Hi Everyone,
I'll add my few cents to the self-study issue. In jazz circles,
(Where I spend a good portion of my week) there is a ubiquitous cry
among young musicians about need to find my own sound, own harmonic
concept, etc...." In these individuals there seems to be a belief that
formal study dilutes one's innate uniqueness and one's artistic style
should develop organically without much external intervention. While
this was my dominant credo when I was younger, shakuhachi playing has
radically changed my thinking. I now believe a teacher is necessary and
vital for several reasons.
The first is for communication. I use the analogy of language
learning with my students. Coming up with one's own words is relatively
easy (e.g. the various Star Trek languages!) but if you speak Klingon
few people will be able to understand you. However, if your goal is
communicating, you need to first master vocabulary, grammar, sentence
structure, etc. Then you can create within the system. For this a
teacher is needed. However, a teacher transmits much more than just the
external rules of a musical system. You learn aesthetics, what's
valued, a multitude of other cultural and musical details that you would
otherwise be blind to.
I'm also for formal study because I think it allows you to dig
deeper into yourself. As Riley noted, you are learning a concentrated
art, transmitted though dozens of sensitive and creative people. For
this reason, I refute the claim that formal study can rob you of your
individuality (since I believe we can't get rid of that if we wanted to)
and can instead allow you to tap into this extremely creative spring.
In the end, I guess it just depends whether you are interested in
entering the very fluid shakuhachi tradition or like the challenge of
impressing your own musical system on the instrument. Me, I dig
swimming.
Adam Friedman
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