Peter Ross wrote:
Hello to everyone, I haven't introduced myself yet. I'll send a more
complete bio. later. But briefly: I live in Seattle where I've been
giving private shakuhchi lessons for the last 5 years. I've played and
taught and made shakuhachi off and on since the early 70's.
I agree with Monty and Ronnie's comments and would like to add to what
they said.
My experience with beginning students getting dizzy or lightheaded is
that it is often caused from playing with too large an opening in the
embouchure or lips. Sometimes when I want to help a student improve I'll
first model them or try to imitate them. If I can sound or play like
them I can see what they are doing, where they are at and then
hopefully come up with a suggestion as to what the next step might be.
So, when I try blowing this way (too big an opening) I immediatley get
light headed too.
Students who get dizzy almost always have too large an opening in their
lips which allows the air to escape too quickly. My guess is that more
air is going out than coming in and this causes an imbalance which
causes them to hyperventilate. I'm not sure if this is what
hyperventilation is exactly but if you get dizzy when you blow look in
the mirror when you play and check out the size of the opening in your
lips. I'll bet it's too big.
Also, like Monty said it's always good to blow from deep down in your
diaphragm. Some teachers suggest drawing your energy up from below your
feet, from the earth itself. For now, Peter...v
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