@@MarkusGuhe I knew about long note practice but until encountering robuki, I could not motivate myself to practice long notes. Watching experienced players practice robuki motivates me to focus more on my fundamentals. It's fascinating how one can make just one single note into a beautiful thing. Do you practice robuki for the higher octaves as well?
@@muzik-practice-logs I'm glad I could help motivate you a bit! 🙂 Practising the fundamentals is crucial to progress on shakuhachi, and controlling the tone colour is absolutely vital. Just to clarify: 'robuki' literally means 'blowing ro', 'ro' meaning that all finger holes are completely closed. That is the tone for which it is most difficult to get a good sound, so the practice tends to focus on that. But I find long note practice useful for other notes as well. The very high notes are also not easy, so it helps practising those regularly as well.
Happy New Year! I'm glad I could help you in getting your first Rickrolling of 2023 out of the way. Now there is no need to stress about this issue any more for a whole year! 😂
Thank you … very helpful. I do like the unscripted, unpolished videos. In the meri practice it seemed that sometimes instead of a head movement the meri note was achieved by finger placement alone. Were you shading for some meri notes or using a different whole note finger placement? When using head movement for meri notes does the embouchure or air stream change independent of head movement?
Thanks for the nice words! 🙏 Oh, so many questions! 🙂 I really always use a combination of head angle and half-holing. It’s possible to play some meri notes just by half-holing, but this is just my habit. However, when I say ‘head angle’ this includes changing the distance from utaguchi to lips (which is what really changes the pitch), which can be done by changing the position of the flute or the shape of the lips. It’s not so obvious to see though. The air stream always gets weaker for meri notes.
Thanks you ! I really like this kind of video. When we try to learn alone, it is common to wonder if our routine is correct. Now I know it is! 😂 Only one question: why Honshirabe systematically?
You’re very welcome! 🙏 Well, I guess there are two main reasons. Honshirabe is a very basic piece (as the name says), so it’s a good way to go through many fundamental honkyoku techniques as a ‘transition’ to actually playing music during a practice session. And there are also the stories of komuso playing this piece their whole life (probably not exclusively, but still), and I just somehow like the idea of continuing this tradition.
Enjoyed playing along with ‘secret’ practice. Still v hard to get up to pitch after 15 months. For the exercises would you recommend relaxing to A 435 for a time or just plug on? I also notice at end of your long note your head goes down a bit not up, or is it sideways letting a bit of a gap to the side?
You should aim for the pitch that the flute is made for, mostly this would be 440 or 442 in modern flutes. If you use a lower pitch that's no problem for the base notes, but it makes using meri much more difficult, because you only have a limited way to go down. Yes, when my head seems to go down, I'm opening the top hole on the side or the back; it's just a bit easier to control this way.
Thanks for the tips. The technique exercises are great for warm ups. However I’m concerned over the approach to robuki after the 5th minute. The gulping down of air would inevitably lead to hyperventilation, which beginners would often face and can be detrimental to progress. Also to get steady strong breath, it’s good to have solid grounding with feet firmly planted (standing) or posture stable and upright (sitting). So trying to play on a cushion might be an interesting exercise in balancing but not sure if beginners should be guided to do so. 🙏
Thanks! 🙏 I didn’t mean the ‘cushion’ comment as a suggestion for beginners, just an explanation why I was bouncing a lot. Good posture is important, as you say, but the way I was taught, you basically have to figure this one out for yourself, so I don't comment on it a lot. My list of things to aim for are: being relaxed, being able to breathe easily, having a stable core. But as for how you do these, there’s no 'one size fits all’, I think.
I personally tend to think that Robukys are the right and proper opportunity to check out and see what is the amount of air being lost by the improper use of lip focus (angle of the instrument + control of the flow). As I heard once in a powerful little masterclass,, ''Shakuhachi is less about what you put in it,, it's more about what you can save in order to play better and longer notes'' 😇
@@jeanpierrecarpentier Hm, how about this statement: ‘The more you put into the shakuhachi, the more you get out of it’? 😉 Sorry, I’m not meaning to make fun of this, but actually (oversimplifying a lot) wanting to be efficient is the enemy of a good tone on shakuhachi. It is true that over time it’s possible to get more efficient when producing a good tone, but with a narrow (and typical tight) embouchure it is all but impossible to get a good tone. Put differently: The statement you’re citing is correct, but so is the one I made above. As with many things in shakuhachi, it sounds contradictory, but it really is not. 😇
@@MarkusGuhe I think that if someone puts more than he can control soundwise speaking, he fights against the instrument and against himself. I guess it is a matter of balance as usual. :)
It's a secret shakuhachi technique! 😉 Seriously: I'm opening the top hole at the back/side even if the head goes down, so this actually is kari. The pitch is just a bit easier to control this way.
Thank you Markus!
I've been practicing my Shakuhachi since this february but failed to find a daily warmup routine until now! :)
That's great to hear! 😀
Thank you, Markus! It was a great lesson! 😀
Thank you! 😃
This was a very useful video indeed! Thanks Markus
You're welcome. Glad it was helpful! 🙏
I am trying to learn the indian bansuri flute. The idea of "robuki" is fascinating and I am adopting it to improve my tone on the bansuri.
Great that you found this useful! 🙂 Long note practice is very common for wind instruments!
@@MarkusGuhe I knew about long note practice but until encountering robuki, I could not motivate myself to practice long notes. Watching experienced players practice robuki motivates me to focus more on my fundamentals. It's fascinating how one can make just one single note into a beautiful thing.
