Hi Bachido members! It’s a new year so let’s start a new post dedicated to New IMPROVISATIONS !!! Karl, Josh, Kyle, Anne, Grant, Sid, Jack, Mike Penny and anyone else out there with improv chops! Please add a link here with your latest improv!
I’ll start this off with…
Come on folks don’t be shy!
Aki Ten Ten Canada, Adrian, Linda, Cana, anybody !!! Let’s share what we are doing.
Here’s another silly one from last night…
Challenge accepted. Great stuff!
Kevin if you don’t already, you should start tabbing these for later use. Great stuff :D!
and uh what tuning are you using when you are improvising?
hey Kevin,
the God of shamisen, i wanna jam with you again…mochiron…i cant afford to go to Misawa thou… am kinda yen-less…heh but happy…
wanna come over? you can stay here for a few nights if you like, but have to play a concert, u know what i am saying!!
perhaps a bachido early rehearsal session???
…
anyway here is my humble impov for bachido…
the camera couldnot handle the volume of my plastic shamisen and created rather lovely distortion…hehe…
Wooooooaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!
Excellent improv Sid! I think you have gotten much more solid and focused in your own original style of expressing yourself ! Nobody else in the world can express Shamisen the way you do! It’s really Awesome! I can hear the Indian scales and Raga influence but then there is much much More!!! Sometimes sounding more Persian or etc., Middle Eastern. And then finally just sounding like your own original melodic sense and dynamics! It’s really exciting when you get wild twords the end!
The camera distortion was cool too! Created an interesting effect on the tone!
Thanks for posting ! Alright Karl! Now it’s your turn!
Ortjo,
The blues one is in A and the other one is probabaly closer to B or C!
Tuning is Ni Agari !
thanks kevin,
yeah the whole idea of improv is dont think about it and just play!!
so everybody out there! press the record button, dont think about it and just play what ever comes up… it does not matter whether it is good, bad, cool or weird…just play !!!
your own shamisen!!!
ねー
Dear Kevin and Sid;
Beautiful!!
Let me express my deep gratitude for your great improvisations.
I am going to respond with a swift attack.
Today we had a heavy snow in Canada. Perfect! Went outside with my shamisen and abandoned my bachi to its fate.
This is my San-Sagari improv in blowing snow:
Excellent tenten canada Aki! It’s so Crazy to see and hear you in the snow! It’s really interesting to hear everyone’s different styles while playing Shamisen through improv! You have a unique flow that sounds both traditional but also with something new! Definately it is your original way! Now we need to hear from Karl! And Grant! And Anne!!! And Everyone!
yeahhh!!
10 10 thats exactly what i was talking about earlier…
dont think and just play your own shamisen!!
great!!!
i love it!!
thanks
buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
buuuuuuuuu
you guys suck!!
nobody???
i expected people going nuts playing away,but ???
common!!! there s so many good players out there…but???
buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
I did some improv and Kita no Hibiki practice yesterday but I didn’t feel it came out any good at all. Couldn’t get an improv flow going. But I’ll share part of it with you since Sid cried like a baby 
I will continue to keep the camera on while practicing and improving and since the tour is coming up I’ll be trying to play more, so expect more videos to come. Maybe I’ll have learned to position the camera so my face can be seen next time. We don’t want those croch shots I uploaded years ago coming back… or do we ladies? wink wink
:)) karl great…thanks…
but I want more …buuuuuuuuuuuuuu…hehhe
common bachido!!
BUUUUNK!
I recorded a video, but youtube is being lame and I can’t upload it. Been trying for the last half-hour…
Great Karl! Really bluesy sounding! Yeah! Film more!!!
And Adrian… No more excuses ! Upload NOW brothahhhhh!!
At last! The moment as come!
First, kudos Kevin for making a new improv post! We always need this kick in the pants to keep our creative muscles excersized! (Gah, I never can spell that correctly)
I’ve been holding off my improv submitting for a very special day… today! It felt very appropriate to wait until this evening, when I went to improvise with Rick Walker!
Rick Walker, a legendary musician in Santa Cruz and lifelong supporter of music (and has been on the blogcast a few times), invited me to add some shami-riffs in a concert dedicated to him - Rick Walker: Celebration of a Lifetime in Music. With one 15 minute practice the previous day, we were ready to improvise!
Twas a bizarre thing when walking on stage. My hands started shaking so much, I was having difficulty plugging in my shamisen. Fighting nerves made my timing a little wonky, but in any case, it was a great time and very fun to play with the talented and soulful Rick Walker!
On a surreal note, I’m using Kevin’s shamisen and bachi (who used to play with Rick as well). When I was starting, I only wanted to play traditional folk songs, never a desire to improvise even though Kevin offered to teach me. It’s even more ironic that not only am I improvising now, but it was with his shamisen and bachi as well!
Wow man! The Benya right? Trippyyyyyyy! The slides and stuff sounded somewhat Indian at times like a Sarod or esraj etc. thanks Kyle! Been waiting for the Old Bachido Chief to add to this one!
Indeed! That’s the beniya with a homemade itomaki (to replace the broken one), and your birthday bachi! Yeah, the modes Rick played just really brought out those flavors in the shamisen. I think the mellow tone of the Beniya was very fitting.
This gig was planned even before you started this thread, and I knew it would be so appropriate, being Rick Walker and everything. So every day I thought “mou chotto… mou chotto…”
I’m glad I waited. More interesting than being in front of the white wall.
More will come though! More will come! 