Kevin James Music ~ The story of my Shakuhachi flute

The story of my Shakuhachi flute by Kevin James Carroll
In about 1995 when I lived in Cairns, I was inspired to start learning to play and make flutes. I drilled some holes in a piece of PVC pipe, put a cork in the end and that was the beginning. When I heard that there was a famous shakuhachi player coming to town, a Master of the Japanese shakuhachi flute, trained in Japan, I decided to go.
I was deeply moved by the sounds of the shakuhachi. So much so, that after the concert I went backstage and asked if I could meet with him. I was met by his manager at the backstage door, and I asked to be allowed to talk with the musician. He asked me why. I told him that I would like to learn to make and play one of these instruments. He stood there with his arms crossed and shook his head. He said that the musician had had to do things like stand outside in the snow barefoot, playing one single note for a year, before his teacher would even accept him. It took him 9 years to master the instrument. He also told me that to learn to make the shakuhachi in the traditional way, it takes many years of training and is often a skill passed down through the generations from father to son. He said that it wouldn't be possible to meet the musician and I might as well just quit while I was ahead.
I wasn't taken back by his comments at all. I went home, and the next day I went into my backyard, found a piece of bamboo that looked right, cut it and googled "shakuhachi" on the internet to find out how to make it. I found out that it was a precise and complicated instrument, but I went ahead anyway. I made my own tools and improvised with what I had. For the buffalo horn inlay in the mouthpiece, I found a spoon made of Balinese buffalo horn in my kitchen and shaped it to fit. I later found out that if I was to just give one stroke too many of the sanding tool on the inside bore of the flute, it would dramatically change the sound. When I look back now, I realise that it really was a miracle to be able to create such a beautiful instrument, with such little knowledge. This is how I made the flute that I'm playing.
This is by no means a traditional shakuhachi in the true sense. It's a flute made in the style of the shakuhachi. A traditional Japanese shakuhachi only has 5 holes, but I made 6 because I combined it with the American Indian flute sound. The American Indian flute also has 5 holes, but one is in a different place from the Japanese flute. This allows me to make my flute have a Japanese or an American Indian sound and gives my flute it's uniqueness.
After that, I was so inspired by the flute, it turned out so well, that I continued to be a flute-maker for the next ten years. Yet I was never able to make another flute as good as that first one. I heard once that even the best shakuhachi makers say that their greatest flutes were accidents. I literally made hundreds of flutes before I realised that this first one was special and I should just accept that this is the one for me to play.
It is a symbol to me that we can achieve the impossible if we have the feeling for it, yet not to be attached. It may just be a piece in the puzzle of our life, being put together by something greater than our ideas could ever imagine.
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[@Shakuhachi18]

Beautiful history soujd and flute. Thats how it works, i guess you dont choose shakuhachi, shakuhachi chooses you. One day i asked the universe about ann skill from a previous life, i found walking down the river side a bamboo cane it was dropped there i picked it up first as a club , i leave it there many weaks and every time imwent to the river side i picked it up until one day i bringed it home with me, and made a 2.6 jinashi shakuhachi with it. I made others in plastic aluminum bamboo all sizes and that one patiently was wainting and the more i learn the more i get from it. All the bamboo shakus i made where found through synchronicity, they choose thats how it works, is the takedo way. Amitofo!

[@KevinJamesCarroll]

Yes, I found them all the same way. Very mystical.
Thanks for sharing

[@sb152]

🙏Kevin💚

[@sabineerath3349]

Thanks for sharing this wonderful story Kevin!

[@umurisanathali6307]

Yap I do like you teach my daughter

[@umurisanathali6307]

How should I find you