How much thought have you given to the space between your lips when you blow, the part where the air stream comes out?
Do you experience any of the following?
1.
Otsu turns to kan (higher octave) in the middle of playing.
2.
You still have breath, but the note dies suddenly.
3.
You have a difficult time with meris.
4.
You have a difficult time making good yuri (vibrato).
5.
Your tone color is “hard” with no expansiveness in your tone.
The cause for these problems can be with the shape of the space between your lips, which can cause the point of sound production to be small. It’s important to make this point as large as possible.
When the point of sound production is too small, even a slight variation in your blowing can cause you to miss it. This can cause 1-2 above. You change the angle of blowing when playing meri or yuri, which can cause you to slide off the sound producing point if it’s too small. This can cause 3-4 above. Also,overtones (notes above a perfect fifth higher than the note you’re playing, or overtones of the higher octaves) can become “hard” (5 above).
Some absolute beginners are told to pull their lips strongly to the side to get a note. This can indeed help focus the air to get a note, but it results in a very small point of sound production, causing the five problems above.Remember, it’s important to make the “sweet spot” of sound production as large as possible to get a good, robust sound.
This kind of instruction is always included at Shakuhachi Kenshu-Kan master classes. Since everybody blows a different way, I can’t describe concrete ways to get a larger sweet spot here without leading to misunderstanding. This needs to be done by a qualified teacher.