This week on the Bachido Blogcast: Arranging your practice time to accommodate your busy schedule! Also, a new idea for a Bachido addition at the end.
I might have said this earlier but this is getting more and more entertaining great episode . . . also the good lighting and happy face recommendation is spot on . . .
I agree, nice one
Nice vid Kyle. Your words were kind of spot on for my current situation. I’ve been playing too little shamisen and felt I’ve still been doing shamisen related things by programming the shamisen tool. Maybe I should try cake as a motivator.
You also reminded me of the picture you wanted, I’ll get around to take it sometime soon.
Yes! Another great episode from Bachido blogcast… And i think the frontpage thing would be great though i would love to take the picture from above and front the shamisens neck 
a bit “artistic” look though space for resizing and quotes etc might be hard… 
but still i would gladly upload a picture of myself playing VERY happily :DDD
And uh i was amazed that most of this episode was kind of things i already do when i practice playing …Like the state of mind thing “zen” and playing songs i know and then challenging myself with new songs but i also often improvise a bit to learn creativity.
And Kyle nice you play shakuhachi! i always wish and hope that one of my friends here in finland would get interested in shakuhachi, taiko or just japanese music in generally so we could get some serious japanese jamming sessions
But yes all in all very nice episode and i have again this awesome feeling about bachido and our community! Let’s keep the wheels rollin’!
Next up at the Bachido Store: kawaii yubi-suri!
This has become my favored show!
When i get my shamisen you’ll get your pic ;-))
At least I managed to play the first day. Now I’ll just continue with day two 
The stretching exercises really helped. I have neglected them since day one.
But all the excitement made me forget the koma on. It’s always the koma :@ right when you tied the paper+plastic bag and the shamisen to the hard case, you remember the koma…
Oh my! I’ve got some catching up to do!
Bernhard: Thanks! I’m glad that you (and others) are enjoying the blogcasts. I’m happy that Luke’s a little excited with it, as now he’s doing the camerawork so I don’t have to just stick it on a tripod. As I may have said earlier, we used to make family blogcasts for 1.5 years. (http://www.youtube.com/user/AbbottyBlogcast) Really fun to do. We enjoy making videos, but it took so much time that we stopped. Making the Bachido Blogcast has been fun, as it’s like the blogcast, but serves more of a purpose. (Though we learned a lot by making the Abbotty Blogcast)
Karl: Yeah. Like working out or any daily regiment, it’s so easy to skip a day of training/practice, and soon that goes into weeks of non-activity. Granted, breaks are advantageous to learning, as it gives the mind a rest (I’ll talk about that next week), but we have to restart practice sooner or later. 
And anyway, you’ve got a good reason for taking a hiatus. This program is gonna be soooo cool!! Just wait till Kevin gets his hands on it.
Yeah, really good to remember the stretches. I neglected the stretches for a while, and found my wrist was getting stiffer and stiffer.
The badass way to store the koma (as Grant says) is to put the san no ito and ichi no ito on the sides of the koma (between the base and the saddle) and slide it to the empty space between the sao and the skin. The string tension keeps the koma in place, and doesn’t put tension on the skin/koma.
Of course, if it does slip out of the strings, it’s an easy way to lose/crush it, so fair warning.
Ortjo: Great! Yeah, try many different things. Unleash your creative side!
That’s awesome! You’re a better man than I. It was just that day (of filming) when I realized the importance of incorporating the zen element to make the practice deeper.
I bet you’d be able to find at least one shakuhachi player in Finland. It’s definitely much more popular than shamisen (because shakuhachi has more of a zen connection).
Gerry: Haha! Yeah, I wish. I keep trying to convince Masako to make her animal face yubikake for the Bachido Store, but she doesn’t think they’re good. :-S (Humble to a fault, I say ) We’ll see.
Okay! Off to my first metal concert in San Francisco! Hope to make it back in one piece. See you guys soon!
Haha well Kyle you are better player still atleast :DDD
and yes i’ll keep on doing the zen and practicing on creativity i’m actually very interested in playing shamisen in Jazz… So far i haven’t found any REALLY good performances because the shamisen is so sharp sounded in contrast to upright bass etc… But i’m thinking if Gidayu shamisen would have a more… Mellow sound compared to Tsugaru or especially Nagauta/Jiuta shamisens? and ofcourse the right kind of bridge and bachi might help in the cause.
But yeah maybe i will find shakuhachi players. It would be great to play with others who share the love for same kind of music and culture!
And Kyle have fun! “See” you after the concert 
Who did you see Kyle???
Ah, but if I may put the “yoga” element in shamisen; it’s not the proficiency that makes a respectable player, but the effort/consciousness put in that matters.
Ooh, that would be awesome! Have you checked out Agatsuma’s album, “En”? It’s definitely jazz-y sounding, but I’m not too familiar with Jazz, so I don’t know for sure. I’m pretty sure both tsugaru shamisen and nagauta shamisen have been used in jazz fusion, but I can’t think of particular artists.
Woot!! Back and unbruised! Quite a lot of fun, I must say. My friends (who invited me) were there to see the first group from England, The Safety Fire. The headliner was Protest the Hero. Really cool. One can’t understand “moshing” until they actually try it.
hmm i must check out this “En” Album… i’ve listened to Agatsuma from Spotify but all the names of the albums are in japan so it’s a bit hard to know which is which but wikipedia helps
and yes i’ve seen some videos as i said earlier but as i said the sound of shamisen has always sounded too sharp compared to other instruments used in jazz music… But i’ll figure out ways to make it as mellow and warm as possible and still keep the japanese sound in it.
Haha yeah moshing must be experienced
Since day one Kevin has had me on a practice regime, which includes targeted ushiro & mae bachi, slow-mo kamashi, tataki, etc.
I always go through songs I know, and then mainly just improvise. I definitely lack the discipline that Kyle has, and I just noodle around : X.
I really do like the idea of revamping the homepage. Member photos and current events ( or at least a list of links to the blogcast) would be amazing.
Just like what I was saying to Chet, I still say that there’s advantages to noodling around. For example. Grant, after playing so much of the traditional scale, I’m now focusing to be more free on the fingerboard (by playing modern songs or whatever comes to mind) So, in a way, I see how noodling has helped your fluency, and I presume you see how the discipline has helped mine.
So, we both have something to learn from each other’s approach.
Yeah. All that website goodness will be happening soon. Luke’s been really busy with Toneway dev, but we actually resumed talked about the site changes a few days ago.