Learn to play the Shakuhachi: Honkyoku 5 : Sokkan

About this course

You will learn to play a  new Honkyoku on the Shakuhachi. Here we are focusing on Sokkan. Sokkan means to "see or the breath" contemplating the breath. It is a Honkyoku that has some level of difficulty as it introduces some new techniques such as  Koro , Ro Oumeri alternate  notes: Ho, Ri meri and Chi RU, and other techniques. This song is a great way to get used to these new techniques that will get more intricate in other Honkyoku. A Honkyoku is one of the harder music to play on the Shakuhachi. We recommend that you first take the easier lessons to develop some playing skills before moving to this harder song.So I recommend you start with the simpler songs from our first lectures before moving on to these pieces. Some sections with meri and Oumeri are difficult, you might not be able to get it right away, but try through practice to get closest to it as possible. It will take some time, it is also a good idea to come back to it through your practice as the song will make more and more sense each time you go back to it. We have several videos as a bonus to learn to read and write the music and also a video to help you warm up before playing. We also included a short warm-up video in each of the lessons. Let us know if you encounter any difficulties and we will try our best to help you.These songs should be played hundreds of times if not thousands of times to really grasp the song. Each player will make the song his/her own. I recommend learning to write music as well. Try to rewrite the score yourself. It is a great exercise to memorize the notation and later be able to write your own music in Shakuhachi notation.Don't expect sudden results, this is a slow process and needs patience and lots of practice. So have fun with it and discover a new world of music through these two songs.