July 2021

June saw change in New York, again, with the "Mission Accomplished" style fireworks display from our Governor its like the men in the high towers have decided that Covid in NY is officially over and that we can all get on with our lives. If it's true or not remains to be seen but we can be hopeful. June was a hectic month for shakuhachi flute practice. The lessons I've been taking were still virtual. I have been learning a lot of music this way but it's still hard. So much of musical transmission is "encoded" in physical space and in the imitation of the person teaching you that learning off the screen is a huge struggle for me. This means that it takes me more attempts to get a phrase or technique to click into place than it does in person. This has all been going on for over a year now though so I've developed some techniques for "zoom learning." For any other music students learning over the screen it goes like this: - Max volume: I always crank the volume of my computer to the absolute max when I'm trying to learn something. The digital distortion is shocking at times so watch out. - Mute often: a lot gets lost when there are competing signals. Unless your instructor is listening to you play something specific I always mute. - Listen between the distortions: no matter what you're only ever hearing the worst 55% of someones sound through a live call. If you know the person's sound from hearing them in person fix your heart on your memory of their beautiful music and fill in the gaps the computer gives us. - Don't expect anything: zoom lessons suck. skype lessons suck. Get back to playing in person asap Like I said this has all been the case for a year. What's changed is having to fit practice into a reemerging social life again which, given how intense and engrossing pandemic practice was, has forced me into the "maintenance" mode rather than "growth" mode a lot more. There have been glimpses of inspiration however. As usual, these moments happen when I'm least expecting it. Since getting deep into the art of musical practice I've felt that "shedding" is more and more like "scraping" the inside of a vessel. The more practice gets done the more space is scraped out inside the vessel to hold musical ideas and inspirations. I was lying down going to sleep listening to one of the premier shakuhachi virtuosi of the 20th century, Yokoyama Katsuya, playing the piece Shika no Tone (The Distant Cry of The Deer). Just as I was falling asleep and with Yokoyamas sound echoing through that weird awake/asleep barrier I got that sensation of suddenly falling where your whole body feels like it's been sucked out an airplane. After kind of jolting around in bed I started listening to Yokoyama's sound in this very far-out way. I was hearing the air pressure inside of his mouth, if that makes sense, feeling how much support and nuance is coming from holding the air inside the back of the throat and carrying it all the way to expulsion. I got out of bed and picked up my shakuhachi. Blowing a few quiet tones I was able to hear inside my own mouth and feel the sound swirling around as breath before coming out and touching the instrument. It was a great lesson nabbed from the brink of consciousness.

# **Tea Features of the Month from Chado (The Way of Tea) by Sasaki Sanmi** July is when summer really gets cooking and tea people love to use this month to demonstrate their skill of keeping things cool. July, to me, is the perfect time to enjoy spreading things out, giving things air, waking up earlier, and finding all sorts of ways to stay cool mentally and physically. For practitioners of tea July is a great time of year to do "*Asa-chaji*" or "Morning Tea Ceremony. They commence before dawn and take advantage of the coolness of the morning dew. The tea host will wet the stones leading to the door of the tea house and stepping on these after walking through the dewy grass outside the gate creates a sensation of coolness guests can take with them during the brutal sunshine hours. The cool mornings and the wonderful amber-lit evenings after a scorcher are to be enjoyed in July. I'm excited to pay attention to the cool parts of our coming dog days. ## I've been throwing a few ice cubes in my teapot along with a generous amount of loose leaf sencha in the mornings and even using room temperature water instead of hot. Sencha is great to do iced since a lot of the chlorophyll sweetness gets lost in hot water. ## ## ## Shakuhachi Pieces In addition to my regular studies I'm paying special attention to these 2 Hokyoku (solo shakuhachi pieces) and this 1 sankyoku (three musician piece)this month * Taki Ochi no Kyoku - A solo shakuhachi piece depicting a waterfall. Ahh -- I would love to stand under a cold waterfall this month. * Yoshia Reibo - Another solo, this one is related to the Yoshiya district in Kyoto and is somewhat related to the purification festival, Gion Matsuri. Its a very melancholy piece for being about such a lively event. * Sato no Akatsugi - this is a jiuta-mono sankyoku (three musician chamber ensemble with koto, shamisen and shakuhachi) piece with a summer theme. The melodic lines in this one are very smooth and easygoing. In a lesson on this piece recently some of the lines started to feel like slow summer breezes on a humid day. I'm hoping to usually include a musical component in this newsletter. I'd like to make a recording of one of the shakuhachi pieces I mentioned earlier and include some reflections on what it was like to practice it for a month or so. This time I'm playing along to the sound of the cicadas. I really liked the way the sound of the flute mixed with the intense drone of the bugs, airplanes, cars, birds, and soft clean .22 gauge rifle shots sounding in the background here. I love the sounds of the "forest echo." There's something magical to me about hearing the flute echo off of so many trees. (A great album that captures this feeling is the Peter Brötzmann / Han Bennink [*Schwarzwaldfahrt*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf_4zYSFpGQ) in which the two musicians run around in the black forest using sticks and water and saxophones to make this music. I'd like to make a record like this someday!) [Cicadas - Far](https://soundcloud.com/adamrobinsn2/cicadas-far)  On July 9th at 7pm EDT the Center for Remembering and Sharing will stream a performance by my friend and Korean traditional musician, Gamin, called *Unforgotten Song*. The multi media performance commemorates the anguish of the Comfort Women, local women enslaved throughout Japan-occupied East Asia, 1932-1945. Inspired by artist Chang-Jin Lee's recordings and exhibitions my shakuhachi sound will be featured alongside new composition by Yoon-Ji Lee performed by Lydian String Quartet and old recordings of Comfort Women's singing and visual arts. Remembering the plight of the Comfort Women is a painful admonition for us to address the continuing exploitation that women in occupied and war torn regions still suffer today. It will be streamed on Youtube and info will be on the events page of Gamin's website [here](http://www.gamin-music.com).