I earlier wrote that I was surprised to hear there are competitions for
shakuhachi, and that based on my experience I do not care for competitions.
That is not sour grapes, by the way, since I have won several competitions
and been a finalist in nearly every competition I have entered. However,
it has also given me a chance to look at why people compete and what it's
doing to the music.
Dale Koenig wrote me saying that competitions "can encourage growth in
both confidence and provide helpfull feedback toward improvement." I agree
in theory, Dale, but a good teacher should be able to do the same thing
without the negative effects of competitions. It depends on how the
competition is held to some degree. However, the competitions I have been
in do not allow any type of feedback from the judges. You don't even see
your point score. You either know you won or lost. The stress in these
types of competitions is very heavy. I have seen men pass out on stage
during them for fear of making a mistake.
So why did I compete? It was primarily a way to have a lot of people from
around the country hear my music quickly. Exposure to me was more important
than winning. However, the REAL danger of competitions is not the competition
itself, but the tendency for musicians to start imitating past winners in able
to win themselves. I have seen this happen, and it squashes any creativity,
any innovative quality on the instrument. I would hate to see this happen to
the shakuhachi. Dale points out that the shakuhachi is becoming a performance
instrument as well as a meditative one. I agree, which is why I believe it
is more important than ever not to forget the original purpose of the
instrument. I see the shakuhachi as a healing, calming instrument. If
competitions can
help us learn how to use the shakuhachi to more effectively heal and calm
our minds, then I am all for them, but if they are just contests to see who can
play the "best", then count me out.
Sorry to get so carried away on this, and feel free to disagree. I sincerely
hope the competition that Adam mentioned in his original post is very
different than the ones I have experienced. Maybe Adam can enlighten us on
what a shakuhachi competition is.
Hollis Landrum
Regards,
Hollis
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 01 2003 - 15:16:51 PDT