Thursday, November 16, 2023

Trying to reset my schedule

 I practiced last night, some songs. Rinban Sakamoto is big on "Rainbow Connection" which is not only not part of the traditional shakuhachi repertoire, but not even a "gatha" or church song. But I worked on it a bit and sounded pretty good, I think. It seems this is an instrument that just plain takes some years to build up the breath. 

I got some sleep but probably an hour or two because I woke up again and could not get to sleep so finally I decided, since the rain wasn't here yet and it would surely be, to get out and do my errands. 

I packed things and took them to the downtown post office, then went to the bank and deposited my check - that agreed with my own accounting to the penny. Then I went over to Whole Foods and got something to eat. It was weird being there before noon and guess when the re-stocking of shelves is done? The place seemed to have as many shelf-stockers as customers. 

After eating I went down to Walmart and got things, and there was the regulation long wait in line because even though it wasn't very busy they only had two cashiers working. That's OK though as what reason do I have to hurry? 

I rode back to Nijiya and got things there, and by this time I really felt like I was sleepwalking or many sleep-riding my bike. This was not the best since during the daytime there's a lot of traffic and things are a lot less relaxed than they are in the late afternoon. 

I got back here and had some pork rinds and a Coke Zero, and took a nap for a few hours. It was about 8PM when I woke up. So much for shakuhachi class, but I felt very unsure of my ability to ride safely to/from it all tired, and not good about my playing in that tired state. 

I've realized that simply doing long tones isn't enough, that I have to work on pieces too. Daisuke Kaminaga, a shakuhachi teacher on YouTube, says he never "practiced" much. In his case, he loved video game music, so he strove to play it and he put in a lot of time playing things he liked. His channel, the happy, cartoony, "genki" one I recently discovered, is just the thing I need at this point. 

Mr. Kaminaga is also a member of a band that combines Western instruments and shakuhachi and he plays, jumping around on the stage and makes quite a show. It needs mentioning that the old-time shakuhachi practitioners used to swear by practicing while walking. 

So my goal for the next month is to practice all the pieces we've been handed the sheet music for in the class, and prepare for a possible "concert" in that, there's a New Year's lunch in January and I remember the one I went to in the before times. The shakuhachi club played a piece or two. 


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