I agree with Paul re. the long process of educating the breath via the
shakuhachi (and who could argue with the Duke !); to paraphrase my Zen
teacher when I get impatient - just shutup and practice for 10000 years.
But in the meantime, for what it's worth, I've found that working on my
embouchure in terms of reducing the aperture has helped as much as
anything in terms of just being able to play longer phrases (more
efficient use of the air). Also Riley Lee has some great breathing
exercises for developing lung capacity; I'm not sure if those are
available anywhere (e.g. a website) but someone else might know...
>
> I have always thought of shakuhachi music as the ultimate breath
> sculpture. Duke Ellington said "if it sounds good, it is good". The
> shaku as an instrument is a mirror of your state of being, and will
> tell you (and the rest of the world) right away if you're breathing
> right. This biofeedback is so much better than somebody else's words,
> that if you just concentrate and listen to the sound sculpture you are
> making your breathing will get educated in the process.
>
> At least, that's the way it might be in an ideal world! Autrement dit
> keep puffin' and it'll come.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> try out intuitive instruments for improvisers on www.ii4i.net
> hear my compositions on http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/paulhirsh
-- Karl Young kyoung@slac.stanford.edu SLAC M/S 71 PO Box 20450 Stanford, CA 94309 650-926-3380 (voice)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 03 2003 - 09:09:50 PST