Some of you have written asking if there is anything that can be done about
improving the tone of your shakuhachi. Well...
So you have two shakuhachi (note that the plural of "shakuhachi" is
"shakuhachi"); that darker colored well worn older one without a makers
brand that obviously came from Japan and the other newer hardly used one.
The older one has this rich full mellow tone which is more desirable than
the harsh bright crisp tone of the other newer one. Thing is that the older
one was made in a time when shakuhachi makers in Japan knew little or
nothing about getting a flute to play at current definitions of scale and
pitch. So it isn't really suitable for some of your practices and
performances with other instruments accurately tuned to the western equal
temperament scale of "A" = 442 hz at 70 degrees F air temperature. So you
are forced to use both instruments, depending upon the demands of the music
involved at the time. But you would really like your other newer hardly
used shakuhachi, which is reasonably in tune with the western scale, to have
the tone of the older well worn one.
Is there anything that you could easily do yourself to enhance the tone of
the newer instrument? Yes, indeed!
Older well worn instruments are not seen every day around here, nor every
week, since they are now not actively sought as they were perhaps 15 or 20
years ago. Yet the occasional one or two do appear here for reasons of
repair or whatever. Usually, they have a fine tone although the pitch is
somewhat different from things being made here in Japan these days. Their
current users still use them regularly, thus the repairs. Newer slightly
used flutes also find there way here from time to time for many of the same
repair reasons. They seldom have a fine tone when they arrive, but they get
turned into older well worn instruments before they depart.
Take a very close look at the finger holes of all your shakuhachi. Imagine
how difficult it is for a fluid, air, to negotiate a 90 degree bend such as
happens when air flows in and out of non-rounded finger holes. If your
shakuachi do not have well rounded corners on both the inside and outside of
the finger holes, then you will know what to do. With a small sharp knife
of some sort and some fairly find sandpaper you can get into shakuhachi
making by rounding the outside corners. To round the inside corners, where
the finger holes meet the bore, you will need another sort of tool. Years
ago another shakuhachi maker kindly provided a bent tapered round fine
toothed file for this purpose. It still serves well although it is now less
sharp than when new.
For each finger hole you have one and only one chance. Blow your tone and
then do this rounding. Then blow again. If you cannot tell the difference,
then you may wish to somehow restore the finger hole corners to a less
rounded condition to compare again.
Good Luck! Rounding will greatly reduce turbulence at the junction of the
finger hole and the infinity of space beyond as well as at the junction of
the finger hole and the bore of the flute. Consequently, less energy will
be lost, wasted, by the air trying to decide which way to move. Let all of
us know if you think that this rounding makes a
difference.
Tom Deaver
Bei Shu Shakuhachi Workshop
http://www.aax.mtci.ne.jp/~shaku100/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 12 2000 - 13:24:02 PST