Looks like I could get my hands on a brand new ukulele, so I just started wondering how to learn it.
Could maybe Kyle do a crash course vid or maybe someone wants to share… ? 
Or can you just buy a DVD if you’re a westerner…
Anybody have suggestions?
Welcome to our family!!!
I think you can check on Internet if are there some ukulele Teachers in your area, or, if you can, you may also do skype lessons…
Hi, I have just started to learn ukulele as well. There are lots of lessons on YouTube.
Ah, is it so? OK, good luck and let us know by posting something!
Youtube or Yousician then I think. Have to dig up the information how to translate western scales and the notes on shamisen (could have been in Kyle’s book?), thinking of going for Gion Kouta once I get a handle on some of the basics…
I suppose a(n electric) guitar would be a piece of cake once you can handle an ukulele?
Funny, I almost bought one on Black Friday but I decided to keep my focus on shamisen.
Not sure if I understood what you mean by translating western scales and the notes but if you need a graphic with the name of the notes on it (like do re mi or C D E or on a music staff) maybe I can try to make something on Sunday. (Tomorrow I am having a gig for a tea ceremony).
And I definitely suggest you to listen to Jake Shimabukuro if you don’t know him. He is an awesome yukulele player and improviser.
I never checked if he have teaching videos but if I buy one eventually I will check him first! But sometimes the best musicians are not the best at teaching so you might have to check other lesson videos.
Hey everyone! My folks have been making learning materials for ukulele. Perfect for just getting started. 
It uses the Toneway method, which was developed by my family as a playing by ear approach to string instruments.
Pops wrote this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Ukulele-Guitalele-ToneWay-Method-Easier/dp/1500410144/
And my mother made these videos:
http://toneway.com/learn/ukulele-lessons
Strum on!
Sounds just so easy to just do 4 chords and that goes for tons of (hundreds of?) songs. Think we had something similar in our shamisen materials.
C - G - A minor - F
Kyle, this is awsome! And now your Mom’s stuff too. Lucky guy to have musicians in your family around you.
Yatagarasu, this is also applicable for any instruments. Soooo many videos on Youtube demonstrating millions of songs with 3 or 4 chords. With piano, guitar, and many other instruments.
But if you find it for shamisen somewhere, let us know. It can be useful for anyone who never studied music or have really basic knowledge about chords.
Kyle, I was surprised to hear your mom plays ukulele
Hm that doesn’t surprise me at all even though shame on me I must admit I haven’t yet even begun to seriously check out all of those clearly enough also awesome looking toneway resources.
Anyway I guess after finally accepting that my ‘shamisen’ won’t get any closer to sounding any cool anytime soon and feeling an amounting itch I today (after considering an ukulele) bought a cheapo 3/4 sized guitar I wonder how much time will pass before I might try tuning it to ni agari on the double or something but that said I should also brush up my way rusty rendition of nothing else matters in its original format anyway and also too . . .
30% skill 70% 1500 dollar guitar that would indeed make things easier for sure although granted that guy would sound okay anyway so I guess there is no way around the cool player can sound cool on whatever crappy instrument concept
Hi Jazz (and others)! We’ve been talking about making a Toneway method for shamisen for some time. I think this is the year for it to happen. Stay tuned.
Hi Jazz (and others)! We’ve been talking about making a Toneway method for shamisen for some time. I think this is the year for it to happen. Stay tuned.
EXCITE
Sure we’ll se it!
Not sure if I understood what you mean by translating western scales and the notes but if you need a graphic with the name of the notes on it (like do re mi or C D E or on a music staff) maybe I can try to make something on Sunday. (Tomorrow I am having a gig for a tea ceremony).
Found it for ukulele: http://www.justinguitar.com/en/UK-010-UkuleleNotesOnNeck.php
Since for a while I don’t plan to wander off the standard tuning.
Next I’d need to figure it out for an E-B-E tuned shamisen (niagari, again). Funny that I haven’t yet figured out basic stuff like what’s a ‘standard’ tuning on a nagauta instrument.
Karl’s shamisen scale viewer was just awesome for this but nowadays one has to figure it out some other way.
For best teachers and best players, they seem to be different sets of people in my experience when it comes to shamisen. Think between expanding the boundaries of what you can do and explaining the most basic things to another human being so they understand. Two separate skill sets and two different kinds of people who enjoy and excel at these things.
