Mark Barnett

Living Ethelton South Australia a suburb of Adelaide

Commenced learning shakuhachi in 1996 after buying a David Brown 1.8. Before this I had made myself a very basic shaku from local thin-walled bamboo with no directions or measurements just a small picture in a musical encyclopaedia. The earliest recordings that I fell in love with the sound of shakuhachi were Music for Zen Meditation (Hozan Yamamoto), The Mysterious Sounds of the Japanese Bamboo Flute (Watazumido) and Popular Koto Melodies (Goro Yamaguchi). Riley Lee’s wonderful playing was also readily available on CD. In 1999 I attended my first Australian Shakuhachi Society festival after learning kinko notation from Carl Abbott’s fine Blowing Zen book. I received instruction in Honkyoku from Riley and other teachers, particularly Kaoru Kakizakai, Teruyo Furuya and Kazashi Matama. 2000, 2002 and 2004 ASS festivals I also attended. Then WSF08 accelerated my appreciation after hearing so many other fine players and meeting Michael. Since then I have practiced with Ray Mercer and now we have performed together. I started lessons with Chikuzen in Dec 2008. I love all things shakuhachi- Honkyoku, Min’yo, ensemble with koto or other Japanese instruments, and the newer music with a cornucopia of other instruments and styles. My email is komuso@chariot.net.au and Skype callsign is sasabuki. Look forward to hearing from others on the path…

Rick Bartolotti

I've been playing Shakuhachi for about 4 years. I can't quite remember how I stumbled upon it but I'm sure it was linked to an interest in Zen. Prior to that my main music projects were playing piano/keyboards with a local blues band and trying to write and record songs.

I live about 1 hour from Portland Oregon and was impressed watching Larry Tyrrell play at a small concert, after a time I contacted him and began lessons that lasted about 1.5 fruitful years. After a break last summer I decided to give Chikuzen sensei a call and we set up Skype lessons. Taking lessons has only increased my Shakuhachi enjoyment and has made me a better player than I ever could have been by myself. I've learned a lot from Michael in a short period of time and am looking forward to learning much more, he's a great teacher/coach. Shakuhachi is a wonderful instrument and addictive in a good way, (my wife may disagree).

Not too many Shakuhachi players out this way, (besides Larry, I don't know of any). I'm sure I'll meet some fellow players in the future and looking forward to it. Please feel free to contact me anytime at: rcbartolotti@comcast.net

Early Neadea Plantae Magnaliophyta Bambusoide Caveman

EARLY NEADRA PLANTAE MAGNALIOPHYTA BAMBUSOIDE CAVEMAN was first cited in this geographically indeterminate bamboo grove last week. He is believed to be the oldest living shakuhachi player in the world. Coming from the late Pleistocene Era about 10,000 years ago. He is believed to have been responsible for the extermination of the very large mammals covering the earth at the time by playing haunting sounds on a bamboo flute that caused widespread fear in the animals. It is said that they often gave themselves up peacefully to this early shaku god figure for food and in hopes that he would use their tusks in the utaguchi. They believed that it would secure safe passage into the next life.

We were in shock to receive this photo from our outer space resource. They admitted that they photoshopped in the shoes and black rings on the flute just to confuse us into rewriting shakuhachi history for a few more hundred years. However, they say they cannot account for the shaku T-shirt wrapped around his waist as shyness wasn't invented for a few thousand years later. We figured it was cloth created out of the necessity of keeping mosquitoes off his JIGNASHI.

Frederick Court

Hi, my name is Frederick Court. I “met” Michael online while traveling and living in Japan and Korea. In my life here in Australia my vocation is Chinese Traditional Medicine. I write here my feelings and some understandings as to why I play shakuhachi. There is a Unity which existence arises within and As. This Unity is Acausal. It is Now. It is the Feeling Conscious Unity which can be felt not in one’s reaction to existence but when one lives existence as an open and vulnerable action. When the being is open, one is in a situation in which action becomes a deeper feeling of, and a living as, that Unity. We are not separate from Unity. We in fact exist as that Unity. That is our paradox, being here. We feel separate and live with the presumption of being separate but in Reality we are definitely not separate from anything. There is only one Unity and it is Reality. Not many realities. Simply One Reality. Shakuhachi playing allows me to approach the action of this understanding. The actions of Shakuhachi playing and Zen meditation are entwined for me. I also practice a devotional Yoga and this is an expression of living in Unity and constantly learning how self can be transcended as I exist in this world. The playing of Shakuhachi is both ordinary and profound. Shakuhachi playing can be a meditation. The Shakuhachi no doubt can be a sacrament used with profundity and humour while I tread the Way. This is what I have found.

