First Ever Bachido Challenge - Rokudan

Playing/Techniques
#101

Great rendition, Anne! You’re getting a nice, clean snap on the san no ito. It comes out very clear. I think the next level for you will be to give that bachi some swing. The momentum from the swing will make the ichi no ito snapping more solid, and will make the you feel more relaxed. Swing it as if you were giving Grant a good spanking. :wink:

Travis: Man, your shamisen has a really clear tone! Maybe a combination of your playing, the mic and the room, but the clarity of your shamisen really caught my ears. :slight_smile:

(Hey Norm, is he allowed to play the whole Rokudan?? This is the Ichidan challenge, after all. What a showoff! )

#102

With only 72 hours left in the Rokudan Challenge, I felt the greedy urge to submit another entry.

Without further adieu, Rokudan with one finger!

Hey Grant, when are you gonna film your bit for the Rokudan challenge? If KH filmed something (which I never thought he’d do :wink: ), then you have no excuse! :wink:

#103

Kyle you show off XD

love the clear tone of Travis’ and seriously, all of you are making a total beginner wonder if i’ll ever even get that far…

#104

Great progress Anne and Travis!

Hey Kyle bro, nice playing, but can you do it with the pinky?!?!?!?

#105

Karl: Believe it more not, I was actually considering to do use the pinky instead of the index. :wink: I’m a little afraid of spraining it though.

Soca time!

#106

Chutney time!

#107

Oooh! That’s earworm worthy!

#108

Kinda panicked when I realized I can’t record this tomorrow without being stressed as the contest limit should be when Japan has its 2013! I feel that I’m improving but I need to get better consistancy and you only get that by practicing even more. I just wish I had practiced a little more :slight_smile:

Sorry about the crappy lighting, I only had a 25W bulb available when the last one went out.

Kevin, you should recognize the start.

#109

Oh man! Thanks Karl! That made my day! Thanks for the last minute submission too. Sounding great! I also realized I’d like to compliment some of the latest additions. Anne, wonderful work! Looking forward to skyping both you guys soon! (w/Grant) and Kyle with the one finger! That was groovy ! Travis ! You did an Amazing job learning all of Roku Dan. Loved the spinner at the end too! Grant Reimer’s tradition has spread across the globe! Haha! awesome everyone! Thanks for all the great sharing of videos! Special thanks to Norm for getting us all going! And of course to all bachido members regardless of video submissions or not thank you all for making Kyle Abbott’s great website (Luke too of course) the place of growth and excitement it has become this past year! Bachido has been a dream come true for me ever since I was a lone Shamisener playing in the USA I always thought how cool it would be to be in touch with others around world who share this interest ! It took me a while to jump on board after I heard from Kyle that he had made the bachido site but once I realized the level of epic potential here I became much more involved! I’m really glad I did too. We should all send Kyle a global thumbs up for Bachido! Awesome stuff bro!

#110

Ooh!! I recognize that intro! :smiley:
Great show, Karl! And I’m not just saying that. :wink: I notice significant improvement from your earlier videos. Especially the 18-18-18 triplets on the san no ito! Very clean and I can hear confidence! From our Skype chat, let’s say that I can see “results.” :wink:

Yes! Many thanks to Norm for starting this challenge! It’s a fun way for us to all get posting our progress (which, as I recall) is something we’ve been trying to do all year). And from what he said, it’s only part 1! :stuck_out_tongue: Can’t wait to see what the next part entails!
And on that note, can’t wait to see Norm’s video! :wink:

And thanks to my dear brother Luke for his talented web design. I highly doubt that Bachido would be as awesome as it is without him as “The Architect”. From what he says, combining a forum, video page and storefront all in one website is not an easy thing to do, so it serves as a testament to his web wizardry skillz!

And lots of gratitude to my parents for their daily support and suggestions/advice with this little passion that is Bachido. It definitely means a lot. (Plus, did you know that Papa Abbott was the one who came up with the name Bachido??)

Finally, thanks to everyone for being so active and energized with shamisen and Bachido! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when I dedicate 100% time/energy to a Bachido project (like Store, product videos, album, etc), I’m heartened to see that the forum is staying alive by all of you. Thumbs up(s) for everybody!! :smiley:

Huzzaah!!

