The Bookwyrm

I feel like posting an SU.

It's been a minute.

Uh...

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My latest obsession is Japanese flutes, specifically the Shinobue flutes. This came about because of another obsession with a video game I've already talked too much about here. Suffice it to say flutes are an important part of worldbuilding in that game and there are a ton of really cool songs in the game that use flutes, and they're Japanese flutes, specifically shinobue flutes, and...yeah.

So I got a shinobue for Christmas and it's just been sitting on my dresser in it's little fabric case since then. I'll occasionally get it out and try to get some notes on it, but they're super airy and whistle-y and I eventually give up and put it back.

Except there's been a resurgence.

I was doing some online research because I wondered if the flute I had was best suited for playing the song from the video game OST that I wanted to play. And the answer is yes, with an asterisk. See, the song is a duet, played by two characters who both have flutes, but they're different flutes. One is longer and lower.

So after some stumbling I learned that shinobue flutes come in different keys, like band instruments, called "choshi". And after some more digging I learned that the flute I have is an 8-hon choshi shinobue, tuned to a concert C major scale. And luckily, one of the two flutes in the game is basically just an 8-hon choshi shinobue.

Each key is given a different number, from 1, the lowest and longest, to 12, the highest and shortest. For example, the other flute in the duet, which is lower, is a 3-hon choshi, tuned to a concert G major. And so I want a 3-hon choshi now, except the internet doesn't know what I'm asking when I look for one and the few I can find are super expensive. So we'll deal with that later.

A funny moment came when I was browsing through a Youtube channel I found that had a bunch of tutorial videos. The lady in the video mentioned that an 8-hon choshi was the best for beginners, which is good, because that's what I have. However, when she mentioned the choshi, she pointed the front of her flute at the camera and tapped it. And then it hit me.

The front of my flute has always had this little very simple Japanese character on it. I never knew what it was. I just assumed it was a little stylized thing or some kind of signature or manufacturing symbol or something. However, once I saw her point to the front of her flute referencing choshi, I, on a hunch, looked up the Japanese character for 8.

And it was the character on the front of my flute.

So I kind of felt silly, because my flute had been telling me from day one that it was an 8-hon choshi flute, and I'd spent several minutes searching amazon looking for the exact flute I had to check what key it was in.

So that gave me a laugh.

Hopefully this sudden surge of interest will help me start studying those tutorial videos a lot closer and build up the skills necessary to actually play the piece I want to. I'm learning that I'm bad at diaphragmatic breathing, at least when it comes to flutes. So I still have lots of basics to work on.

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I don't know where I was going with this. It's just been a while since I've done one of these.

Hopefully this isn't one of those SU's that everyone skims because it's too long and then doesn't comment on and I feel lonely.