As the Zen masters stated the teachings of Buddhism are a finger pointing at the moon they are not in any complete way the moon itself. The moon being a symbol of enlightenment. In my understanding Zen is a Way that allows the living of enlightenment in ordinary actions. How does this relate to Shakuhachi playing. “Ichion jobutsu” the famous Fuke-shu Zen Credo – “One sound to Enlightenment.” This is interesting. It does not say “one word” or “one thought” it states “one sound.” This is something for me to constantly open to and understand beyond words. I love Shakuhachi playing because it carries one beyond the verbal mind. Beyond words. It is a release from the self-contraction of mind. The sound transcends the “I.” It is just what it is. A sound resounding in the cosmos. Also a sound which can be be heard and felt simply as a sound of Beauty beyond value judgements. A sound to draw people into contemplation. It is a pleasure to be a student of Michael Chikuzen Gould because he represents to me a man who plays that sound and to be his student allows me the pleasure of sharing that. It is very simple actually.

Michael Andrew Doherty

I came to shakuhachi and consequently to Chikuzen sensei through my investigations into silence in music. I have found the shakuhachi to be a fitting concordance for my interests in the musical convergence of silence and sound, Buddhism, and folk woodwind performance and construction. My shakuhachi life started innocently enough, though, the shakuhachi has become a very important part of my life in general, and my music life in particular. “Ma” and honkyoku brought me to the shakuhachi but I enjoy learning and performing all genres of shakuhachi music. In addition, I have started composing solo pieces, and have used it in some experimental works. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to play this instrument, and to be a part of the shakuhachi community during this time, and particularly to be Michael Gould’s student.

Feel free to contact me either by email or visit my website.

Henrique Elias

The bamboo path and the shakuhachi appeared in my life smoothly, as a flute played by a walker on a bamboo forest, putting foot after foot on the ground, walking in your direction… I started to play on simple shakuhachi made by myself about eight or nine years ago, playing on my own way, learning from the woods, in a time when the internet, to me, was nothing more than words, without any realism... today, I know that those flutes could not play even half of what a shakuhachi should do, but they have done a good work, keeping my heart and my breath alive between so many strange things that happens in life. Since I became more familiar with the internet in 2006 and then, with the opportunity to access some information, came the desire to learn more and more about shakuhachi, this joy... But also came, since I live in the extreme south of Brazil and don't have any shakuhachi player many, many miles around (maybe there is some hiding themselves in a cave around…), the feeling that I would like to join, play with other people. And now, since some time ago, I have the wonderful joy of enter, via Skype, in the house of Michael Chikuzen Gould, and have the feeling that I am really not alone, but the opposite, I am with people who understand me without words, just eye on eye and flute sounds…

The big rest of the history, is a daily loving life, trying to get deeper with the shakuhachi.

Feel free to get in touch with me via email. It always a pleasure to meet people who loves shakuhachi.

Michael A. Firman

I’ve had an interest in the shakuhachi from the time (in the late 1960s when I was in High School) that I first heard it on a recording of “November Steps” by Toru Takemitsu. I later found out that the player on that recording, Katsuya Yokoyama, was probably one of the best players in the world (and, as it turns out, one of Michael Gould’s teachers and major influences).

I’ve been seriously studying the shakuhachi since 1993. I met Michael Gould at the World Shakuhachi festival in Boulder Colorado in 1998 and have been taking lessons with him (on and off) since  around that time. My interests in the flute vary greatly, although I’m pretty much focused on traditional Japanese music. I enjoy playing Minyo (folk pieces), Sankyoku (older chamber music), Shinkyoku (more modern chamber music), and Honkyoku (the music of the Buddhist tradition). I’ve done public performances and played for dance and yoga classes. I’ve even played for a wedding, but mostly I just enjoy playing the shakuhachi in the privacy of my own home.

