By Frederic Marschall
This is me at my partner’s shared house, the Tsubaki House, where I’ve been graciously invited to stay during COVID19 season. To give you a bit of context, I’ve been studying and playing Shakuhachi for the past, almost 3 and a bit years. It’s the main reason why I decided to move to Japan. I found myself now living for 5 months in Tokyo, working, studying Japanese and Shakuhachi.
The piece I’m playing here is called Kyorei, meaning bell, so it’s meant to evoke the sound of a bell ringing. This is more or less what I look like once a day while I pick up my bamboo to practice. I often feel I can’t really play as well as I’d like to. It takes a while to warm up, often 30, 40 min then I remember why I like playing. It get’s a bit easier and more fun. I guess that’s like almost all things. It reminds me to be patient with myself.
