Hi Herb,
I guess I meant that training in a ryuha gives one a set of tools to
start making steady progress with the shakuhachi in whatever direction one
wants to take it. It makes sense to take advantage of what has been
learned before about the instrument over hundreds of years of practice by
wandering komuso or those playing ensemble with koto and shamisen; why
reinvent the wheel? Of course we no longer live in the Edo Period so the
different times will certainly have some effect on the new directions the
instrument will be taken in, though there is also an obligation, perhaps,
to preserve the music that has been played on it from years past, so that
we can retain a connection with cultures that went on before us, and
because, I'm thinking of the honkyoku in particular, the original music
composed on the instrument may touch a deep part of our being. There is
your statement about musicians trained in western classical music who
cannot improvise, but I also know classical musicians who are quite
excellent at it -- I'm thinking of that elfin violinist with dreadlocks --
as they have mastery of technique and of the basics of their instrument. I
think it's the same with the shakuhachi -- its nothing about my training in
particular, its just about the fact that I had, am having some training and
am still learning a particular tradition. Some people may not need a
teacher, but I'm a person who needs a lot of disciplined practice to get
anywhere. I played gaikyoku and honkyoku for about eight years before I
was asked by a slide guitarist friend of mine to accompany him on a couple
of blues songs at a small music club in Kochi where we couldn't see any of
our 12 or 13 person audience out in the darkness -- we had a few minutes
practice outside before going on -- I didn't know what I was doing in that
first improvization, though I had played a fair number of concerts of the
traditional music before much larger crowds. Yes, and to your question
"Does one have to train or practice improvization before they can do it?",
I think the answer is yes, one has to improvize badly before one can do it
well, although sometimes one just gets it right -- I was in Paris, walking
along the Seine with my Japanese nephew, who also plays shakuhachi, on the
left bank, through a sculpture park the summer before last and we were
looking for a place to play shakuhachi. Everywhere was full -- people
sunning, strumming guitars, playing drums, doing capoeira -- it was
Bastille Day, everybody was out on the street, there were dances in the
squares -- there was a guy playing an acoustic bass (which I thought was a
guitar) in a circular depression next to the river and I talked to him for
a minute, in broken French -- he replying in broken English -- I asked if I
could join him, showed him my 1.8 flute and we started playing together; in
a few minutes a trumpet player showed up, and then shortly afterwards a
djembe player and an alto saxophonist -- the bassist, named Alex, happened
to be meeting his band there -- the give and take with the music that we
did for the next few hours felt magical -- I was lucky -- more commonly one
is in the wrong key or what one is playing may not fit in well with the
other instruments, or perhaps one is playing too much.... No, the current
iemoto system does not allow much room for improvization, though perhaps
they should -- that's what you do on your own, playing with saxophonists,
pianists, drummers, whoever.. -- I said that training within the ryuha can
provide a good balance to the improvization. It won't give you the ability
to improvise -- that's what comes through playing with as many other
musicians of different genres, on different instruments, in as many
circumstances as is possible, and as you mentioned, being open to musical
opportunities which may present themselves...I'm still very much a novice
at it compared to many...we're so lucky that the shakuhachi is a handy
instrument to carry around -- not like lugging a double bass, drum kit, or
koto about...those ancient komoso, they were improvisers...
Dan
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