Twenty-two graded pieces, including duets, for beginners to intermediate. Students can play along with the CD. Accompanying comprehensive and liberally illustrated 24 page manual covers history, schools, genres of shakuhachi music, caring for a bamboo shakuhachi, basics of making a sound, breath, tips for improved sound quality, comparison of notation systems, various techniques (tonguing, meri-kari, vibrato), fingering charts for five and seven hole shakuhachi.