G’Morning Bachido.
Well after almost a decade of pondering wether this would be cool or simply cheesy to do, I finally decided to bite the bullet and cover Metallica’s MASTER OF PUPPETS on Shamisen…I’m a little surprised that it turned out to be great fun to arrange and play. Thought I’d share this with my Bachido brethren !
Here’s a few other metal moment I shared with my Shamisen in the past
Dio (R.I.P.)
And Iron Maiden
And we can’t forget Yngwie Malmsteen of course…
Mr. Kevin Kmetz, THE baos.
That cover sounded so much better than I thought MoP would be possible on a shamisen. Will definately be a video I will share with friends and coworkers to prove yet again how awesome this instrument is!
uau, great!!
no need for distortion or other effects at all, the raw sound of shamisen sounds so rock on!!
am headbanging here…
perhaps you could write some duo/trio shamisen piece in similar style? imagine that could be so powerful… or have you tried something like that already? shamisenopocalyptica…
Sid,
We should all write something together and include you and Jack! I love Jack’s original music called Mortago (Ohh, I hope I remembered that title correctly., I think that’s what he called it). Do you know that one ? It’s really Rockin!
great! I also remember your acdc accordion duet cover was one of the first shamisen clips I stumbled upon on youtube . . . of course I was hooked immediatly after seeing that one . . .
didnt know it by the name, so have googled it and found a short clip of you playing it and instantly recognized the tune…
its a great one… i should have a video of jack playing it somewhere, will look for it…
Funny story here… It’s how I first met Jack. I liked his song so much that i learned it and posted it after I heard him playing it. Then we met over YouTube by exchanging messages and finally a few years ago I met him in person. I think he has always been one of my favorite Shamisen players. Something really pure and Rockin’ about his style and the emotion he plays with!
B H , Do you mean this one?
uhmm have found great version on youtube of it…dont know have to upload the link, tho, how do you do it???
ahh ok just like that?? cool
I have found the video… check this out!!
its from the concert here in Ireland last summer when jack and his crew visited. He plays a tsugaru song first and then his song, plus i put the end of the final jam of the concert… jungle bean hasn’t played since summer, everybody’s too busy…hmm pity
I have a new band tho, so i keep playing…
anyway here is the video!!
enjoy!
Wow! Great clip from the concert in Cork! That Rocks!!!
Whooa!!!
This thread rocks on so many metals!! I mean, levels. (I swear, that was a real slip of the words)
Not cheesy at all, my brother! Why is it that shamisen seems to be able to fit with almost anything?? One day, I hope we will be able to restart a shamisen rock band.
Dibs on screaming, of course. (Sid, you’ve got some experience in that whole scene, right?)
And this is why Kevin Kmetz is Legend.
the God of shamisen…
bow bow
they say that the first tsugaru shamisen boom peaked in 1920’s with Gunpachiro, the second shamisen boom with Chikuzan in 70’s, the third boom arose in late 90’s with Agatsuma and Yoshida Brothers, well its been over 20years, we need another boom… the 21century tsugaru shamisen bachido boom!!!
We are “All” God of Shamisen! It’s just a symbol for loving to play Shamisen. If it’s exciting and you love it and it causes your vibe to soar into a place of creativity and joy then you have merged with the “God” energy. And all of us have that! Everybody! Know what I’m sayin? YEAH! Thanks for watching! Metal is so fun! I also want to do a section on Jazz and hip hop. Jazz is tricky with chord changes on Shamisen but not impossible. It’s more about finding the right songs. blue bossa and autumn leaves work nicely. Hip hop beats tend to work as great practice for playing along. They work well because almost all of them stay in one key the whole time. That is perfect for practicing Ichi no Ito tataki over and over or jongara bushi phrases. And in mu opinion it makes it more fun than just working with a metronome!
Kevin, when you are transcribing tunes for shamisen do you always transpose it to C (well or D), that the first and third stings are tonic notes?? I find it the logical way and the fingerings do make more sense, but sometimes i would really need extra lower notes, so was thinking perhaps I should do it differently…
you have inspired me to transcribe some Bach pieces and am learning them to play, its good fun, completely new fingerings and positions, its hard!!
Sid, generally my range on Shami is to go as low as G. That makes the strings G-D-G. My highest key right now is Eb. That makes Eb-Bb-Eb. It’s actually closer to the traditional way because Long ago Shamisen had no standard tuning except for hon choushi, ni agari and San Sagari. But the first players did not know too much about notes the way the western mind thinks about it. They only knew “Low” and “high” and would play low for a singer who was a man and high for a young girl singer. Today everybody says standard tuning is C or D but that is very very new to the history of Tsugaru. Jiuta and other styles had this idea but not Tsugaru. So if we want to be closer to the “Tsugaru” tradition we can actually play freely in many many different keys. To tell the truth my favorite key to tune to for fun or improv. Is B. that’s B-F#-B !
Speaking of which, Nitta san and I popped into a metal show (A Thousand Shall Fall) last night. 
We were hitting ‘Blue Lagoon’ for a drink, and a few minutes later, the wall of sound went down, you know what I’m sayin’???
He seemed to enjoy it.