Future Bachido Updates

[Kyle_Abbott]

Hey everyone!

Over the past few months, there have been a few updates here and there, but nothing real spectacular since the Bachido Store was released. Oh, and the Bachido Blogcast/TV thing, of course.

Two weeks ago, Papa asked, “So, I take it that Bachido is settling in? Is everything made and completed?” “Besides making a weekly blogcast, I guess so…” I replied. However, that moment on, new ideas suddenly sprung to mind! Talking with Luke, Grant, Nitta, and other folks brought forth even more potential additions for the site.

So without further adieu, here’s something for you all to look forward to.

Front Page:

First and foremost! A new front page constantly updated with fresh, new content. I mean, why hunt through the site for new goodies when you can get it all on the front page? What will the content be? Well, we’re still working that out, but it’ll be something like this:

Slideshow of people with their shamisen (mentioned on Episode 4 of the Bachido Blogcast) - requiring submissions from shamisen owning people. (Come on guys! ;-P)

Most recent Bachido Blogcast

Most recent articles (This will be a completely new addition – full articles from experienced shamisen players – Kevin, Mike, hopefully Masahiro, and possibly myself… and others!)

Recommended youtube video

Most recent forum posts

Most recent Bachido Store Special

And potentially more (or less)

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Bachido Store

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Adding Nagauta, Jiuta shamisen/accessories to the store – Being that the crash course and the book are about tsugaru shamisen, I figured might as well start off by just carrying tsugaru things. However, a lot of nagauta players also come to Bachido, so it is only polite to accommodate all styles.

Putting all the CDs on iTunes, at lower prices. After all, $30 is a lot to spend on an album. I may be mistaken, but it seems that albums are expensive in Japan, and aren’t often available for download. Hopefully we can change that.

Bachido Swag: Shirts, kimono, mugs, trinkets. Why doesn’t Bachido have any??? Good point, I wonder that too. Needless to say, that will change.

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Learning Center

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Artist biography: Biographies (and perhaps interviews in the future) of both famous and upcoming shamisen players from around the world.

Notation: Notation for all pieces (Godai Tsugaru, Minyou, Modern, and more) will all be available here.

Blogcast Page

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Having a page to catalog all the blogcast episodes.

Maybe some information on cast and guests.

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Yessiree! There will potentially be more… or less. But whatever happens, it will be awesome.

Stay tuned!

[Jessica_Dowd]

Would be nice to have nagauta/jiuta lessons on here too. =) Would save alot of people from pulling there hair out trying to find teachers or other ways to learn.

[Karl_Hedlund]

I’m a bit disappointed in myself in that I do not share more of what I’m doing. I don’t think that it will be interesting for other people, but maybe it is?

Maybe other people here on the forum are having the same feelings. I’m getting ready for bed so I don’t have the solution right now. However I feel that if there is a way to make this interesting for others then that would be a great boost to the activity on the forums.

And great list of updates

[Kevin_Kmetz]

Karl,
About making/posting videos…I think it just depends. I also have not posted too much here because I don`t want to become “The guy that is ALWAYS posting his videos on bachido”. Perhaps I should not worry so much either and just start sharing more of what I have been doing with Shamisen but I guess I am subconsciously hoping that more people here would post more of their vids with originals and more creative ideas. That way I would feel more open to it as that would turn it into more of a Community “sharing” vibe.
Maybe we should all just start posting more vids in general of each other. I certainly enjoyed the improv stuff you posted a while ago and have enjoyed some of the other clips that have popped up here.

[Kyle_Abbott]

Jessica: Yeah, that would be good to have. Someone else would have to do it, as I never really learned much nagauta/jiuta technique (However, the most basic part of the tsugaru crash course benefits nagauta/jiuta style as well. Only minor differences in the basics)

Karl: Frankly, I’m a little disappointed in you too. Just kidding, kidding. But seriously, even though programming jargon goes a bit over my head, I (and others, I’m sure) would be very interested in hearing your progression. Remember, it’s all about community. So I think anything you do, shamisen-related, (or random things, if it’s awesome) would be of interest to us all.

Kevin: Oooooh!!! That gives me an idea!! As you saw, we thought about having a “Recommended youtube video” on the front page. But instead, perhaps that could be videos of recent submissions by Bachido members. After all, great videos have been posted, but it gets lost in the forums. Having an actual spot for user submissions on the front page (where all recent stuff will be shown) would be great for sharing!

Man, I’m glad I posted these ideas first. Luke and I were discussing whether to introduce the ideas to you guys, or wait until they were completed. Needless to say, I’m happy we shared. The input/suggestions are invaluable while the ideas are in the beginning stages.

[Karl_Hedlund]

I hear you

I’m currently trying to learn a song that I think you will all enjoy. It’s just that I can’t play it properly yet since my technique is not good enough. I guess I will have to play it slower, which is something I am allergic to. I’ll just record something to get it all starting.

As for the shamisen program, it seems Libor has become very busy. I don’t think any work has been done for 1-2 weeks. I’ll talk to him and see how things are. I might have to take over his work for the moment if he doesn’t have the time to work on it. We need this tool published!

[Liam_Morgan]

Hi,

Kevin: Nobody would mind if you posted loadsa videos! Everyone was thrilled to have you here and everyone regards you as a true pro!