Feel free to email me or visit my website.

Brian Furner

My initial exposure to the shakuhachi came from an unlikely source, Russian cinema. In Andrei Tarkovsky's film "The Sacrifice" the main character listens to a recording of Watazumi playing Shingetsu. I was immediately drawn to the sound of the instrument and the extraordinary performance. Information on the instrument was not easy to locate in the days before the internet became so ubiquitous so I had to settle with what little I could find at the university library in 1994. About a decade later I was fortunate enough to befriend a researcher at the University of Chicago, Nakagawa Yasushi, who grew up in Japan during the war. In the course of a conversation one afternoon, we turned to discuss music and I mentioned that I was interested in the shakuhachi. To my amazement, it turned out that his childhood friend was a shakuhachi instructor in Kyoto. This coincidence rekindled my interest and at this time I was able to get a good deal more information and a recording by Miyata Kohachiro to further whet my appetite.

More than a year later, in 2006, I was called into Nakagawa Sensei's lab one afternoon and he presented me with a most extraordinary gift: a root end shakuhachi from him and his friend in Japan. We had only discussed the instrument a few times in the course of our conversations over the years and certainly not any time recently. I stared in speechless bewilderment at the instrument for some time, overcome by the generosity of these two men, one of whom I had never met. After regaining my senses, I carefully assembled the flute, brought it to my lips, and blew. A faint airy sound escaped. Immediately a bond was formed between me and the shakuhachi. Even were I not so drawn to the sound of the instrument, I now felt bound to learn to play this instrument to in some small way repay this incredible act of kindness. Not more than a month or two thereafter I saw an ad for shakuhachi lessons being offered in a Chicago Zen facility by Michael Chikuzen Gould. In a very short period of time I had fortuitously acquired a fine instrument and a teacher.

Since that time I have spent many hours practicing and taking lessons with Michael, under whose masterful tutelage I have been lucky enough to learn. In playing I hope to convey some of the joy and the wonder that I feel everytime I pick up the shakuhachi and think back on how it is that I got to be where I am.

Matt Lyon

Like most things for me I found the shakuhachi and Michael Chikuzen Gould through the internet. It began as a some what random google search but ended up with me being fascinated by the complexities and sound of the shakuhachi. For me the biggest draw of the shakuhachi is it's expressiveness in both tone and technique. I am mostly interested in playing honkyoku songs because I enjoy the style, musical range, and the tradition that surrounds the music.

Another reason why I am taking lessons is so that I can eventually play well enough to begin making shakuhachi. The challenge of balancing tone and function inside the bore of the shakuhachi is so complex and subtle I am naturally drawn to unraveling it's mysteries.

Some of the other interests that I have are knife making, chess, and Taekwon-Do. In the summers I enjoy hiking, backpacking, and fly fishing in the Eagle Cap Wilderness area in North Eastern Oregon while in the winter I enjoy snow shoeing and snowboarding. If you plan on being in the area feel free to get my email address from Michael and send me a note.

Ray Mercer

In view of the fact that the closest shihan to my home in Adelaide, South Australia, is located in Melbourne, Victoria, 725 kilometres (i.e., 450 miles) away; occasional shakuhachi lessons were only available from performers passing through on tour or at Australian Shakuhachi Festivals held (always in the eastern states) every 18 months or so: Hence the opportunity to take lessons from Dai Shihan Michael Chikuzen Gould via webcam since September 2007 has been a major turning-point in my shakuhachi journey. Internet lessons mean that it is of no significance whatsoever that Cleveland Heights is more than 16,000 kilometres (10,000 miles) from Adelaide.

As a “senior citizen”, I particularly appreciate Michael’s skill in imparting concepts, however complex, in simple terms through good-natured guidance and patience: An “old dog” can be taught “new tricks” when he has the right teacher!

