ellen Stewart was also the first to bring Butoh legend Kazuo Ohno to the United States.

La MaMa E.T.C. is probably the only place in American where one can walk into a show any given night of the week and hear the shakuhachi unexpectedly. Two of the resident house musicians were Japanese and Japanese Americans and played the shakuhachi often when scoring a La MaMa production. This is how I came to discover the shakuhachi in 1992.

http://www.lamamatapestry.blogspot.com/

Those interested in helping can visit the blog and donate at the right of the screen. All it takes is $10. It's not the amount of donation that matters here. It's the head count.

In addition, La MaMa directly supports the shakuhachi world today by supporting my group SLANT. Ellen houses our equipment and provides free rehearsal space (those in NYC can truly appreciate this as we all live in boxes and making noise [our work] is a luxury). I play the shakuhachi in all our shows across the USA and beyond.

Thanks for your time.
Namaste, Perry

While taking a breather, I noticed a batch of Jasmine incense I purchased recently from a street vendor. I realized I didn't have a holder but right in front of me was a cracked piece of bamboo. In a few minutes, I had my incense holder.

Earth model, no ji, no lacquer...heh heh heh.

Namaste, Perry

however, I understand the needs of professional musicians so I am happy to add an utaguchi inlay and lacquer in the bore for anyone who wants these additions. An utaguchi inlay serves to maintain the sharp blowing edge over many years. The lacquer int he bore seals the interior form too much breath moisture and may cause mold if not cared for properly. Please shoot me an email with any questions.

Hear it now! The sample is of me playing vigorously to show how much the flute can take. It certainly can be played with a more mellow sound.

But then I looked closely...

This was made for fishermen to keep a six pack cool while out on the river.

Off to Ohio to partake in Michael Gould's Shakuhachi Camp! I'm very excited.

Namaste, PErry

The chin rest was a little askewed as you can see at the top left. The owner said it wasn't noticeable until he played a long piece like Takiochi.

You can just see a small bump at the reflection.

After the work. It may still look a little askewed in the photo. If it does, it's because the top opening into the bore is not exactly centered. You can "rest" assured that the back top is symmetrical.

These old flutes polish up really well because there's a lot of rubbed in oils from the the face through many years of playing.

There's usually not much to debate over with this type of repair, unlike ones dealing tuning. We can easily see what the problem here, but when it comes to tuning everyone plays the flute differently.

I'll be posting a blog on two old flutes I recently re tuned.

Is your chin rest askewed?

Namaste, Perry