Instruction at SSSG
The regular instructor at SSSG is Patrick Johnson. Patrick has been a student of traditional shakuhachi since 1993 and has been a formal student of Kakizakai Kaoru for the past seven years. He has an informal endorsement from Kaki Sensei to teach beginning and intermediate students in the Koten Honkyoku style.
Sign Up
Lessons can be arranged on an individual basis by contacting Patrick through the dojo email, seattlessg@gmail.com, or submitting the website contact form.
Typical lesson days currently are Wednesdays and Saturdays and the dojo studio is in Patrick’s home in Wallingford. He’ll give you the address and other particulars once you’ve made contact.
The Lessons
Individual lessons are typically 45 minutes in length and we follow the traditional Japanese model of combining individual and class instruction. That is, students have the option of sitting in on one another’s lessons both before and after their own individual time with the teacher. This offers an opportunity for further instruction, but also gives the student taking the lesson the opportunity to play in front of an audience of sorts.
The lesson fee is $35.00 per lesson. I usually ask students to pay for the entire month’s lessons at the start of each month, though there is no fee for a missed lesson. If you or I should need to cancel, any fee you’ve already paid will be carried over to the next month.
