發新話題
打印

A-38.On Muraiki

A-38.On Muraiki

"shakuhachi tips"
原作者:柿堺香老師 (Kaoru Kakizakai)
英文翻譯: Zachary Braverman
進階篇38.
May 1997

A-38.On Muraiki

[Translator’s note. “Muraiki” is a special blowing technique used in honkyoku that sounds like static or white noise. It is the opposite of a clean,pure note. I have prepared three examples. The first is Watazumi Doso playing Reibo on a 2.85 flute. The second is Yoshinobu Taniguchi playing Shika noTone on a 1.8. The third is Yoshinobu Taniguchi playing Ichijo ona 1.8]


One of the most important techniques in shakuhachi is “muraiki”. You can’t get a good muraiki merely by blowing hard. You must be totally committed to the sound and to the song. You must also, of course, have the right technique.


There are two parts to making a good muraiki. The first is to produce the distinctive muraiki tone color. This is done by narrowing the inside of your mouth. If you pinch a hose 5 inches before the end, the water stream becomes chaotic and dispersed as it comes out. The same principle holds with your breath.


You need a dispersed air stream like this for muraiki. (The opposite is true for a clean pure tone – you want a widen the inside of your mouth.)Everybody blows a different way, so I can’t give specific advice about how to narrow the inside of your mouth, but one way is to lift your tongue to narrow the airway. Experiment on your own and find out what works for you.


The second part to making a good muraiki is to blow strongly exactly at the sweet spot of sound production. In most cases, blowing more strongly causes the air stream to rise. To use the example of a hose again, if you take a limp hose and increase the water pressure, what will happen to the water coming out?


It will straighten out. The same is true with your breath when you blow harder – more of it will rise above the flute instead of going down into it.Thus, when you blow hard to get muraiki, you have to take care to focus the air stream down into the flute.


At the same time, try opening your mouth further to make it easier to hit the sweet spot of sound production. Most people will tighten their lips to get a faster air stream and more volume, but this makes hitting the sweet spot harder both by changing the direction of the airflow and by narrowing it.


Finally, it goes without saying that a strong breath and abdominal muscles will be good for muraiki. However, even when you get ready for a big muraiki at a crucial point and it doesn’t come out correctly, if you put all of your energy into it and really commit, the power of your feeling will be conveyed to the people listening anyway, and they will be moved. Muraiki is not a technique where it's possible to "play it safe". It's all or nothing.

TOP

發新話題