Do you practice robuki for the higher octaves as well?
@@muzik-practice-logs I'm glad I could help motivate you a bit! 🙂 Practising the fundamentals is crucial to progress on shakuhachi, and controlling the tone colour is absolutely vital. Just to clarify: 'robuki' literally means 'blowing ro', 'ro' meaning that all finger holes are completely closed. That is the tone for which it is most difficult to get a good sound, so the practice tends to focus on that. But I find long note practice useful for other notes as well. The very high notes are also not easy, so it helps practising those regularly as well.
@@MarkusGuhe Thank you for clarifying that!
Some new patterns for my practice! Awesome! Thanks!
You're so welcome! 🙏
amazing video, I picked up my shakuhachi and practiced with you, very very helpful. Thank you
Thank you, that's great to hear! 🙏 It's actually the main reason for this channel: To get you to pick up the shakuhachi! 🙂
Thank you for this, it is helpful!
You're very welcome! I'm glad it's helpful! 🙏
Thanks for some a very useful set of exercises 😇
You're welcome 😊
Amazing! I got Rick rolled in the new year. Happy New year! Keep em coming
Happy New Year! I'm glad I could help you in getting your first Rickrolling of 2023 out of the way. Now there is no need to stress about this issue any more for a whole year! 😂
15:20 16:38 20:28 22:59
Thanks, very useful! 😀
@@MarkusGuhe
Deine Videos sind very useful👍
@@ottokarvonschnallenburg2572 Prima, das freut mich zu hören! 🙏
Thank you … very helpful. I do like the unscripted, unpolished videos. In the meri practice it seemed that sometimes instead of a head movement the meri note was achieved by finger placement alone. Were you shading for some meri notes or using a different whole note finger placement? When using head movement for meri notes does the embouchure or air stream change independent of head movement?
Thanks for the nice words! 🙏
Oh, so many questions! 🙂 I really always use a combination of head angle and half-holing. It’s possible to play some meri notes just by half-holing, but this is just my habit. However, when I say ‘head angle’ this includes changing the distance from utaguchi to lips (which is what really changes the pitch), which can be done by changing the position of the flute or the shape of the lips. It’s not so obvious to see though.
The air stream always gets weaker for meri notes.
Thanks you ! I really like this kind of video. When we try to learn alone, it is common to wonder if our routine is correct. Now I know it is! 😂 Only one question: why Honshirabe systematically?
You’re very welcome! 🙏 Well, I guess there are two main reasons. Honshirabe is a very basic piece (as the name says), so it’s a good way to go through many fundamental honkyoku techniques as a ‘transition’ to actually playing music during a practice session. And there are also the stories of komuso playing this piece their whole life (probably not exclusively, but still), and I just somehow like the idea of continuing this tradition.
@@MarkusGuhe 🙏😊
Enjoyed playing along with ‘secret’ practice. Still v hard to get up to pitch after 15 months. For the exercises would you recommend relaxing to A 435 for a time or just plug on? I also notice at end of your long note your head goes down a bit not up, or is it sideways letting a bit of a gap to the side?
You should aim for the pitch that the flute is made for, mostly this would be 440 or 442 in modern flutes. If you use a lower pitch that's no problem for the base notes, but it makes using meri much more difficult, because you only have a limited way to go down.
Yes, when my head seems to go down, I'm opening the top hole on the side or the back; it's just a bit easier to control this way.
Thanks for the tips. The technique exercises are great for warm ups. However I’m concerned over the approach to robuki after the 5th minute. The gulping down of air would inevitably lead to hyperventilation, which beginners would often face and can be detrimental to progress. Also to get steady strong breath, it’s good to have solid grounding with feet firmly planted (standing) or posture stable and upright (sitting). So trying to play on a cushion might be an interesting exercise in balancing but not sure if beginners should be guided to do so. 🙏
Thanks! 🙏 I didn’t mean the ‘cushion’ comment as a suggestion for beginners, just an explanation why I was bouncing a lot. Good posture is important, as you say, but the way I was taught, you basically have to figure this one out for yourself, so I don't comment on it a lot. My list of things to aim for are: being relaxed, being able to breathe easily, having a stable core. But as for how you do these, there’s no 'one size fits all’, I think.
I personally tend to think that Robukys are the right and proper opportunity to check out and see what is the amount of air being lost by the improper use of lip focus (angle of the instrument + control of the flow). As I heard once in a powerful little masterclass,, ''Shakuhachi is less about what you put in it,, it's more about what you can save in order to play better and longer notes'' 😇
@@jeanpierrecarpentier Hm, how about this statement: ‘The more you put into the shakuhachi, the more you get out of it’? 😉 Sorry, I’m not meaning to make fun of this, but actually (oversimplifying a lot) wanting to be efficient is the enemy of a good tone on shakuhachi. It is true that over time it’s possible to get more efficient when producing a good tone, but with a narrow (and typical tight) embouchure it is all but impossible to get a good tone.
Put differently: The statement you’re citing is correct, but so is the one I made above. As with many things in shakuhachi, it sounds contradictory, but it really is not. 😇
@@MarkusGuhe I think that if someone puts more than he can control soundwise speaking, he fights against the instrument and against himself. I guess it is a matter of balance as usual. :)
@@jeanpierrecarpentier Very well put; I couldn’t agree more! 🙂
12 minutes in speaking of kari at end of note but head goes down - meri?
It's a secret shakuhachi technique! 😉 Seriously: I'm opening the top hole at the back/side even if the head goes down, so this actually is kari. The pitch is just a bit easier to control this way.