Blogstop.com

Well that was a nice little unintended 2 month haitus. Blogstop indeed.

Been busy. Mostly doing the Bateaux still, with some Quinn Lemley gigs thrown in.

Sensei Jim is in Japan with some members of the dojo (those that could afford the $3K price tag) for a three week visit. He does this almost every year. It sounds pretty amazing. They visit some of the temples that these shakuhachi pieces come from and also they get to hear and play with a few shakuhachi players over there.

So, as I am one of the students approaching the teaching level (after 4 1/2 years), I was tapped to fill in teaching for Jim on Monday the 6th. I had five students, down from the planned 6, due to a cancellation.

It was a good step for me because teaching is something that I think I would like to do in the future. The next challenge for me is to be able to read these pieces upside down.

During the lessons, the student and teacher sit facing one another with the music in between, facing up and toward the student (of course). Which means that the teacher gets to read it upside down and backwards (the music is written top to bottom, right to left). One day I'll finish my shakuhachi webpage and explain everything in more detail.

But teaching is really great for your playing. Besides the obvious benefit of having the flute at your mouth for hours on end, the process of familiarization and internalization of these pieces is the thing that can really move you to the next level of understanding of this amazing music.

And, I gotta say, I picked up the silver flute today and could really feel the benefit there as well. The sound was deeper and fuller, the fingers seemed looser and ready to move and the western notation (I played through the Bach flute sonata in g minor) seems like a piece of cake after reading some of that 3rd level Gaikyoku (Wakana was the highest level piece that I played Monday).

I promise not to let another two months go by before checking in again...