The idea of teaching via the net first occurred to me a few years ago
when widespread broadband access was still years away; now that it's
there for a number of players, I do plan to give it a try once I settle
down and get the equipment together. Ideally, all those interested in
learning this way will be all set up and ready to go by that time ;-).
I think real-time video teaching can work, occupying a spot somewhere
between videos and being in the same room as the teacher--which is a
quantum leap up from either of the other two IMHO.
As for pain while playing, what's been posted so far is, judging from
my experience, all very helpful. Relaxation of the whole body is
important. As for playing the kan notes, relaxation is also key, but
playing long high notes with energy and good tone, that then fade into
nothing, requires more than that--support from the hara and mentally
supporting the note, visualizing it, allow one to stay relaxed without
the high notes losing energy and good tone.
I've experienced neck and shoulder pain from playing my 2.4, which is
kind of heavy, for long periods, but I've dealt with that by looking
for the least stressful posture and arm position. It's also important
to keep the wrists straight when playing longer flutes, even if it
requires moving a finger hole or two--better a slightly carved-up flute
than carpal tunnel syndrome. There's no reason we shouldn't feel some
discomfort playing shakuhachi--after all, we haven't evolved (yet) to
hold one, and I don't think ergonomics were part of the design beyond
the finger holes matching certain fingers etc, so I think we have to
work a bit at making it comfortable to play.
Peter H
--- Paul Cohen <paulcohen@ozemail.com.au> wrote:
> Isaac, Ronnie, Derek and all
>
> I found Todd Bartons Kan Octave movie very helpful as a reference
> point
> as I learn this technique sans physical teacher at the moment. In
> e-learning terminology it's known as a (digital media)
> learning/knowledge object, which can either act stand alone or be
> integrated into more comprehensive lesson(s) as needed (though
> technically it needs to be wrapped in metadata to really implement
> this). In this case I use it standalone along with a bunch of
> excellent
> paper based material I got at the ASS festival, as well as the odd
> play
> with the cool free S8tuner from
> http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~tuner/tuner_e.html
> That said, the time for live teaching for me is looming as I get my
> basic technique under control.
>
> The following snippet is from the current email discussion list of
> "International Forum of Educational Technology & Society"
> http://ifets.ieee.org/ and seems relevant to the previous points
> mentioned by all as it sums up the broadband teaching issues quite
> nicely. It's from an ongoing discussion on the use of radio for
> distance
> learning in NZ (hope she does'nt mind me quoting but it saves me
> saying
> the same thing in different words:-)
>
> "Given that there are some learning experiences that can be enhanced
> by
> Audio or video presentation, the decision about which mechanism one
> uses
> to deliver that audio or video will understandably be strongly
> influenced by pragmatic considerations like who has access to that
> technology, how much It costs to implement, and what perceived value
> it
> has for the target audience." Mary Hall Education Project Manager
>
> The other issue, as Ronnie mentions, is "technologically challenged"
> teachers/students, but I see this as being less of an issue as
> Windows/Mac are finally becoming pretty much plug and play for this
> sort
> of thing now.
>
> The interactive e-learning broadband model works, as evidenced by
> Japanese usage, but there are a helluva lot more guitar/piano
> students
> than shakuhachi so I don't know if it's financially viable to do it
> at
> the moment.
>
> The cheapest way to do it currently would be to just use short
> focused
> video chat sessions to learn specific techniques or resolve problems
> which you can then go away and practise offline. Adapt the lesson
> format
> to the constraints of the costs/medium/user. E-learning is just
> another
> tool in the learning set, not a replacment (though the marketing spin
> doctors would have you believe otherwise!).
>
> ?
>
>
>
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 06 2004 - 14:09:33 PST