Coming Soon: West Coast Chikuzen Shakuhachi Workshop

Finally I am going to meet my shakuhachi teacher! Michael Gould has organized a weekend workshop and opportunity for private lessons for those of us on the west side of the continent. We going to be meeting for fun times and some great shakuhachi experiences in the lovely city of San Fransico in May.

I've already booked my flights and am practicing full on. With any luck Michael will teach me some of the finer points of Sanya. We'll be in the same room, face to face, and finally, after more than there years of skype lessons, we can play together.

As well I have been practicing Komori Uta, a shakuhachi duet, so that I can play it with a fellow student and friend, Sue. We have already been exchanging sound files (GarageBand on the ipad does a good job of recording and compressing the file making it easy and simple to email out). I feel so motivated to practice by the thought that soon I'll be able to play with other students studying in the same tradition. We have an 'open mic' evening planning in a local Japanese cafe and I'm looking forward to listening to my peers play and learning from them.

Michael has organized two afternoon workshops and it sounds like we are going to have a grand time reviewing pieces from his workbooks and learning one or two new compositions as well.

Being part of the worldwide shakuhachi community is special and being able to meetup with others studying in the same lineage as my teacher is a chance that I'm thrilled to have.

Back from Outriggers and Ukes

Two weeks of sun, paddling turquoise seas, new friends and no shakuhachi, lots of ukulele. Our coach had us at the launch site by 7:30 am meaning that we got up at 6:00 am and watched the day dawn from our lanai overlooking the pacific. Whales blew and breached in the distance as the predawn racing canoe teams silently stoked past the lava shoreline. After a hardy breakfast we gathered our sunglasses, hats and paddles and walked to Keahou bay delighting in the fact that our fleece and gortex paddling clothes had now been replaced with surfer shirts and quick dry tops.

After our coach had briefed us on the day's training routine we rolled the six person outrigger canoes down the launch ramp. It was easy to hit our stride as a team in this climate and our warm ups were short. Crews quickly blended, the pace was swift and as our paddles dipped and pulled in quiet unison as we shot glances across the water for the sight of spinner dolphins, manta rays, turtles or whales.

Paddling was always the highlight or our days but the ukulele fun that we had afterwards was an unexpected bonus for our group. About half of the 25 members or our team gave the four stringed instruments a try and a solid six of us made the commitment to learning to play strum patterns, chords and some simple finger picking. We often had happy hour uke sessions and twice we joined in with the local ukulele players, all 40 or so of them, for their evening meetups.

Meanwhile, back at home, the shakuhachi rested up. They didn't seem to mind the break. Huddled together in the flute basket they dozed and dreamt of sake and sushi. Once I got back from the land of koa paddles and 'ooks' and worked my way past the snorkels, aloha shirts, and empty luggage, I found my 1.8 ready and waiting for a good blow. But, where oh where had I left my embouchure?!

At first I had to find my breath....it seemed rather thin and shallow....and my mouth needed to be reminded of its responsibilities when it came to playing Sanya. It definitely did take a few hours or practice before the flow returned to my shakuhachi. But in the end, the two week break, the longest time away from shakuhachi for me since starting to play a little over three years ago, did not cause much of a set back.

Now it is the ukulele that quietly waits its turn until shaku practice is over before it can once again take the floor carrying the memory of palm trees and warm breezes on its gentle strings.

(Thanks to J. Quinn for the top photo.)

Welcome: Jem Klein

Sun, Sand, Sea and no Shakuhachi

The living room was cluttered with all manner of clothes and gear: surfer shorts, cap, guidebook, sunglasses, uv shirts, sandles, aloha shirts, carbon fibre paddle, waterbottle, camera, and ukulele. Twenty four of us plus our coach were soon to be on our way to a winter paddling holiday.

Warm blue waters, sunny skies and sandy beaches would be a welcome change from our gray, rainy Vancouver winter outrigger canoe paddle practices. For two weeks we would head down to the Kona's Keahou Canoe Club at the crack of dawn every morning to launch the 6 person racing canoes and blast our way out through the surf and onto the huge blue rollers off of the Big Island of Hawaii. We would go to hone our skills as individual paddlers, bond as teammates and, best of all, share some happy times.

The ukulele had nudged aside the shakuhachi for this trip. In fact the ukulele had snuck into my musical world riding on the ama of our outrigger canoe itself! A few of my teammates just happened to mention their interest in the Hawaiian instrument and soon a group of us were on a entertaining journey of discovery as we bought, borrowed and found various ukes. We joined in a few of the local ukulele circles, of which their are numerous here in the Vancouver area, and we met to practice chords and ponder strum patterns. The ultimate goal was to play ukulele on the beach in Hawaii after a long morning of outrigger canoeing. Sounds like a post card dream, you think. We are dreamers and not unaccustomed to making our dreams come true!

Shakuhachi Storage

The big brown sliding door soundlessly slid up and in. The shelf, on its stealth rollers, was devoid of file hangers and their accompanying folders. The base of each shelf was carefully padded. The shakuhachi lay peacefully side by side, easily viewed and most handy for selecting which flute to play on a given day. What a fabulous use for an old discarded four shelf industrial size metal filing cabinet - the perfect storage system for a man with many bamboo flutes.

Twenty Twelve

Fantastic - a new year has begun! Welcome to 2012!

I'm excited about this year. Its going to be a continuation of the previous year which was none too shabby. Of course, nothing really ever 'starts' does it? And nothing ever ends, how could it? So lucky for me, more good times with good friends, good shakuhachi to play, good pieces to learn, good people to play and learn with are likely ahead as they have been this recent past.

That's the best part of shakuhachi for me, the people. The people that I have shakuhachi in common with are more precious to me than all the texture, timbre, volume and tone of the bamboo flute. We do love those qualities of the flute or we wouldn't have been drawn to explore its mysteries but its the people that the bamboo brought me in contact with that have added immeasureably to my life. And its because of my shakuhachi friends and community that I practice and play.

To all my shakuhachi friends near and far, thanks for a great 2011 and may we have a joyful 2012 together.

Honshirabe

Honshirabe 2.65 hocchiku

I'm testing out my SoundCloud account by sharing this sound clip of Honshirabe played on the 2.65 hocchiku flute that I made at last year's shakuhachi making workshop hosted by the BC Shakuhachi Society. Can you hear the recording...is the sound quality acceptable?