Toot, toot.

 I did lots of nothing yesterday. Maybe I needed a day when I didn't go out and didn't work either. In the evening I did 20 breaths on the Voldyne and then played through page #23 in the shakuhachi book. 

I played through each little 4-note phrase several times, and when through the whole page so it was about an hour. I can play each in one breath if I'm conscientious about it. I also worked on keeping my middle fingers down on the shakuhachi because those have to be "anchored" and it's important to fix that habit early because in doing advanced techniques you can't have fingers flying. 

I'm really happy about this because page 23 really daunted me before. I'd lose track of where I was, and put red/blue ball point pen lines between the vertical lines of music. Last night I made a little folded paper thing I hook on the top of the page to keep my place. And I could do like 2 notes per breath at best but now I can do 4, extending the last one if I do it right. 

I've got a guy on r/shakuhachi offering to sell me his Bell shakuhachi, made by Jon Kypros. But I told him that I'm so happy with my bamboo one that for a bit less money I'd just buy a 2nd bamboo one. I'm on the list for a Bell and will be able to buy one new in about 6 months and maybe I'll do that then. 

But the most crucial period is the first year or so, when most of the learning and development happens. My bamboo cheapie is just fine for this. And since it's a cheapie, if I feel like messing with it, it's fine. I might want to smooth the bore and put an extra layer or two of lacquer in there some time. And there's a cut on the edge of one of the tone holes that a lot of makers do, to make one technique easier. 

The main thing is to practice every day.