It seems to me that a shakuhachi and a quena have the same design. Is that true? If not, what’s the difference?
From a totally unknowledgable perspective, they are similar in that I often misspell them. Quena is easier to say, but Shakuhachi is much more fun to say.
I believe the embouchures are shaped differently, the scale is different (the shakuhachi is usually pentatonic) and so the fingering is different. the Shakuhachi has 4 finger holes and one thumb hole the quena has 6 finger holes and one thumb hole, and I believe that the quena is often higher in pitch.
But I own neither, so hopefully some one in the know will add to or correct any thing I have posted.
Oooooooo! Never heard of the Shakuhachi!
Did try to make my own quena, but with limited success. I’ve got better tubing stockpiled and will have a go again (properly) over the holiday period.
Oooooooo! A new (to me) instrument!
You may like these web pages on making PVC instruments then Traverse+Fife, Doug Tipple’s site, Kaval, Quena, Shakuhachi, and North American flute
Howdy,
Both are endblown, but the mouthpieces/scales are very different. Shakuhachi are hard to play, but extremely expressive. If you like to pitch bend or microtones, shakuhachi are for you.
Best,
Dave
Quenas are folk pipes. You usually make your own from the bones of your slayed enemies, lacking those from the bones of the nearest lama. (the animal, not the holy man). Lacking those, from a piece of reed or bamboo, or as a last resort, wood.
Shakuhachi are art instruments. They are made by highly specialised craftsmen and a top one can cost $10 000 and up. Now, that is some price for two pieces of bamboo (joined into one pipe) with a bit of lacquer inside (a native lacquer, not the synthetic variety), and 4 holes.
Other than that shakuhachis are much larger than most quenas. (That’s it’, that’s why they are more expensive!. Now I know)
Quenas are usually six holed, sometimes with a seventh thumb hole and tuned to a majot scale. A peasant instrument often used along with panpipes and those Andean style guitars.
Their blowing edge is a notch cut into the wood.
Shakuhachi are five-holed, tuned to DFGAC (there are other keys, tuned to the same relative scale). The blowing edge is not simply a notch in the bamboo, but an inlay, made from some kind of horn (?) material.
It’s an instrument closely connected with Zen- the pieces played are ultra-traditional and, despite the fact that the goal is an appearance of ‘aimless wandering’, they are played note-perfect and it is considered that an apprenticeship taking decades rather than years, is necessary to play the pieces properly.
As with most ‘Zen’ implements, despite being made from simple, natural materials and often (intentionally) having flawed appearances, they are much sought after by collectors who will pay from thousands to tens of thousands, for individual flutes.
Thank you very much. That might keep me going for next year too…
Hi ThorntonRose
if you are interested in shakuhachi check the following website
the guy is based in Vancouver , so it would be very easy for you to cantact him .
The website has a lot of shakuhachi mp3 samples !
Shakuhachi , from my point of view is the more interesting flute around the world , and probably the hardest !
Best
Manuel
Howdy,
There is a really fascinating website about the acoustics of PVC shakuhachi here:
http://www.navaching.com/shaku/shakuindex.html
Lot of interesting and pertinent info about flute making in general along the way as well. Nice technical explanations with groovy charts and everything. This guy’s a big iconoclast and like very unromantic about rolling up his engineer sleeves. You can tell where this is headed when he says, about the shakuhachi - a heavily romanticized instrument - “Let’s face it, the windway of the shakuhachi is a accoustical kludge…” 
In light of the cylindrical vs. conical vs. parabolic debate, I found his ideas of flattening the head of the pvc tube to achieve octave balance fascinating. I plan build a tipple style flute this way.
http://www.navaching.com/shaku/taper.html
Best,
Dave
As neither the shakuhachi nor the quena involve a fipple or whistle,
discussion of them belongs more properly in the flute forum than anywhere else.
Talasiga
Disputed Evil Non Moderator Dude
Well, after making another Quena and another Low D (vastly improved on the previous attempts) I’ve worked out why my methods vary from the instructions posted on making instruments from PVC piping.
The piping I use isn’t PVC. It’s polyethylene. It’s taken a while to find this out, as it isn’t explicitly labelled. It’s called “Qual-Pex”. But it’s polyethylene, not, as I thought, PVC. That explains why it won’t saw, drill or sand. It cuts nicely. Abrasive methods are liable to generate frills and fronds. Nasty, grey frills and fronds.
