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I happened upon the passage quoted below in some work I'm doing on the
fifteenth-century Noh master Zeami. After a great, if at times
exhausting, experience at the Rocky Mountain Shakuhachi Summer Camp, it
seems to me that what he has to say regarding the relationship between
practicing and performance might have some relevance for aspirants to
shakuhachi performance, so, even though the passage is a bit long, I am
sending it to you all on the shakuhachi lists.
Best regards,
Tom Hare
*****
Item; matters to take to heart in the training of beginners. In
practicing alone, exercising the voice and singing, even though you may
be all by yourself, in private, you should, all the same, think of
yourself as appearing before exalted persons, and adopt the proper
attitude for a fully formal performance, and sing whatever you've chosen
that way. Maintain a formal posture, establish the correct pitch from
the start, and be resolute in both mind and body that this is an
appearance before a large and actual audience; don't for a minute think
it's just a private matter, but take a vow in your heart, and sing as if
it were an occasion of the greatest importance. Once you have resolved
your mind in this manner, then your training will proceed correctly and
no matter how great the audience, you will not falter or suffer from
stage fright; this is a method whereby you may avoid blunders and
misjudgments regarding the measure of your abilities.
. . . .
As you train like this and study in the most comprehensive way, you
should, as I said before, regard private practice or, for that matter,
singing in any traveling performance off the beaten track, as if it were
a formal performance before exalted persons; then, when you are actually
called upon to do a command performance on an important occasion, you
won't be worried about your exalted audience, but instead have
confidence in the power of mind you have cultivated in mastering the
matter of your training; you will be able to regard the perceptions of a
vast audience, with pristine confidence, as a single pair of eyes, and
sing away, thinking メfirst pitch, second ki, third voice.
from Fuugyokushuu, (風曲集）
(ki is more familiar, perhaps, as the Chinese qi, "the spirit of the
breath," sort of, although the reason I don't translate it into English
proper is because I don't think there really is a good English
equivalent.)
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<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>
I happened upon the passage quoted below in some work I'm doing on the
fifteenth-century Noh master Zeami. After a great, if at times
exhausting, experience at the Rocky Mountain Shakuhachi Summer Camp, it
seems to me that what he has to say regarding the relationship between
practicing and performance might have some relevance for aspirants to shakuhachi
performance, so, even though the passage is a bit long, I am sending it
to you all on the shakuhachi lists.
<p>Best regards,
<br>Tom Hare
<p>*****
<p>Item; matters to take to heart in the training of beginners. In
practicing alone, exercising the voice and singing, even though you may
be all by yourself, in private, you should, all the same, think of yourself
as appearing before exalted persons, and adopt the proper attitude for
a fully formal performance, and sing whatever you've chosen that way.
Maintain a formal posture, establish the correct pitch from the start,
and be resolute in both mind and body that this is an appearance before
a large and actual audience; don't for a minute think it's just a private
matter, but take a vow in your heart, and sing as if it were an occasion
of the greatest importance. Once you have resolved your mind in this
manner, then your training will proceed correctly and no matter how great
the audience, you will not falter or suffer from stage fright; this
is a method whereby you may avoid blunders and misjudgments regarding the
measure of your abilities.
<p>. . . .
<p>As you train like this and study in the most comprehensive way, you
should, as I said before, regard private practice or, for that matter,
singing in any traveling performance off the beaten track, as if it were
a formal performance before exalted persons; then, when you are actually
called upon to do a command performance on an important occasion, you won't
be worried about your exalted audience, but instead have confidence in
the power of mind you have cultivated in mastering the matter of your training;
you will be able to regard the perceptions of a vast audience, with pristine
confidence, as a single pair of eyes, and sing away, thinking メfirst pitch,
second <u>ki</u>, third voice.
<p>from <u>Fuugyokushuu</u>, (風曲集）
<p>(<u>ki</u> is more familiar, perhaps, as the Chinese <u>qi</u>, "the
spirit of the breath," sort of, although the reason I don't translate it
into English proper is because I don't think there really is a good English
equivalent.)</html>
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