When I was in 3rd grade or so, my school did a demo day of various instruments. I was pretty taken with a number of them, but Mr. Smith played a pretty impressive flute. It was between drums and the flute and since drums are pretty annoying to the parents when a kid is learning them and since my dad already owned a flute, I was strongly encouraged to pursue flute.

I played flute through to my freshman year of High School, almost all classical. I could sight read, but I couldn’t do any improvisation; no sheet music, no music. My freshman year of HS, I switched to guitar as it was pretty hard to play punk rock flute particularly if one needed sheet music for it.

Flash forward a million years… I listen to all kinds of music and “world” is among the kinds. I have come to really like the sound of various flutes and I have come to think that picking up old skills is worthwhile.

I particularly like the nez; a deep, breathy, exotic sound that I find incredibly moving. I tried to find a nez in shops around town, on craigslist, on ebay and couldn’t find one that I thought would work for me. During the search, I came across the Shakuhachi. It is also an end-blown flute with a breathy tone. It is a traditional Japanese instrument, tightly connected with Zen Buddhism.

Being a Buddhist, this attracted me. I listened to some Shakuhachi music, recognized it instantly from lots of music, films and tv. I read about the meditation practice, the discipline, the difficulty of playing it well, the lifetime dedication it takes and of course all this attracts me greatly despite the fact that I’m unlikely to get to any sort of mastery. And that seems ok with this instrument since it is a practice.

I ordered a Shakuhachi Yu, which is a molded plastic version. Reportedly it is easier to play and it is certainly less expensive. I am always hesitant to buy a cheap instrument because then I’ll never be sure if my inability to learn it was my fault or the fault of my cheapness. The Yu seems like a really good compromise.

I like the tone, I like the meditative tradition, I like the challenge. Can I spend the time? We’ll see.

(picture from http://www.shakuhachiyuu.com/)