I’m looking forward to making a shakuhachi. But it will need a bit of invention on my part. I could always go out on a limb and try to make one out of wood…
If you ask someone what they’re doing tonight, and they say “Quena”; then you ask and they say “shakuhachi”; you know which one sounds hotter, right? I’m gonna do the shakuhachi…Yeah.
Philo
You mean like the instrument here on the left and the one second from the right?
Nope, all of the instruments in Mr. Tweeto’s post have qunna looking design. Take a look at the instruments for sale at www.japanshakuhachi.com to see several shakuhachi examples.
The basic idea is similar between these two beasts. Quenas tend to be smaller than shakuhachi. The quena typically has 7 holes. The shakuhachi typically has 5 holes. The shakuhachi mouthpiece is designed such that the pitch changes a lot with blowing angle (meri and kari refer to the lowered and normal angles) and that’s the technique along with half hole and forked fingering to get intermediate notes. 7 hole shakuhachi do exist, some players feel that the sound is not shakuhachi-like because the characteristic sound of meri notes.
Shakuhachi are not cheap, but decent ones seem to be priced more like a very good keyless irish flute and then go up and up.
For those interested, there is www.shakuhachiforum.com that has a very active community.
There is a connection between shakuhachi and Buddhist meditation. For about 200 years in Japan, only a particular sect of monks was legally allowed to play shakuhachi. The music from those monks are solo pieces called Honkyoku, but other styles include Minyo (folk songs) and Sankyoku (ensemble music - usually shakuhachi and some combination of Koto and Shamisen - stringed instrument, often with a singer). Those are the traditional, classical settings, Shakuhachi occasionally pops up in jazz or other popular music too.
I have been taking shakuhachi lessons for about 10 months (after 6+ years of flute study). For me, it’s great fun!
What do you mean “nope”, Mrosenlof? If you go back to my post, you’ll see that the poster I quoted (OneWheelDave) said that shakuhachis have “inlay made out of horn or some other material”. He made that statement as a comparison, after making special effort to point out that quenas are simply “a notch cut into the bamboo”. The quenas that I cited in the photo certainly do have special inlays for the embouchure, and that’s all that I said.
Furthermore, quenas too come in quality levels that increase with price. I own a bamboo one, as well as one made from lathed wood and horn added for the embouchure and foot ends. I know they go up in quality from these as well.
Quena players apparently don’t have their own online community. Maybe the proficient players of it simply don’t have internet access available to them. Since they’re often considered as “peasants”, I wouldna be surprised. That doesn’t mean that they don’t respect their instruments as much as shakuhachi players do theirs.
There is a group of what I believe are quena players who fairly regularly play at the same spot in the Grand Central subway station here in NYC; they are terrific (I think the underground really enhances the sound) and sell cds.
Philo
[quote=“Tweeto”]What do you mean “nope”, Mrosenlof? If you go back to my post, you’ll see that the poster I quoted (OneWheelDave) said that shakuhachis have “inlay made out of horn or some other material”. He made that statement as a comparison, after making special effort to point out that quenas are simply “a notch cut into the bamboo”. The quenas that I cited in the photo certainly do have special inlays for the embouchure, and that’s all that I said.
[/quote]
I guess I misunderstood your question. You quoted onewheeldave describing an inlaid shakuhachi blowing edge, and asked “you mean like this”. My “nope” meant that no, these instruments are nothing like shakuhachi construction. That’s all.
-mike
If anyone is interested in shakuhachi and need a cheap/good quality shakuhachi , I would suggest you to buy the YUU Shakuhachi ( in standard key of D ) , is made in ABS and his design was made after one high quality bamboo flute , it cost around 100 USD .
I’ve bought mine few years ago so I don’t know the actual price , the only thing I can tell you for sure is that the YUU it’s a very very good instrument for beginers and advanced players !
To the people interested in making a shakuhachi themself , I would suggest to buy some of the books made from Carl Abott , and Monty Levenson , these two should be enough for make some decent shakuhachi out of bamboo or PVC .
For more informations you can take a look at www.shakuhachi.com
Manuel