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A-13.Better Meris 優良的沉音

A-13.Better Meris 優良的沉音

"shakuhachi tips"
原作者:柿堺香老師
英文翻譯: Zachary Braverman
進階篇13.

January,2004

A-13.Better Meris 優良的沉音


For the first month of the new year, I would like to introduce a grand new hypothesis. Of course, it has to do with meri, which is nothing new at all...


I have stated before many times that when performing meris you lower the pitch by decreasing the surface area of the top of the flute which is uncovered. In other words, if you cover more of the mouthpiece with your lips, the tone will drop. As you open the mouthpiece up more, the tone will rise.


It is not actually the angle of the flute that causes the pitch to change,although it is easy to think so. It is because we usually cover or open the mouthpiece by changing the angle that people become fixated on the angle, but it doesn't necessarily have to be so.


Recently I have begun to realize that the more you drop the angle of the flute to meri,the more you tend to distort your mouth shape.
This is because changing the angle of the flute to meri causes your lower lip to become pushed slightly upward by the flute. This does lower the pitch - the desired effect - but it also narrows the breath stream, so you will only be able to play weak, faint meris.



This problem would be solved if we could think of a way to cover more of the opening without sacrificing good mouth shape. Of course, one way to do it would be to take the flute away from where it rests on your chin and put it back again a few millimeters lower.


This would definitely decrease the surface area of the mouthpiece open. It is, of course, an untenable strategy. How about sliding the flute a few millimeters down your skin? Closer, but again impossible during playing.


I think the best way to accomplish our goal is to press down on the flute (with your finger covering the fourth hole) so that the piece of skin it's resting on slides slightly down your chin. If you put your finger on the place on your chin where the shakuhachi usually goes, you will find that you can move the skin around on top of the bone fairly freely. This is the principle we want to use.


If you push the flute down so that it doesn't change angles relative to you, but the piece of skin it's sitting on slides slightly down your chin (the  shakuhachi doesn't slide down the skin; the skin slides down the bone), you will find that you can meri without changing angle and therefore mouth shape.


Use this movement in conjunction with a slight change of angle diagonally downwards and you will find that meris come much easier.


Looks like another meri-filled year!

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