Kyle meets Takeo & Yamaguchi Goro’s Shakuhachi! I met Takeo at Yamaguchi san’s house. Yamaguchi’s practice was to schedule students in such a way as to have a few lined up and observing him and the current student receiving the lesson. That way, a student could actually have two or more lessons in one, so to speak. … Continue reading…
Play by heart
If you can’t remember melody very well, you are like me and rely on reading notation. If you are like my son and can you play by heart. Paying attention may be more challenging if you read then if you play by heart. That’s not a bad thing of course.… Continue reading…
Yamaguchi San
I was going to name this post The Real Lesson, but somehow that felt a little off base, so I named it after my shakuhachi flute teacher, Yamaguchi Goro. This photo is of him and Aoki Reibo playing a beautiful suizen piece, Shika No Tohne (The Distant Cry of Deer). To see this performance, see: Yamaguchi Goro Shika No Tohne.
I studied with Mr. Yamaguchi in Japan, learning as much suizen ( blowing zen one breath one mind) as I could in a few short years. He taught me well, but I must say it took decades for the ‘heart of it’ to begin to sink in. The funny thing with perfection is that it knows no end.
The reason I was going to name this post something like “The Real Lesson” was that the most important ‘lesson’ I learned while studying with him had nothing to do with playing the shakuhachi. This is one of numerous times that I have found the greatest opportunity where I least expected it.
One day my awareness really zeroed in on him as he was placing the cap on his flute. It was perfection in action, patient, deliberate, and a wonderful example of chapter 63’s, Do without doing (wéi wú wéi 为无为). More over, it was a perfect, spontaneous example of chapter 43’s, Not of words teaching, Without action advantage (不言之教,无为之益).
Interesting for me is that I also realized I had no idea if his action was actually as perfectly ‘Do without doing’ as it appeared. How could I know either way? Not only is beauty in the eye of the beholder, so also is the ‘lesson seen and learned’. Our ‘teachers’ of life are everywhere, in every-thing and no-thing, at every moment of life. The times we suspend desire and belief may well be the only true opportunities we have to learn the “Not of words teaching”. That’s when the blind spot vanishes.
Cave Man Shakuhachi?
A Science News article, Stone Age flutes found in Germany, reports that people living in Europe more than 35,000 years ago made this flute (shown from three different angles) out of a vulture bone. The magnified portion of the flute at the right provides a closer look at two of the flute’s finger holes.… Continue reading…
Find the Zen in the blowing
I imagine everyone is naturally both over-rigorous and under-rigorous… just in different areas, according to their natures. It is when over or under rigor causes pain for us that it becomes problematic. The pain we feel is a symptom of the loss of balance into which we have fallen. We yearn for balance, even if we don’t know it.… Continue reading…
Correction to my recording of Hi Fu Mi:
In the book “Blowing Zen” CD, Hi Fu Mi, Track 24
Online Hi Fu Mi(Complete), MP3
Refer to page B12 of “Blowing Zen”, #111-115, and #131-134. I played both these sections with the meri tone dropping down to o-meri. Alas, the ‘correct’ way is to play the first, #111 with the meri tone rising up to kari, as the chart shows. The other one, #131, is correct.… Continue reading…
Music for Those with No Musical Talent?
Yes! Of the Buddhist Hon Kyoku this is true. What you do need, however, is to pay attention. Yet, you don’t even need to do that. Of course, if you don’t really listen to what you are doing, you will not enjoy what you are doing. This makes playing Hon Kyoku a practical means of training watchfulness in non-stimulating situations. Paying attention when there are no environmental conditions to trigger need, desire, fear, or worry is most useful, I find. The bonus: your improved listening ability (mindful watching) naturally taps into your hidden musical talent, much of which centers around listening!
Kumoi Ji Shi
Keep the same rhythm pretty much throughout, except for the usual slow down at the end. The piece feels like it is stepping up the pace, but actually, it is just the increasing inclusion of 1/4 beat notes… well, perhaps its pace steps up a bit compared to the very Hon Kyoku beginning.