Since there are quite a few Japanese people playing the shamisen it occurred to me that there should be Japanese communities where tips & tricks are shared and where people post their crazy ideas.
Does anyone know anything about this that speak japanese? If there is, I’m sure there would be lots of good stuff that someone could perhaps translate for us.
A Bachido member told me about a Japanese shamisen forum last year, which discussed similar things (sans espresso, taxis and monkeys washing cats, I’m sure). I forgot the URL for it, but I can assure you that it was quite plain, didn’t look as cool as the Bachido forum. 
As for me, one Japanese citizen who started to play one year ago, there seems to be no Tsugaru shamisen cite as good as Bachido.
Actually, it always makes me smile, my first Tsugaru basic book is Kyle’s! How I feel lucky I can read English.
If this is true, why aren’t more players finding themselves here? And do they all learn their instruments from their teachers?
If this is true, why aren’t more players finding themselves here? And do they all learn their instruments from their teachers?
Tsugaru shamisen traditionally have been taught from a teacher to a student directly in person. And when I found a good teacher and started to learn the instrument, he said, “There is no notation for Tsugaru.” And it made me astonished! And he never uses any notation or textbook kind in teaching. I guess this is the average style of teaching.
Norm Nakamura on Bachido can tell you how his teacher, older brother of Yoshida. Hope he is reading this.
So generally speaking, it is impossible to teach tsugaru yourself, I thought until I had the encounter with Bachido.
I am thrilled to think about coming Taikai in May which will surely surprise the Japanese public!!!
Just because Bachido is written and VD are spoken in English, most of the native Japanese cannot understand what is going on Bachido.
As one example, I talked about Bachido to my Japanese shamisen friend, she asked me, “How are they learning to play Tsugaru?”
I explained the learning center, the book and so on… I am not sure if she believed me or not. It is almost hard to imagine such community exists on the planet.
And when I found a good teacher and started to learn the instrument, he said, “There is no notation for Tsugaru.” And it made me astonished! And he never uses any notation or textbook kind in teaching. I guess this is the average style of teaching.
In contrast to Kyoko’s experience, when I took lessons in Japan my teacher did use notation. It was the same tab style of notation that you see here on Bachido. There weren’t any “textbooks,” though. He would just print out or hand write his own versions of pieces on loose paper.
Norm Nakamura on Bachido can tell you how his teacher, older brother of Yoshida. Hope he is reading this.
Interesting point! I had a lovely skype session with Norm last week, and he said it’d be a good idea to basically make a Japanese version of Bachido, as it is neglecting the whole Japanese audience who doesn’t speak English.
I had thought this last year, and asked Nitta san if we should translate the whole thing. His thinking was similar to yours, Kyoko. The mindset is quite one-on-one teacher-student, so given the ‘DIY’ and communal support nature of Bachido, he suggested to first build up the international community as much as possible.
The current task list is:
Fund/promote release of Stellar.
Nitta san’s epic California concert bash
Complete crash courses
Team Bachido @ Hirosaki taikai
Make sections for shakuhachi/koto/taiko etc (long term)
Make shakuhachi/koto crash course.
This is quite a heaping plate for the year, but after it’s all done, I can see translating the site as a worthwhile venture. Nitta san is also promoting Bachido in Japan wherever he can, so it’s not as if it is completely unknown there. 
What are y’alls thoughts?
i think that’s great kyle, you have a lot going on there but i do think more japanese people would be interested in reading the vision you have and the ideas that can be shared.
I think the teacher to student thing is a very japanese concept, i came across it before when trying to find a traditional dance teacher in the UK, found one at a too expensive price and tried to find a dvd or instructional video and was told there were none as it was seen as a dilution of the art.
A gaijin is teaching Japanese people their own culture. Kyle is such a troll. I approve.
I mean, I figure one of the reasons you don’t see a lot of Japanese people here on this online shamisen community is because they have access to a real life one. Non-Japanese people come here because they can’t find teachers, players, or information otherwise, but Japanese people have all the access they need in Japan, so… あんまり会わへんな。
Well everything is online these days. You can’t make a cool shamisen cover and only show it to your friends. You gotta put it on the net.
I just feel that there should be a need for it.
What about Nitta san showing crash course in Japanese along with Kyle’s.
