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As a community service project LCCC students donated Jared Boxes to local hospitals

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Pro Life Mass at St. John’s the Baptist Church in Larksville

<p>KINGSTON &#8212; Music from around the world is a mouse click away. For musician Jamie Orfanella, world music is in between his fingertips. Orfanella spent 10 years learning the art of the Japanese shakuhachi flute. It has lead him to a certification in teaching the traditional instrument and to learning a new range of musical instruments.</p><p>From his practice room at his Kingston home, Orfanella, who is a music teacher at Valley View Middle School, can trace his fascination with world music back to his junior high school years and an impulse buy at a record store.</p><p>&#8220;You remember the old cut-out bins in record stores,&#8221; Orfanella said, referring to how retailers would discount old, discontinued albums. &#8220;Going through them one day I found this cassette, &#8216;Art of the Japanese Bamboo Flute.&#8217; It sounded interesting and it was a dollar, so I grabbed it. I listened to it quite a bit. It&#8217;s now stretched and plays kind of funky. And then I forgot about it for years.&#8221;</p><p>Fast forward to 2005, Orfanella, his wife, Stephanie, and son, Miles, decided to take a karate class designed for both children and adults.&#8220;The instructor had a boom box and he would be playing music and I started hearing that sound again. It took me right back to that tape.&#8221;</p><p>That&#8217;s all that was needed for Orfanella to learn more about the bamboo flute. </p><p>His first flute was made by New York-based musician, John Kypros, who offered to teach him to play. One of the first challenges Orfanella encountered was reading the music. Western music is written on five-line staffs and reads from left to right, top to bottom. Shakuhachi flute music is written similar to Japanese writing; symbols or characters are used for each note, which are arranged in columns read from top to bottom, right to left.</p><p>&#8220;It kind of spooked me at first,&#8221; Orfanella said. &#8220;His reaction was &#8216;Well, if you want to write it in western notation, maybe you could do that.&#8217; So I was like &#8216;OK, I&#8217;ll do that.&#8217; And as he started teaching me, it made no sense.&#8221; </p><p>One difficulty in translating is that the Japanese notation also indicates how certain notes should be played. The basic tuning of a the flute is pentatonic; five notes per octave. Different sized flutes are in different keys.</p><p>Orfanella said there are about 88 tones one can play on a shakuhachi flute. To get other pitches, the music has notations on how the musician is to tilt his or her head in relation to the instrument, position fingers over the flute&#8217;s holes and how to modify the amount of air blown. </p><p>Orfanella&#8217;s current instructor, Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin, holds two grand master titles in shakuhachi. They meet twice a month. Seldin has the most students outside of Japan, including some from Syracuse, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. He also teaches online via Skype.</p><p>For Orfanella to gain his shakuhachi music certification he had to learn several standard pieces of shakuhachi music and master specific sets. He also needed to be able to read the music upside down.</p><p>&#8220;I actually have to turn everything upside down as if I was sitting across from you teaching a lesson and I&#8217;m reading it upside down and you&#8217;re reading it right-side up,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You have to be able to go through everything you already learned and teach it.&#8221;</p><p>For some, learning the shakuhachi flute is a part of the path of zen meditation, but for Orfanella, it is a gateway to studying a number of world instruments. Orfanella attended a district music festival where a colleague heard him practicing, then lent him an Australian didgeridoo to try. He now owns several of the long cylindrical instruments and has even turned his hand to crafting a few. The didgeridoo, shakuhachi flute and several other regional flutes are what Orfanella uses when playing at regional venues part of Tribal Waves, a world music/jazz fusion combo.</p><p>Despite all the differences in music style, Orfanella discovered the influence it had on his approach to other instruments.</p><p>&#8220;I did find that learning shakuhachi flute has changed my trumpet playing, &#8220; he said. &#8220;Every new instrument that I&#8217;ve picked up has changed my musicianship in a lot of ways. Playing didgeridoo, learning what it is like to be the bottom of the sound instead of always being a solo instrument up top. My wife got me into the ukulele. She said, &#8216;I want to learn ukulele!&#8217; and I said &#8216;What? Why? It&#8217;s a toy!&#8217; but after 10 minutes I was like &#8216;Oh, I got to have one of these!&#8217; It was the first stringed instrument that I could relate to. I now have a ukulele group at my school, the Valley Vukes.&#8221;</p><p>Orfanella said he is amazed at the journey he has taken.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m about turn 50, and my 40s have been the best,&#8221; he said, casting an eye across his numerous instruments. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t do any of this 10 years ago. I hope my 50s can match up to it.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Jamie Orfanella plays a Japanese 1.8 flute in his home studio in Kingston. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_flute1_faa.jpg</photo0><caption0>Jamie Orfanella plays a Japanese 1.8 flute in his home studio in Kingston. </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_flute2_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Jamie Orfanella practicing a traditional Japanese piece of music on his Japanese 1.8 flute in his home studio in Kingston. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_flute2_faa.jpg</photo1><caption1>Jamie Orfanella practicing a traditional Japanese piece of music on his Japanese 1.8 flute in his home studio in Kingston. </caption1><photoCredit1>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_flute3_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Jamie Orfanella blows into the mouth piece of his Japanese 1.8 flute. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_flute3_faa.jpg</photo2><caption2>Jamie Orfanella blows into the mouth piece of his Japanese 1.8 flute. </caption2><photoCredit2>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_flute4_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Jamie Orfanella plays on his Japanese 1.8 flute as he performs a piece of traditional Japanese music. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_flute4_faa.jpg</photo3><caption3>Jamie Orfanella plays on his Japanese 1.8 flute as he performs a piece of traditional Japanese music. </caption3><photoCredit3>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_flute6_faa.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Jamie Orfanella owns a variety of flutes and musical instruments. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_flute6_faa.jpg</photo4><caption4>Jamie Orfanella owns a variety of flutes and musical instruments. </caption4><photoCredit4>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Valley View teacher is a student of Japanese flute music</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Rich Drees</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach the arts and entertainment department at 570-991-6111 or at ae@www.timesleader.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

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Valley View Middle School teacher, Jamie Orfanella, is on his way to mastering Japanese flute music