Larry Mullins

There's something in the sound of the shakuhachi that seems to touch deep with-in; to resonate with our very existence. It's this resonance that first drew me to the shakuhachi. I assumed that if listening to the flute produced such a dramatic effect, then playing it must be incredible.

In January 2004, I sought out and found Chikuzen sensei, starting down the path that I currently find myself on. Ever since that first fateful lesson, I've been completely hooked. Shakuhachi is 100% addictive!

Brian Purdy

I am a harmonica player and teacher who also runs and owns a harmonica amplifier company named HarpGear. I was playing and making Native American style flutes when I came to Shakuhachi through my friend Dave McCullen who introduced it to me at the Silverhawk Flute Festival in Florida during the fall of 2006. From there I became enthralled with the sound and pursued it at every opportunity. I started by taking lessons with Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin and attended his KiSuiAn Shakuhachi Camp in 2007 and 2008.

In the summer of 2008 I found Michael Chikuzen Gould and began regular studies with him via webcam. Chikuzen has a great way of communicating the techniques and music. I feel I have been able to grow quite quickly with him and I highly recommend his teaching style. I have taken lessons in person and via webcam and I can say that I feel the webcam offers a highly effective authentic teaching and learning experience. I have also attended Chikuzen's camp and it is a great time and a great way to get an intensive shakuhachi workout. I look forward to a long learning relationship with Chikuzen and I thoroughly recommend him to anyone looking to make great strides in their understanding and playing ability with the shakuhachi.

Feel free to contact me through email, myspace, or skype (brian.j.purdy).

Austin Shadduck

My first encounter with the shakuhachi was the result of a tourist whim on a trip to Hawaii. While driving to the top of Haleakalā, the East Maui Volcano, I stopped at a gift shop and discovered the music of Riley Lee on a CD called Maui Morning. I was immediately drawn to the haunting sounds of the bamboo flute and impressed with the color palette available to such a (deceptively) simple instrument. When I learned that the complexity of shakuhachi history rivals that of its sound, I became hooked and scouted out a way to study with a professional. Opportunities in my area were non-existent, so I turned to the Internet and Michael Chikuzen Gould for help. Thus began shakuhachi lessons via webcam in March 2009.

I currently work as a sheet music engraver and composer. I look forward to applying what I learn of shakuhachi music and Japanese aesthetics in future compositions.

John Wiley

I’ve been listening to Shakuhachi for some time, and have always been a bit drawn to the sound. In addition, I’ve had some exposure to Japanese culture through 12+ years of Aikido studies. About a year ago, I woke up one Sunday morning, and decided that if I was going to learn to play the Shak, I’d best get started… I remember saying to myself… “How Hard Could it Be?” I hopped online and tried to find a local instructor (I live in the suburbs of Washington, DC). No luck. I was on my own. I also looked online for a local music store that might sell Shakuhachi… No luck… I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to learn to play, I was probably going to have to make my own instrument, and teach myself. My day job is “Electrical Engineer”, so “wavy things” and “things that resonate” are right up my alley! After a few trips to the hardware store, purchase of several sizes of “Forstner bit”, and a fair number of prototypes, I managed to turn out something relatively close to a Shakuhachi. I hopped onto Monty Levenson’s website, purchased a few playing guides, and I was on my way! Somewhere along the line, I decided to purchase a Yuu (I travel a LOT, and a Yuu makes a great companion!), and ran into Chikuzen sensei’s website. At this point, I’ve been studying Shakuhachi for about a year. I’ve been studying with Chikuzen sensei for about 8 months. For anyone that doubts the use of Skype, I'm still amazed that it works as well as it does. I am very grateful for Chikuzen sensei’s patient and crystal clear instruction, without which, I’d certainly be making much slower progress. The mountain seems to get a little bigger every day, but I'm enjoying the climb… Feel free to contact me at aiki10@hotmail.com.

Zak

Internet student from Taichung, Taiwan—self-taught for the first year, now coming up on a year with Michael (as of Mar ’08)

I got into shakuhachi as a way to fight the road rage (no one follows the traffic rules here in Taichung and my riding a bicycle compounds the issue of having to suddenly hit the brakes). I love longer jinashikan and though I don’t expect I’ll ever teach, I aspire to play moving music.