Finally! I have shamisen!!

General
#1

It comes to my house yesterday! this is the package:

it well packed, very well protected. After half an hour, taraaan!

The seller tells to me than it have real dog or cat skin (he doen´t know from what animal it comes…), but I doubt it. Because I didn´t know anything about that, I make some pictures of the skin, If you cant see well, I will try to do some better pictures :slight_smile:

http://imgur.com/kZIV7


I have a question, when I remove the koma, I need to make detension of the strings? Or can I remove it with the strings with the tension. I have a shamisen, and now I have also a lot of questions! sorry if I ask too much! :blush:

#2

Congratulations on your shamisen!

From the last pic it’s hard to tell if it’s plastic or dog. At least I don’t see that its plastic for sure.

When removing the koma and also when putting it in, take your left pinky and insert it from below and lift the strings while moving the koma into position with your right hand. You don’t need to change the tension. However, I think your strings will last longer if you do lower the tension. It depends on how well your koma is made I guess.

I wouldn’t worry about it now when you begin!

#3

So it is not plastic? wow, it seems like that but it didnt´t smells like it, so I have that doubt. It smells old.

A very good thing about this shamisen is… it seems to be played a lot for its previous owner. I like a musical instrument that have history. I usually like to imagine how much good times he/she had with this instrument :slight_smile:

thanks Karl for the info! My Koma is very bad, wooden one that seems very cheap, I will bought a better one in Japan! :slight_smile:

#4

I meant that I’m not sure if it’s plastic or not. I need a better picture with more detail. What I meant was that the picture doesn’t tell me that it’s plastic for sure, meaning it could be dog.

#5

Oki jejeje, I will do better pictures today :slight_smile:

#6

Congrats Paco!

#7

Congrats Paco!

#8

Woohoo!!, looks sweet man!! Congratulations :smiley:

I’m not 100% sure but it looks like natural skin.

#9

Congratulations!

#10

Congratulations, Paco!!! :smiley:

Yes, it indeed looks like natural dog skin. Or, at least I’m sure it once had kids. :wink: (Ooooh…)

Anywho, looking forward to seeing what magic you make with it!

P.S,
I’m sure Kevin (who sees a lot of luggage and packages carried onto planes) can verify that even though “fragile” is written in giant letters, it was probably kicked around in the post office. :wink:

#11

Not FRANGILE at least :wink:

#12

Honestly, with that “FRANGILE” stuff, my first reaction was “Wait, this couldn’t possibly be a Britishism, could it? Or, I dunno, sometimes they use French for international post, so maybe, however bizarre it might be, the French ‘fragile’ has an N?” But no, I hoped for too much. It was just Engrish.

#13

thanks to all!! gracias amigos! :slight_smile:

thanks to Kyle´s videos I am doing the first measures, and sakura that I do the first notes by ear :slight_smile:

But I think I am doing something wrong holding my bachi, because it hurts a lot! and it make me a little wound in my ring finger. But without pain there is no glory! :stuck_out_tongue: umm no, seriusly, I hold it as I see in Kyle´s videos but it hurts a lot. I think may be my bachi its too big?

FRANGILE? oh sht!!

#14

I’ve played for soon 10 months and I still work on getting more and more power without causing pain in my hand. I think it’s an ongoing project to focus on.

Angle your hand and close your eyes and visualize a huge hammer falling down fluently on an anvil, causing a loud sound, and then bouncing off the anvil from the momentum. That’s how I try to focus what I’m trying to achieve with a strike. Hope it helps :slight_smile:

#15

I think my problem is that my bachi is made from wood and a bit sharp in the edges, and of course because I am holding it for first time, so I am doing it wrong. Today holding it did less damage, so I think I am in the good path :slight_smile:

#16

hey, congrats on the shamisen… am glad theres another European shamisenist on the board… yeah…hope to meet and jam with you at some stage…am sure we will!!! well , i have been playing tsugaru style shamisen for over a year now and still get the pain in the wrist when i play longer…the secret to it is just relax your hand…its easily said, but harder to do…even-though i was playing and focusing on relaxing my hand …as soon as i stopped i realized the pain and stiffness…it is hard and it comes with time i guess…i am much better now, after a year of regular practice i had nearly a month off from shamisen and now i feel so relaxed and much more in control as ever before, and the pain is gone… so bachi on!! and relax!!

#17

Congratulations to you and your new instrument !

I think there should be less pain in the beginning. First learn to hold and strike the strings with a comfortable grip. As you find more time to practice you will meet with pain from just wearing down your fingers and tendons but at the start there really should be very little pain. If there is pain from the start it surely means you are not holding the bachi right . You will stretch the skin of your Right hand a bit but should not have real pain until later on, after you have practiced more.

So be careful man! And enjoy!

#18

Sid and Kevin: thanks!! I am playing a bit all days and I think I am doing it better. I am more relaxed and more confident. At first it scares a lot to brake the skin with the bachi!! sometimes I stroke the skin and it scares a bit, but I have Bachigawa so I think there is no danger to the skin.

wow, bachi its hard to use at first! I am remembering when I use the bow for violin for first time! hard to hold, hard not to strike too much the skin, or strike the string you want without striking any other string.

Anyway, “playing” shamisen its what I expected! when I played at first time, and I lisen to that twanggggg, wooow, its amazing! and doing Kyle´s first videos and see that it sounds equal to him, that put a smile in my face! :slight_smile:

shamisen rocks!!!

#19

Nice instrument you got there!

By the way, does anyone know where I can buy a shamisen in Europe? The taxes of importing one from overseas are very high. I don’t care what type the shamisen is, I want a cheap practice instrument. I guess the nagauta is the cheapest and I also like it, so I’d appreciate if someone could help me.

#20

Congratulations :slight_smile:
make sure to try and post a vid of your first attempts at playing so you can look back on them later ^^
I did for myself anyway, and i already see that i sucked badly lol
<3
I also know that i improved alot.

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