I guess there are still a lot of Japanese people who want to play Tsugaru but still unable to find a good teacher and looking for some way to learn it. Sorry to say but good Tsugaru teachers are getting very old and you will need a lot of time and energy to find a young good teacher who can play everything not only Tsugaru traditional , Minyou but pops, classics …
I once to tried to buy Japanese DVD teaching Tsugaru but did not. It was not as attractive as Bachido and I have already found my teacher.
And also as Amanda points out, Tsugaru learning often can be unaffordable. Because my present teacher is very good, I am happy to pay the monthly tuition, but still it could be expensive for an average Japanese. This might be removing young earnest learners from catching good learning way.
This is a very, very interesting discussion.
Yoops! We’re about to go to Costco. I’ll share my thoughts when I get back!
What Jamie says is like what I’ve been thinking - Japanese already have full access to instruction, whereas the rest of the world (mostly) doesn’t.
Now to play devil’s advocate, let’s take the guitar. In America (well, the whole world), there are oodles of guitar teachers, yet there are many people who would rather try learning on there own, either due to time/money. If this is true for guitars in America, I’m sure there are similar desires for those in Japan wanting to learn shamisen. (We’re all human, after all)
After thinking about it, I suspect that younger Japanese may want to learn shamisen but won’t if the only only learning resources are expensive formal training or expensive learning DVDs. This is the part where Kyle rants
Instructional DVDs: As research before making the first crash course, I watched a real shamisen instructional DVD and can wholeheartedly say that it bored the crap outta me as an advanced player, and knew that it was waaay too difficult for a beginner. (You can’t spend the first 30~60 minutes drilling a beginner with formal bachi technique before even learning a basic song and expect novice brains not to fry.)
Teachers: It can be very difficult to find a good teacher. (Kyoko may have found a good one 
) A lot of formal teachers (violin, especially) try to force the beginner into a professional player. That’s great is the student is driven to become pro, but a majority of people want to learn because they are attracted to the beautiful instrument, not because they want to become a professional.
Though I’m speaking from teaching experience at Toneway.com, I’ll share my personal experience of volleyball. I loved volleyball in high school (well, the homeschooling equivalent). The teacher, who didn’t even play much volleyball, was relaxed and gave us space to evolve as players naturally. Practice was so much fun and I became one of the best players on the team.
After graduating, I signed up for a volleyball class at a college. The teacher was also relaxed like my previous teacher, but his ‘senpai’ latched onto me because he saw “potential”. The senpai constantly hounded me to use proper, formal techniques which made it incredibly unenjoyable. And in front of the class, he told me “I’m picking on you because I know you can become pro. There’s no hope for the rest.” Was it awkward? Certainly. Flattering? A little. I was a natural volleyball player, but I wasn’t wanting to be a pro. What did I do? I quit.
(Historical note: That volleyball class is actually the one I just signed up for. The senpai “retired”, and volleyball has become sooo much fun again!)
Many beginners have this experience with music, and if most shamisen teachers are as strict as the volleyball senpai, they will turn away many natural players. As shamisen becomes a rare instrument even in Japan, maintaining such strictness won’t help shamisen carry on to future generations. I mean, I’m no genius, but I don’t think that the recent closing of many shamisen shops is a sign that the current paradigm is helping.
So, that poses the problem. Up until now, gaijin couldn’t start shamisen because there was absolutely no english resources. In Japan, people may not start because the only instruction is formal and uninspirational. (Again, there certainly are many great teachers, but also many who are not-so-great )
So, after all that rambling, I think I agree that those in Japan would find a Japanese version of Bachido very useful. The crash courses (coming soon!) would also be well liked among beginners. Still, the next big project should be the manufacturing of affordable shamisen, but perhaps both can be accomplished simultaneously. How we will go about translating and such? We can continue discussion on that. For now, this post is long enough and I’ve got a hot bath waiting!
I should clarify that there are many good shamisen/music teachers out there. That said, teaching is a separate skill and has different talents. A good teacher has the ability to unlock the most potential in the student. Just like my volleyball experience - My best teacher didn’t even play much volleyball and I was inspired to play, whereas the one who played professionally made me want to quit.
Well, I didn’t expect to bash this much, but I am listening to Killswitch Engage while typing, so that can’t help.
