B-11.Don't Just Blow
Do you ever feel when playing a song that your sound isn't as good as it could be?
For example, when blowing Ro you can make a great booming sound, but that sound eludes you just when you need it during a performance? Are your notes following meri not as clean, sharp, and loud as you want them? When you change volumes,does the tone color change more than you want it to?
If you are straining just to produce the notes, then most likely neither you nor anybody listening is going to feel magic in your playing.
What I am pointing to is this: You need to keep good pitch, but you also need to make the shakuhachi sing. For each note within each shakuhachi, there is a place to blow where the flute will resonate optimally. Find this spot for each note, and you will be able to elicit the best sound your shakuhachi can give you with a minimum of effort (breath).
I don't mean that you should try to get the loudest possible sound all the time.Each note has an appropriate volume and color within the phrase, which hitting each note efficiently will help you to achieve. To do this, you need to make the flute sing, or resonate, just where it wants to for each note.
This is far from easy. Finding the place within the flute where breath is most efficiently converted into sound is challenging enough for loud notes, but even harder for soft notes. Like everything, trial and error is required. (And patience!)
Ten minutes of blowing Ro a day is a good opportunity to practice this. Do not just try to blow as loudly as possible for as long as possible; instead check to see that you are blowing efficiently at all volumes. Are you hitting the place within the shakuhachi where breath is most efficiently transformed into sound?If you get this down for Ro, you'll find it easier for other notes as well.
Finally,one image that may be of use: We say "blowing Ro," but blowing might not be the best image to use for the softer notes. Instead, try thinking of it as sighing into the flute. Try different images yourself and see which ones help in the task of locating that point for each note that will help you play it efficiently at any volume.