
One of the daily Exercises we recommend you do before playing. Try to do it on other notes as well. Practice octaves as well
A Quieter Honkyoku that is still challenging play. Ro Omeri are particularly difficult to play. Try the best that you can do and listen to the song several times to get the melody in your head. It will help you create the sounds that you need and the correct pitch.
Second part of the song. Make sure to practice the first part before moving to this section. You will have some Chi Ru techniques that you will need to refine. Also again Ro Oumeri to master. Pay attention to the notes that are played after Meri notes as they tend to be played to low.
After practicing both parts, we are putting this together and have some continuity in the melody. you have to focus on the song and try to memorize the song to be able to play it and focus on the main lines and the song.
start with a simpler melody line and as you progress in your study, you will have more freedom in adding some little decoration without losing sight of the main lines of the song.
A video to help you out repair any cracks that you might have on a bamboo flute. The video shows you a Fue, but we use the same technique for Shakuhachi. Make sure to let the wet cloth overnight to close the crack and then put the tie on to repair the bamboo.
This lesson is made to help you write the shakuhachi notations and learn some of the new ones that appear in Honkyoku. There is a specific order in writing Katakana and Kanji. This video will help you writing the characters correctly.
You will learn to play a Honkyoku on the Shakuhachi. Here we are focusing on Shingetsu, in this course. Shingetsu is a Honkyoku that has some level of difficulty as it introduces some new techniques such as RO Oumeri and the notes: Ho and Chi RU and other techniques. This song is a great way to get used to these new techniques that will get more intricate in other Honkyoku. A Honkyoku is one of the harder music to play on the Shakuhachi. We recommend that you first take the easier lessons to develop some playing skills before moving to this harder song.
So I recommend you start with the simpler songs from our first lectures before moving on to these pieces. Some sections with meri and Oumeri are difficult, you might not be able to get it right away, but try through practice to get closest to it as possible. It will take some time, it is also a good idea to come back to it through your practice as the song will make more and more sense each time you go back to it.
We have several videos as a bonus to learn to read and write the music and also a video to help you warm up before playing. We also included a short warm-up video in each of the lessons. Let us know if you encounter any difficulties and we will try our best to help you.
These songs should be played hundreds of times if not thousands of times to really grasp the song. Each player will make the song his/her own.
I recommend learning to write music as well. Try to rewrite the score yourself. It is a great exercise to memorize the notation and later be able to write your own music in Shakuhachi notation.
Don't expect sudden results, this is a slow process and needs patience and lots of practice. So have fun with it and discover a new world of music through these two songs.