March 1998

More on Blowing Ro

It has now been one year since I began this Shakuhachi Tips column. I hope it is helpful to at least some people. For this month’s tip, I would like to return to the basics and talk about blowing Ro again.

Is there anybody out there who has blown Ro every day for 10 minutes for this past year? It sounds easy, but is very hard in practice to accomplish over time, which is why Watazumi said that “Whoever blows Ro 10 minutes a day can become a master.”

I think many people find it difficult to continue this practice because they see it as merely practicing Ro, which would indeed be boring. Instead, how fruitful it will be depends on how honestly you can observe yourself and how inventive and creative you can be in your investigation of your own playing.

Here are some things to question yourself about:

• Where is your mouth too tense?
• How is the breath stream hitting the blowing edge?
• Why don’t your notes start out the way they should?
• Why don’t your notes end the way they should?
• Why can’t you play with enough volume?
• What happens when you shift the flute just slightly off kilter on purpose?
• How long can you play one extended note (softly OK)?
• Can you use up all your breath in 3 seconds? How about 2?
• Looking at the mirror, do your arms or hands have excess tension in them?
• How is your posture?
• How does your individual flute’s pitch change as it gets warmed up?
• How does this differ in summer and winter?
• How can you get the tone color of Katsuya Yokoyama? How about Goro Yamaguchi?
• It’s easy to get a good Ro when you’re warmed up, but how do you get one first time you blow through the flute?
• Etc etc etc.........

There’s way too much to do in a mere 10 minutes!

By investigating your own playing relentlessly, and by using creativity and ingenuity, you can become your own best teacher.

I heard that a world-famous baseball team in Cuba is forbidden from practicing when the coach isn’t there, because repeating bad habits will cause them to become ingrained and incurable. Shakuhahci is the same way, but it is impossible to have someone looking over our shoulder all the time. Instead, we must become our own most stern teacher.

Are we always playing our best? How can we play better? It is this attitude that blowing Ro cultivates. Never think of it as just practicing a single note.