Re: [Shaku] an opinion on pitch

From: graham ranft (ranftg@iinet.net.au)
Date: Wed Oct 05 2005 - 14:27:54 PDT


G'day folks from the land of Oz!

Phil Nyokai James said amongst other things

> it is best first to do exactly what your teacher
> says and then work on a piece until you discover its soul for yourself
> -- it may eventually reveal the best way for YOU to play those pitches.

Exactly! This takes time and one of the great things about playing the shakuhachi.
After nearly 9 years at it I am realizing more and more what a very subtle instrument
it is. I am still a beginner...

It takes time to make the piece "ones own" - tecnical fluency is only part
of the story...

I think we tend to get very fixated in the west about making "it perfect".

>Again, though, I think this freedom needs to be allied with an ability
>to produce pitches very precisely

Its something I hope my students will do with my help and something
I constantly work on.

>4. Through listening to a lot of very good shakuhachi players you pick
> up a pitch vocabulary. It may be a wide vocabulary, including the pitch
> deviations of many lineages and individuals. But there will be some
> overarching MUSICAL consistency, and an internal consciousness --
> perhaps unarticulated -- of what these differences mean.

I am becoming interested in Myoan lineage and way of playing
and since there are few teachers in Oz I have to listen to recordings
to 'get the pitch' and the subtle nuances.

Stan Richardson talks about finding "ones U".

>I think the same thing can happen with shakuhachi,
> as long as you keep working on the technical ability to play any
> imaginable pitch and the musical ability to hear small differences.

Quite.

Thanks James for a very interesting post!

:-)

deep bows to you all!

graham

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