“Why It Sounds Off (and Why That’s Not a Bad Thing)”

🎐 A More Technical Explanation

As we saw in the previous article: despite its simple appearance, the hitoyogiri presents a real challenge in terms of intonation, and invites a different kind of listening.

Let me break down the how and why in this follow-up.

1. A Shorter Flute = Less Stable Pitch

The hitoyogiri is shorter than the shakuhachi (especially the 1.8 shakuhachi), which means:

• A shorter air column → even the slightest change in breath, embouchure, or angle has an immediate and strong effect.
• Less margin for error: just a small shift, and you’re suddenly too sharp or too flat.

A longer shakuhachi has a more stable air column, especially in the lower register, which gives more room to “search” for the note.

2. Pitch… is Relative

The hitoyogiri uses a non-tempered fingering system, inherited from an ancient vocal tradition — one that’s closer to singing than to modern instrumental logic. As a result:

• Some notes are intentionally a little high or low.
• Even with the correct fingerings, you must compensate with your breath, angle, and mouth shape.
• In the end, you’re seldom exactly “in tune” in the modern sense — instead, you’re in a floating, expressive space.

And for a modern ear… this can be frustrating.
Because it craves a fixed note, while the hitoyogiri… sings around it.

3. Shakuhachi: Flexible, Yet Centered

And now it’s time to bust a myth…or at least to clarify a fairly common shortcut used in the shakuhachi world : the hitoyogiri is easier to play than the shakuhachi.

• On a good shakuhachi, each fingering brings you into a zone of pitch that you can shape using meri and kari techniques.
• Once your embouchure is well set, you can feel the center of the note.
• On the hitoyogiri, that center is harder to find — and to hold — especially in the higher register, where everything can spin off quickly.

In Summary:

✅ Yes, the hitoyogiri may seem easier to make a sound on (thanks to its small size and short distance to the embouchure),
🚫 but it’s much harder to keep that sound in tune.

It’s an instrument that forgives nothing,
but sings in its own way — with fluctuations, inflections, and an ancient sense of pitch.

🎵 Why It Sounds “Funny” to the Modern Ear

As we’ve seen, on the hitoyogiri, covering the right holes isn’t enough.
You need to breathe, adjust, listen.
The note doesn’t simply appear — it must be shaped.

That’s what makes the sound so alive… and also a bit strange to modern ears.

🎼 What If It’s Not “Wrong”… But Ancient?

Our modern idea of “correct pitch” comes from the tempered scale, inherited from European classical music.

But the hitoyogiri is an ancient instrument, from a different culture — and with different references:

• It draws on the ryō and ritsu scales, found in gagaku, the Japanese imperial court music.
• These scales are not tempered — they produce intervals that differ significantly from what we’re used to hearing today.

🎵 The result:
Even if you play “correctly” by gagaku standards,
a modern ear may still hear the note as slightly sharp… or flat.

It’s a bit like listening to bagpipes or Gregorian chant when you’ve grown up on pop and piano:

It takes a little time to adjust.

🌿 An Ancient Flute for a Different Kind of Listening

The hitoyogiri is a small, bubbling flute — light-hearted at times,
capable of lifting the spirit with joyful phrases,
or quieting the mind with tones that invite focus and reflection.

It asks for patient ears,
an open heart,
and a taste for living imperfection.

So if you hear a “wrong note” in one of my videos…

maybe it’s me doing something wrong!
or maybe it’s an echo from ancient Japan, inviting you to travel through time.