Whoa snap! That only took 3 hours to write!
and worth it I guess . . . anyway I understand this can take time ever since I tried to put my snowboarding philosophy into words for an earlier special feature on my site . . . as for my 2 cents . . .
I think information can be offered in japanese anytime and videos could have japanese subtitles anytime . . . a no brainer as I think this could increase japanese audience somewhat while hardly foreigner credibility issues coming up as long as it is well done which at least from my perspective it is so a larger step would be japanese videos (with english subtitles) and these should have Masahiro Nitta as the instructor for sure . . . get a worthy foundation of content like that online, at least one crash course, completely presented by Masahiro and then other videos by other players like Kevin and yourself speaking japanese could be added along with an occasional additional one by Masahiro (or a lot depending on his available time or whatever) and so on I think having even just one crash course by Masahiro would be great and give this whole thing an interesting and even to the bigot credible start and foundation . . . could be pulled off by Kyle alone speaking japanese but with Masahiro I think this would be also cool in itself and simply a sure bet as for taking care of foreigner credibility issues before they could even come up . . .
and then offer a forum in japanese also for questions etc on the side and let it pick up or not at its own pace . . .
yeah I guess that’s it so whatever you do I think Masahiro should be involved at least with regard to the foundation of the content of a japanese section of the site . . . Masahiro or even Masahiro and his father doing a kizuna crash course for example would probably blow the minds of TV stations in japan too . . . and so on who knows this is just me talking and I hope I did not offend anyone else sort of saying no other than Mashiro should so to speak start this . . .
and such videos done in a way coming out of the teaching philosophy Kyle outlined and I guess Masahiro shares just like the openmindedness to share the treasure of shamisen with also people outside of japan and anyone who wants to play yeah I think that would be it and by it I mean first choice dream like absolutely and all around awesome . . .
Kyoko,
Thanks for advertising that. Very appropriate of you as always.
To everyone else,
Kyle and I were actually discussing this the other day.
And while I brought up the idea of adding a google translate button to the site, I still believe that this site is beautifully foreign in nature and should hold strong to its English roots.
I dont imagine that all that many serious Japanese players would be flocking to forums anyway. Considering that using home computers in Japan has only become common in the last 5-7 years or so, forum-based discussion, is just not a natural step for the average Japanese person.
There are many schools of thought regarding shamisen learning and how knowledge is passed on. But seeing as Bachido’s goal is to bring shamisen to the world, I can see a LOT of merit here.
In the end, each student chooses how they want to learn/study.
And each person is going to have their own views on a site like bachido.
If you like Bachido, hang out on Bachido. Others will do the same
(^-^)
Norm: Ahh! I forgot about the Google Translate button.
However, do you think it’d be accurate enough? I guess it’d be okay to give non-English Japanese at least the chance to understand the basic idea of what’s said, but I notice that GTranslate can be quite … interesting, especially for longer sentences.
BH:
get a worthy foundation of content like that online, at least one crash course, completely presented by Masahiro and then other videos by other players like Kevin and yourself speaking japanese could be added along with an occasional additional one by Masahiro (or a lot depending on his available time or whatever)
Until I regain confidence at speaking Japanese, there is no way I’m going to be speaking in front of a camera. For me, lack of confidence results in major stuttering.
But indeed! Masahiro wants to film as many courses as he can while he is here, because we have a nice studio all set up with the white screen, lighting and everything.
Yeah, availability is a major factor. We’re gonna try to work as hard as we can because it’s the only opportunity he’d be able to make professional-looking courses easily. Being so busy back in Japan, I doubt he’ll be able to put the necessary time into filming & editing courses alone . Making/planning courses alone is difficult (both physically/mentally) and takes a ridiculous amount of time. Thus, he wants to use the time in California to bust out as many lessons as he can.
We were able to make at least two professional quality courses when Kevin was here (a whole course on scales, and another on basic/advanced kamashi), so that’ll be fun to post.
awesome to hear that Masahiro videos are about to be made and Kevin videos are already made for use in the learning center! I am looking forward to all of that
I strongly agree from my occasional experience with them that automatic translations or captions on youtube videos yield suboptimal results at least as for their current state of development so I would definitely like to see “handmade” subtitles on any japanese videos . . .