B-44.What People Who Don't Improve Share in Common
Every one wants to improve at the shakuhachi, but it is a fact that some do so much faster than others. We can always say that those who improve faster just have more talent, but that doesn’t teach us very much. I think it’s better to look at what those who don’t improve have in common.
If you give a shakuhachi to someone who has never played before, some people will sit there forever without accomplishing a sound, and others will start making a sound relatively quickly. Those who persist in not being able to make a sound have something in common: they try the same thing over and over again.
They just keep on blowing the same way without trying new things like changing the position of the shakuhachi on their chin.They don’t realize that trying the same thing over and over again will lead to the same result.
The question is: How should you respond when what you are doing isn’t working?
The answer is: Stop doing it that way.
For those who have been playing longer, what they have being doing wrong may well have hardened into a habit. In this case the key is identifying such bad habits and curing them quickly.
In either case, what it comes down to is whether or not you are willing to put in both the effort and the mental discipline of invention and ingenuity.