Kyle

#111

Thanks bros! I just realized that during the year that I’ve had the shamisen, I’ve only changed one string and that was san-no-ito. Sometime soon I’m going to change the strings and I will make a recording of before/after. Will be interesting to see how much of a difference it makes. I think that the ichi-no-ito will have a lot better sawari for one.

And yeah, it’s been a great year for Bachido. Lots of improvements to the site and a bunch of new people joining and starting out! Rejoice!

#112

Nice ichidan ladies and gentlemen.

Btw do you think we should disqualify Norm for slacking?

#113

Haha! Well, I happen to know that Norm has a really good reason for cutting it close to/past the deadline. Hopefully he’ll tell everyone soon. :stuck_out_tongue:

Btw, nice seasonal profile pic update. :wink:

#114

A little bit of the ol’ last minute submission.
I just ate dinner, and had 30 minutes until I’m off to a New Year’s Eve party - so what do I do!? – FILM ROKUDAN Part 1!
I’ve got Anne here as camera-girl and I figured there was no better time then the very last possible second the throw in another entry.

I apologize to all my fans for the missed mae bachi strikes on the bachizuke… I know I’ve disappointed you all. But I promise they were perfect yesterday … -cough-

You all are wonderful and inspiring! Thank you for continuing to grow our community and here’s to an awesome 2012!

#115

Yayyyyyy!!!

Way to slip through the closing deadline door Indiana Jones style, bro! (And I know you’ve got a leather jacket and fedora to really pull it off)

New year’s treat right there! And who knew that Grant wore glasses?! o_O

#116

Grant! You played it like a Boss! Heck yeah! This reminds me of the time you and I formed a tribute band to Nitta Oyako. I was Hiroshi and you were Masahiro Nitta! Remember that? That was hilarious. I was all like “yessir, this is my SON!” woot! But seriously! It was worth the wait (for the Reimer addition ). When are you guys gonna Skype me?

#117

Oh, was I supposed to Skype you? I’ve been waiting for the video. :stuck_out_tongue:

Anywho, yeah, I’ll PM you now. If anything, you can show me the melody and I can make a video of it.

#118

Oh! surprizing. He is my master. Very skilled and talented. Recommend to all if you live in Tokyo, Saitama areas.

Btw, he has few marks on the Sao but indeed he never look at them. There is no need for him. Then why?
He rents out the Sao when he teaches in classes. The marks are for students, not for him!

Take Yamanaka Nobuto for example. He teaches at Senzoku Gakuen University, and he’s featured in their really great iTunes U series. (Someone started a thread about that series earlier. It’s amazing. Everyone should download all those videos. I found my favorite version of Aiya Bushi that way!) Here’s an example of him lecturing/demoing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq67rgfmtFI

And just cuz, you should also check out this video of him playing Tsugaru Ohara Bushi and Akita Nikata Bushi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htkHIaiMjfs

I have to admit, though, even though he’s got the marks, I dunno if he ever looks at them. It looks like he’s just got his eyes closed whenever he plays. Could be sneaking looks, though, that sly man, he.

#119

Yea…

So I learned something about myself at the end of 2012…
I can’t play music on Camera

I wanted to post a challenge to everyone
something that we can grow with together
something that hits the base and core of what tsugaru shamisen really is.

and additionally, something that I dont entirely suck at would be nice too

and so I picked rokudan
a song that can take years to play correctly
and challenged myself to master it in a short time

I learned the song in the middle of July, and wanted to see what I could do in 6 months or less

Well… I got it going pretty smooth. So I thought I’d post the challenge

Did 15 takes in the first 2 months of the challenge, and couldn’t seem to get it on video

I put the camera away for all of december until I could do it 10 times in a row without missing anything

And then in the last day of december, I did 20 takes…
in one day…

But couldnt even get through bachizuke

and so I give you the end-result
it turns out I can play live, and I can play in front of one/some of the most prestigious shamisen players ever known, but a camera kills me (>_

#120

lol oh god I hope nobody clicked the first link I put in there hahahaha

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