Impulse Buy

So in my last post, I mentioned a workshop with the principle fue player of Kodo, Kaoru Watanabe. Now, I mentioned him, my workshop with him, and my interest in buying a fue. However, what I failed to mention was that he was also selling fue from a very good fue maker in Japan...

Now before I go any further, I know that you may be asking yourself, "What is a fue?" And that's a good question. A fue, is a Japanese bamboo flute, which is actually known as a shinobue (I believe "fue" is an abbreviation). The shinobue comes in a variety of sizes, each with a number on it. The higher the number, the higher the pitch. The most commonly used shinobues with taiko are sizes 6 and 8. The 8 happens to be in a C major scale, while the 6 is a whole step below that. Each number is actually a half step difference between the shinobue's with the next incremental and decremental numbers. Now, I may sound like I know what I'm talking about with all of this music talk, but I honestly don't really know much about notes, scales, and all that jazz. (no pun intended)

So...back to my story. Because I wanted to learn how to play the shinobue, or fue, I was completely set on purchasing one from Kaoru. However, the fue he had for sale were not cheap. The cheapest was $140, and they went up pretty high in price. Now, most fue that you find in Japan range between $50 and $100, so the "cheap" fue that Kaoru had were still great instruments. But of course, I wanted better. I was actually originally set on purchasing the $140 fue, but after hearing the difference between the $140 fue and the next level up, it was hard to justify the purchase of the cheaper fue. Additionally, I wanted to have a really good fue so that I wouldn't have to buy one in the future. I wanted one good one that would last me (hopefully) forever.

So, I went for the gusto.

After a lot of talking, trying out the different fue, and blowing the only two notes I could make into every size 6 fue he had, I subtracted $300 from my checking account, and I now have a very expensive piece of bamboo with holes in it sitting on my bed. =P Impulse buy indeed.

Now I really have NO excuse not to learn how to play the fue. I have a really nice one, and I also have a limping bank account. Indeed, it's time to practice.

Note: For those of you who I informed of my possible visit to Stanford for the Kenny Endo concert on the last weekend of February, that won't be happening now because the money that would've been used for the flight ($300) went to the purchase of this instrument instead. Sorry about that. And no, I did not choose a piece of bamboo over you. =P