Awakening of Shakuhachi II

In sharing about "awakening" my Shakuhachi, I thought I'd better share some technical tips to make it less abstract. This is not expert advice but based on personal experience, which means it can be highly subjective due to various factors such as instrument used, learner's body type and conditions, degree of sensitivity in interception and proprioception, and even interpretations of what is written here. Indeed a teacher's presence would help make it an experiential learning rather than a conceptual or academic exercise.

Breath Support

Any body posture or positioning that limits air flow should be fine tuned. Most learners would know that chesty breath is not advised as it is shallow and would not sustain for long phrasings of music. What we're less familiar with is that the in-breath should not be just an abdominal movement. Tips are often given to check for abdominal movement but in fact many more areas will move, to different degrees, when the diaphragm is activated. This includes the sides around the ribcage; imagine a wide inflatable belt around the waist, including the abdomen. Apparently the term "belly" breathing is different from diaphragmatic rib-cage breathing and thus can lead to misunderstandings.

The other aspect that I was taught and also realised, is that just doing diaphragmatic breathing is not sufficient, especially when trying to play the higher octaves on the Shakuhachi or Xiao 箫. As a beginner, hitting the higher Kan 甲 register was straight forward if practised as a single note on its own. And I happily assumed I could join the dots and enjoy taking on more advanced pieces. Instead I faced more struggles as follows:

• Shifting from lower Otsu 乙 to Kan 甲 note while playing on the same exhale within a few bars of music: 
• the volume jumps suddenly
• the higher note becomes unstable, e.g., windy, incorrect pitch (often overblown)
• there is insufficient breath to "push" to the upper register and so it fizzles out
• The score says to play softly, e.g., piano for a Kan note within the phrasing:
• the note could barely be produced
• the note goes beyond the dynamic/volume required

The challenges are due to two key factors: unstable embouchure, and lack of breath support. Let's stay with the topic of breath support for now.

What had been lacking for me is the appropriate tension in the "belt" area mentioned above. It's relatively easy to do a one time powerful blow and thus produce a Kan note regardless of the level of refinement in embouchure. The trick is in understanding this elementary equation:

Speed = Distance / Time

Higher notes require overtones to be activated by higher speed air across the blowing edge (utaguchi 歌口). When we use a powerful exhale (while we're still fresh from a recent inhale), we cause the air to rush at sufficient speed to cause a higher frequency vibration at the blowing edge. Essentially we shortened the Time variable in the equation to up the Speed. But this is at great cost as a larger volume of air is lost, which explains why we can't sustain a long high note with this method.

To overcome this, a finer embouchure is needed. If we gently close down the aperture of our lips to a smaller slit, the expulsion of air would speed up naturally. It's the common phenomenon we see when we squeeze on the end of a water hose causing it to expel water more quickly and thus farther. Now the trick here is to tension the "belt" area so that the exhale is controlled. There’re probably some formulas involving air flow pressure to explain this but that's a little more complicated. So for high notes, my mantra is: relax the upper body, hold the note with the lower body.

Another obstacle comes from the Xiao teaching literature where higher registers are described as needing 急吹 (rushed blow) and 超吹 (over blow). Unfortunately these are precisely what Xiao and Shakuhachi players need to avoid. I’ve heard that these terminologies were borrowed from the Dizi 笛子 pedagogy, likewise my Shakuhachi teacher had also shared on the need to blow "harder" for the Dizi based on his experience as a Dizi player/teacher prior to learning the Shakuhachi.

Relaxed Embouchure

This was probably the most challenging for me, especially in trying to do the following:

• sustaining good quality high register notes (as described earlier)
• sustaining a resonant low register note
• obtaining a blasting Ro ロ note

Subconsciously when I see Kan notes, especially the upper Kan (チハヒ) and Dai Kan 大甲, I would tense up my mouth area and finger grip. Basically there is lack of confidence in getting a clean correct pitch at the onset which then brings on a stress reaction. 

The way to counter this is with regular practice of long tones including the higher registers. The drills help condition the tiny facial muscles and program the embouchure shifts into muscle memory. It sounds simple but it is tedious and requires diligence.

Language can be a handicap at times. What I mean by relaxed should not be equated to a collapsed state. Chinese language has this term called 松而不散, which I feel captures this essence of having suppleness and not losing structure. Viewing Taijiquan 太极拳 might give you a hint of this, a balance of hardness and softness.

In terms of embouchure, my lips are neither pursed nor pouted, and they are brought together naturally. Exhaled air is released as the aperture closes and occasionally I let the lips gently pop open (minimise the popping sound) especially for high register notes. Master Winson Liao describes in the first 3 minutes of his video (below) on this, emphasising how the inner lips' surface (内唇) is what acts as a smooth straight conduit for the expelled air. Even though the video shows the Xiao, I found it applicable to the Shakuhachi too. This gives a more precise method of focusing the air stream compared to pursed lips which causes the air to go out in disarray.

I see that there is often attention placed on embouchure but less on the other mechanisms around the mouth. Firstly I find the “gentle smile” tip misleading for Shakuhachi, in fact it feels more like a “gentle frown” for me to get good tone and resonance. The logic is this, the blowing edge of a Shakuhachi is flat, unlike the Xiao or Dizi. So to maximise alignment of expelled air onto a wider section of the edge, the mouth aperture should be close to flat, or rectangular as my teacher advised. Thus a no-smile or slight frown plus natural lips closure gets you there. Go look at Shakuhachi masters’ performances and you’ll notice they mostly don't wear a happy face (good music is hard work).

The throat and back of mouth cavity play an important role too. One tip often heard is to imagine holding a small ball at the back of the mouth. The difficulty is in gauging how big that imaginary ball should be. My advice is not to over strain, and just remember the principle is in keeping the throat passage open so there’s minimal resistance for the air flowing up from the lungs. I prefer another tip that asks you to feel your yawn and how it opens up the mouth-throat area, at least it provides an experiential reference point. I found that having this openness in the mouth cavity also opened up my tone quality: better resonance and volume. So while doing this, we have to keep the embouchure steady.

Summary

These are general ideas that need experimentation to find your personal sweet spot. For example, I would let my lower lip be at ease while slightly tensing the upper lip. Somehow that gives me an optimal sound quality for both low and high registers. These are internal sensations that I use as a personal guide but likely would not work for others. Just as with life, we learn better through trials and making corrections to steer us on the right track. Fortunately the outcomes are not that elusive, the sound of success is clear and unmistakable.