My father-in-law has two main hobbies: one is pottery and the other is playing the shakuhachi (尺八). Almost exactly four years ago he started teaching me how to play. Almost exactly three years ago I was hit by a car while cycling. One of the saddest parts of that was how it knocked a lot of the creativity and inspiration out of me. After that I put the instrument down for a long time and took care of other, less creative things; however, this week – mostly thanks to my kitten – the shakuhachi is back in my hands.
Monday I made sure I could still make sounds and then practiced the basic notes. Tuesday I ran through several fingering exercises and played one song. Today I practiced all the fingering exercises and played a couple songs. Running out of breath and getting dizzy is the most significant trouble right now. One small problem is that my soul patch is too bushy and makes it hard to keep the instrument in the right location. Judicious use of scissors will correct the small problem. Hopefully daily practice will correct the other.
Tags: accident, health, Japan, kitten, mental-health, Mie, recovery, shakuhachi, tradition, Tsu, wife, 尺八
2012年 8月 1日 at 20:09:52 |
Congratulations! I love Shakuhachi flute, unfortunatelly here in my country one can’t buy such instrument, less find a teacher… I have a chinese Xiao flute, a remote relative of Shakuhachi flute, and am trying to learn by myself (with a book/VCD chinese method), but not with too much succes I guess…
2012年 12月 20日 at 13:16:50 |
I haven’t visited in a looong time and LOVE THIS! Seriously need a vid. I am dying to acquire and learn the erhu….
2013年 1月 4日 at 10:35:38 |
Video would be nice indeed. So far, I have only done photos – no video nor audio – perhaps something to look into in the future.
I also haven’t visited in a long time. Personally demoralizing stuff has been dragging me down. This year I am resolved “to live”. I sometimes felt like I was shutting down and it is hard to post on the blog when I am uninspired.
2013年 1月 12日 at 04:13:00 |
I love your resolution and will stand resolved with you. I’m claiming 2013 as my year of HEALING!!!!!!
2013年 1月 12日 at 18:33:20 |
I looked up erhu and found it is what we call niko in Japanese. A friend at church plays one (a little). She played Christmas carols for us this year.