November 1997

After Meri

Up until this point I've give advice solely on how to meri further. This is because meris tend to be high. However, what is truly important is to play the notes with precision. It is just as much a mistake to meri too much as not enough. It is easy to meri Ri-meri or Chi-meri too far, for instance, while you almost never see anyone who plays their Tsu-meris or Ro-dai-meris too low.

An integral part of playing precisely is what happens after the meri note. Just as meris tend to be too high, the note after a meri tends to be too low. Take the phrase Re / Tsu-meri / Re, for example. It is very common for the second Re to be lower than the first. This is because playing the Tsu-meri makes your mouth, chin position, etc. into a "meri-friendly" mode. Even if you think you are playing the second Re correctly, there is a good chance it is being pulled down by the influence of the meri note before it. This trap is easy to fall into.

In order to make sure that the second Re is the same pitch as the first one, you actually have to play it much higher than you think you need to. If you kari it as though you want to play it higher than the first, chances are you will end up at just the right pitch, or the same note as the first Re. This compensation must become natural and automatic.

Experiment with a tuner. On a 1.8 flute the Re should be a G and Tsu-meri should be a D-sharp. If you play the second Re in succession, without stopping, there is a good chance you will see that it is indeed lower than the first one. Try this again, then pull the shakuhachi away from your mouth and play a Re again. Is it the same pitch as the first Re in the experiment above? I bet it is. If your second Re is lower than the first one - and again this is true for a great many people - then that is because it is being influenced by the Tsu-meri. You must try to play a significantly higher Re the second time to get back to the pitch of the first note.

It is crucial to play your meris low enough, but it is just as important to kari sufficiently back to your baseline pitch. Practice it with a tuner, then practice using your ear alone. In addition to the Re / Tsu-meri / Re sequence, Chi / Ri-meri / Chi and Ro / Tsu-meri / Ro are also good to practice.

Like the violin, the shakuhachi is an instrument for which it is possible to play a note incorrectly even with the right fingering. This can happen when one note influences another, which is why sometimes you have to compensate even beyond what you might think is necessary. No notes are merely given to you on the shakuhachi - you have to make each one individually.