Good morning, gentlemen!
I`m Rachael, currently living in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. We`re home to
Kodo, a famous Taiko drumming group that some of you may have heard of.
I was introduced to Shakuhachi 2 years ago when an alumnae of my college
gave a free shakuhachi performance. I was enchanted, and decided I wanted to
learn shakuhachi when I got to Japan. I got here a year ago and was promptly
told that shakuhachi was much too hard... why don`t I learn to play a
`simple` instrument like koto? (Koto? Simple? What were they smoking?!) So I
was detered for a year, but in the end my deep love for anything resembling
a flute won.
At Kodo`s 3 day music-festival last week I found a booth selling Shakuhachi.
Though most were priced near $1,000 there was one beautiful little flute for
the economical price of $50! She`s a little 1.6, making her extremely easy
to play. The maker informed me that he made a mistake when making the flute,
the higher octive is a little sharp, so he sold her to me for only $40. So
I`m now the proud owner of a wonderful little ji-nashi, nobe shakuhachi. She
may not be concert quality, but she`ll do just fine as a practice flute.
I`m still looking for a teacher (I`ve informed my Japanese friends to ask
around for me, and I`ll be visiting music stores this weekend to ask around)
but it shouldn`t be too hard. Everyone is always so shocked to see me
practicing. They honestly believe shakuhachi is a truely difficult
instrument, they find it amazing that I can get any sound at all. They find
it hard to believe that gaijin can play it!
Looking forward to talking with you all. I`d love some recommendations on
some good English self-study books, to help my understand my teacher. What
do you recommend? Where can I find it cheaply?
~Rachael
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