When I opened my Virtual Shakuhachi Dojo on Patreon last February (https://www.patreon.com/shakudojo), I started to film tutorial videos for the patrons of the KAN Tier. Once a month, I address a specific topic or technique. So far I have published videos about abdominal breathing, embouchure for (absolute) beginners, the basic scale otsu, how to play in kan, how to attack a sound, how to warm up, meditation in nature. When you subscribe, you also get access to a PDF-file with basic exercises for practicing long tones, fingers, octaves and intervals. In the coming months, I’ll be filming how to practice these exercises and release the videos in my Dojo.

Why do you have to pay to get access to this content?

There are lots of free videos about shakuhachi on YouTube, so why would you pay for mine?

1. The first reason is respect for my students who pay to learn from me. Although a tutorial video is not interactive like a lesson is, I don’t find fair to give out my knowledge for free when people pay me to get lessons.
   
2. Another reason is continuity and consistence. There is more than one way to play shakuhachi. Each school has its own approach to the shakuhachi, its own fingering preferences, type of sound, names of notes, techniques, etc. When you browse through videos, you might not see if the teacher is from one or another school. Even if he/she is a real teacher at all! (it’s amazing what people post on the Internet without knowing what they are talking about!). And sometimes, it can seem contradictory because the approach is different. From time to time, a student tells me that he/she saw on the Internet someone saying different from what I told him/her. True. There is a lot of diversity in the shakuhachi world. A good way to discover it on guided way is to attend the next European Shakuhachi Society Online Summer School for example.
   If you follow my teaching, you will learn to play the way I play. I intend to build up a consistent teaching that you can follow at your own rhythm on your own level. I will attach some PDF-files to some tutorials and explain how to play them. Inside the Dojo, you can ask me questions and send me suggestions about a topic you would like me to address. I always answer.
   
3. Another reason is that it is work. It is knowledge that I paid for myself and trained for years to master . It has a value. I am very happy to give out some tips and practice recordings for free to help people out. But I find logical that a consistent teaching has a price. I aim to keep my teaching fees quite low although I don’t have any other job or grant. Just compare the price of one private lesson and convert it in months of practice in my Dojo (which include also meditation practice, free audio files and a composition challenge with feedback).
   
4. No tutorial video can replace one-on-one lessons for learning honkyoku. But there are so many technical elements involved in it and often just touched on without deeper explanations that I find it worth to take the time to address the different aspects of playing honkyoku separately. So that you can apply them in any honkyoku.
   
5. My dojo is a private space to meet, practice and exchange. Your questions and comments won’t be read by the rest of the world. You can join and leave easily whenever you like.

“The teacher and the taught together create the teaching” (Eckhart Tolle)

If you have any questions about my Virtual Dojo, don’t hesitate to contact me.

If you like this blog, a small donation is always much appreciated (you can choose the amount of your donation).