Kyle: I agree wih Jessica, some Jiuta stuff would be great, I know it’s mainly for tsugaru but there is no reason to limit ourselves. Good call on the merch…I would want a bachido cup for work :p. The updates sound kool but I would like to make a suggestion:
Anybody who is proficient with the godai pieces could post short videos showin you how to create those signatue “riffs” that get used again and again, for example, the 5-3-0-0 phrase. Once people can pull these off they can start making their own Jongara bushi and it would be very interesting to see what everyone comes up with, regardless of level, speed etc.

Karl: We want more funk!

L

[Ortjo_Nieminen]

Once again all of this just leaves me speechless!

All these improvements sounds so very good.
I have thought about sharing/making videos but haven’t done anything about it yet… Actually i would be VERY interested to see beginners and average players also post videos of their playing and ideas etc…

And yes Kevin you can post all your videos and i think i can say it for all of us that we won’t get tired of you so easily

And yeah i want this long bachido “cloak” ( or kimono) so if i ever perform live somewhere i want to show where i “come from”!

[Dominique_Vuitel]

Wonderfull news for nagauta players !

[Karl_Hedlund]

I actually recorded some stuff today… I THOUGHT! My batteries ran out after approx 15 seconds of recording and I was so into the music that I didn’t check the recording light. Then suddenly I was going to adjust the dou on my lap when I noticed the following:

http://filfyren.se/dl/2346285photo.jpg

At least you can see that I take my shamisen playing seriously.

Will get some new batteries and record in the coming days.

[Kyle_Abbott]

Kevin: I guesssss you can post videos. But I expect to see some Children of Bodom or Trivium covers!

Karl: Aw snap! I believe you have officially reached Bad Ass status.
I’ve heard stories about Mike Penny often blooding up his pinky on the koma too.

I see. Nothing wrong with a little break. After all, there will be much to look forward to in the near future.

Liam: Awesome! Masahiro and I have a lot to talk about. Hopefully we can come up with some tasteful swag. If anyone has any designs/ideas they’d like to see, I’m all ears!

Sure, I’ll try to film the basic 4300 riff for next week’s blogcast.

[Karl_Hedlund]

It’s just bad technique I guess I don’t know if shamisen is in my blood, but at least I now know that my blood is in my shamisen.

[Liam_Morgan]

WOAH!
How did you do that???
Just the other day I was paying extra attention to my pinky, trying to make sure it was tucked in. I noticed it was sticking out because I was trying to keep my hand relaxed. I kept thinking, “if my pinkys out I could actually hit the koma and it would not be pretty”.
Still… mans a bad man! Nice one lol.

[Ortjo_Nieminen]

Karl
that was actually pretty epic sentence.

[Libor_Turek]

Haha, when we have a bachido quotes hall of fame that one will be definitely in there under top 10 epics!

Just to update you quickly on the composer software: yeah I am really busy at the moment and I would love to be able to work more one it, but it’s not like there is no progress

imagecrate.de

This is just a quick screenshot of the sheet area - I have started to rewrite rokudan for testing purposes - and as you can see I got stuck at the triplet part… I am just thinking about how to display and use the triplets properly ; )

But back to the topic - that’s great news Kyle, especially the front page, as at the moment it’s really easy to loose track of content that’s coming directly from you!

[Karl_Hedlund]

Hehe I didn’t really mean to be serious about that quote, even though it’s true A shamisen quote part of the front page would be pretty cool though! It could be about shamisen in general or comments about the book, forums, shop or videos.

[Kyle_Abbott]

Oh my… that screenshot almost gives me shivers. It is so exciting to know that you guys are actually making a program that can make professional looking notation very easily.

Ooh! Here’s a thought! It may be hard to do, or it may have been mentioned already, but I’ll say it. So when I make notation, I need to play it many many many times with my shamisen to make sure it sounds correct. And even then I STILL have mistakes. But what if you have a way so you could play back the notation you’ve written? Like, after you write out a phrase, you can press a button and it would generate it into a midi playback, or something? That would be very useful.

As I said on the email, I’ll think about a way to “symbolize” the triplet and pass it around.

Karl: Yeah! Like testimonials or things. I’ve collected quite a few, so there would be enough for a long cycle of them.

[Libor_Turek]

I can ensure you Kyle, that after the visualization part is done, playback is the first thing that will be added!

[Alessandro_Zecca]

Hi guys.

Maybe some of you have heard of Guitar Pro Software before.
It’s a very sofisticated, yet simple & ituitive to use, Standard Notation/Tabs creation/editing program that let’s you hear the composed music in realtime with different dedicated guitar-sounds or other provided instruments.
It would be über-cool to have an app similar for shamisen!
Available for different mobile platforms…that would rock, too.

Cheers
Ale

[Karl_Hedlund]

Hey Alessandro.

I know what program you mean, and I agree that it would rock to have such a program. It is a commercial product that has been under development by many developers full-time during many years. To achieve such a program takes time! Shamisen isn’t as popular as the guitar, so the profit of making such an advanced program is not that large.

I therefore decided to make a simple tab maker that we could use in the small community. It’s what we’ve got:

There are also some Japanese commercial products, but from what I’ve gathered they are not as well developed as Guitar Pro.