Sunday, December 19, 2010

Early Christmas

I have been playing on a Levenson 2.1 since I began playing the Shakuhachi.  Check out my first post for the backstory.

This year I got an early Christmas present from my wife and my mother;  a Shakuhachi Yuu,  an instructional book by Yoshinobu Taniguchi, and a cleaning cloth.

This is going to be of great benefit to my practice regime.  Taniguchi Sensei's book comes with sheet music and a CD.  Now that I have a shakuhachi tuned to the most common key, there is a lot I can play along with.

Having exchanged gifts with my Mom last night, I returned to use her sewing room today and made a bag out of some nice twill remnants that she had.  I am getting better at sewing, and the whole thing came out pretty well.




So as I set out to enjoy two weeks of for the Christmas break I have no end of opportunity to play.  Between now and New Year, I intend to set out some resolutions for practice in 2011.

Merry Christmas everyone!

3 comments:

  1. awesome. i've had my Yuu for years now. recommended highly to all beginners chikuzen sensei. i love it and especially like that you can take them about anywhere and even break them down and put in a backpack.

    your bag looks sweet! amazing job. the one i bought it way too long and big for the Yuu really. my emma got a sewing machine for xmas. maybe i'll talk her into helping me make one like this. did you use plans or wing it?

    i also plan some resolutions relative to shak playing (in addition to overall zen practice). maybe we can help each other stay at it!

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  2. *recommended BY chikuzen sensei. chikuzen also used to refer to me as his eternal beginner. ;-) i once took that as a "beginner's mind" compliment but now i think he was just telling me to practice more!

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  3. Hi Eric,

    I sketched out the bag based on one I bought from Monty Levenson. My Mom is a great sewer, so I had access to her workshop and advice.

    Playing resolutions sound like a good idea. I am in the middle of 2 weeks off right now, so I am playing a lot. I have to figure out what is realisitc and what I can prioritize once I am back to work.

    My big resolution tool is this blog. I hope to do weekly updates once I am back to work, but I'll see what actually needs to be said.

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