Bruce and everyone,
I did indeed mean the note to go to everyone so thanks for sending it on. I
guess I still don't know how to use this computer-email thing. What address
is used to get the mail to everyone.
So I must explain more in a different way the thing about closing the finger
holes. Here goes.
The clue that no one seems to have picked up on is "at the same instant", so
it's my mistake to not choose suitable words. I've been speaking Japanese
too long and not enough English.
There are some acoustical physicists out there who have said that, with
technology being what it is, the only difference between most well made
western flutes is the way the holes close. What they mean is that the
entire circumference of the hole may not close all at once or "at the same
instant". Everyone knows
that for each hole there is a little short cylinder sticking up out of the
bore and there are little pads that come down on top of these little
cylinders to close the holes. It frequently happens that the pad does not
close the hole all at once
because the plane of the top of the cylinder and the plane of the pad are
not parallel or the pad may be not perfectly flat. So there will be some
small instant of time when some portion of the circumference is closed some
other portion is still open. What this means in musical terms is that it
is difficult for the note to start, to begin vibrating at the desired
frequency. And the key word here is "begin". It's like starting out from a
red traffic light in your car in third gear, then first gear, then reverse,
then second gear and finally fourth gear.
Once all the hole has been closed and the jumbled up frequencies have sorted
themselves out, the vibration goes along as desired and the tone comes out.
So, the whole idea here is that all the various notes should start right
away with no confusion about frequency.
Look at your shakuhachi and it is easily seen that there is nothing flat
about the opening of the finger hole. Your finger isn't flat either which
compounds the problem, but at least getting the hole opening flat will help
the flute to start playing the note with less fuzzyness at the beginning of
the sound.
This whole idea has serious implications concerning the selection of bamboo
stock, or other material, for flute construction. You can probably guess
which pieces are more
desirable and why these pieces are often specified when people order
instruments.
So now, whenever you see a shakuhachi on which someone has filed away some
of the material around the holes to make the finger hole openings more flat
or else built up a
little volcano around the outside of the hole to do the same thing, you can
think about the reason.
Tom Deaver
Bei Shu Shakuhachi Workshop
http://www.aax.mtci.ne.jp/~shaku100/
----------
>From: Bruce Jones <bjones@weber.ucsd.edu>
>To: shakuhachi@weber.ucsd.edu
>Subject: From Tom Deaver
>Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 09:35:35 -0700 (PDT)
>
>
>Tom sent this to me, but I suspect that he meant it to go to the
>entire list, so here:
>
>>From: "Tom" <shaku100@aax.mtci.ne.jp>
>>Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 07:42:12 +0900
>>Subject: The Shakuhachi
>>
>>In reply to the letter from Antonio Borges about how to make a
>>shakuhachi....
>>
>>I have often wondered, in about 30 years of making shakuhachi in Japan, what
>>it is that one talks about when speaking of shakuhachi and if there can be
>>any consensus about any aspect of shakuhachi.
>>
>>I know that the same shakuhachi can be shown to a number of different
>>people, shakuhachi players, and, more often than not, they will usually
>>reply differently to the questions of playability, pitch and tone. So if,
>>in fact, there cannot be any broad agreement about these questions, then the
>>dialog ends here, and we have gotten to the end of all this quickly and
>>easily.
>>
>>If, on the other hand, there can be some general agreement, then
>>we should find out what the agreement is and see if that agreement
>>can be turned into the physical reality of a shakuhachi. As
>>a starter, I would suggest that the near impossiblity of using
>>a one's finger to close at the same instant the entire circumfrence
>>of the various tone holes is sufficient reason to not choose bamboo
>>as a material for shakuhachi.
>>
>>Anyone out there have any ideas about this or anything else which should be
>>included in the idea of shakuhachi?
>>
>>Bei Shu Shakuhachi Workshop
>>http://www.aax.mtci.ne.jp/~shaku100/
>>
>>-
>
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