I recall Reigen Fuji did stuff with chords but I think that was rather advanced (did he develop a new tuning to make chords easier?), there may even be a Bachido lesson about it.
Not sure how hard shamisen actually is to learn to play compared to western instruments, it seems ukulele is a world of difference. A lot comes from the bachi being intimidating and western people not used to it, plus it’s hard to handle without a live teacher. Are you even holding it straight?
Arrangement of Bachido material should be rethought at some point, too. For one thing Kyle today has the benefit of several years of trying and teaching shamisen to people over the Kyle who wrote Shamisen of Japan. Things like special techniques maybe coming way too early into the material and making it feel unnecessarily complicated.
Also most of the learning goes from playing songs solo. In some ukulele lessons they start with chords (guess that’s thought of as an advanced subject here) and strumming (there is just one? video about this on Bachido)! What if people just got some friends and started jamming - ie. ensemble playing and you’re more like the 2nd bass than the solo guitar?
But there isn’t much material like that. Could make sense for Bachido to create videos where they teach us several parts of the song. Think Kevin did this for Ninjari Ban Ban. Otherwise you can dig up material from youtube and just play along (enka seems to sometimes work really nice for this), but then you are improvising and most people would probably benefit if there was an indication of what notes or chords to play.
Ukulele being a popular instrument there are nice pieces like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEY49XhO4P0
(Sorry if the following seems a bit scary but I felt the need to express many ideas after your last post)
Yes, I agree that Reigen’s stuff might looks like really advanced stuff. To me it is just related to musical theory. If you have basic knowledge of it you understand it better. But if you just want to play because you like how it sounds like, your ears are there to guide you.
If you learn theory, to get to understanding jazz chords you will require some basics:
First you need to understand what an interval or what a degree is. ( Major third and minor third are the most important intervals)
Ex: Key of C, the third is E.
You need to understand that you can have minor and major thirds.
Ex: Key of C, E is a third major, Eb is a third minor.
Next step is to understand that to build a chord you need to add at least 2 notes to the first one (called root).
Ex: Key of C, for a C major chord : C-E-G. Root note, major third and fifth.
Finally, you learn that Jazz chords contains more notes (4 or 5 depending on their nature).
Ex: Cmajor 7, C-E-G-Bb
For someone new to music theory, it might seems like a chain of mountain and they might not want to climb the mountains. If you prefer taking the plane you’ll get where you want too. You can just learn the instrument and how to play on it. I don’t think it is wrong or bad but if you make the effort to learn theory, it can allow you to pick up another instrument a little bit quicker because music theory can be transposed on any kind of instrument (also brass, woods, piano, etc…)
Also, everyone has different goals and differents ways of learning stuff. The style of music can make a difference too. Folk music tends to be played by ear and because it is traditionaly transmitted without the writing system, the same song changes each time someone learn it and we end up having a great variety of versions for the same song.
(ex: Minyo) But more recently it started to be written so the game is changing too.
Classical music tends to have more structure in the form and the musicians have to play the notes exactly like it is written by the composer so the difference between each player is a matter of interpretation. Slow down differently in certain parts or play louder or smoother on different parts but the notes stays the same from one player to another.
The tuning difference for the shamisen comes from the fact that in the begining it was used to accompany the voice of a singer. If we just think about the fact that men and women don’t have the same range of voice, the basic note needed to be adjusted according to the range of the singer. In music theory we call that transposition.
Ex: Niagari can be CGC, DAD, EBE, etc… When I play Shima uta, I tune it in AEA or A#E#A# (E# can also be called F but the sound of both is the same). There is 2 reasons why I do it. First to adjust the tuning to the pitch I will sing and secondly because lower strings on shamisen sounds a bit more like a sanshin (in my personal opinion).
And of course, visual people tends to learn better with a graphic like this link on yukulele. This is also excellent. It all depends on where you want to go and how you want to get there.
About holding the bachi, I’d say every instrument have their strenghts and their weaknesses. Some people have hard times with Barre chords on a guitar or find their fingers too short to play piano… Not having frets can be a challenge to for someone who doesn’t have a good ear.
And I think Kyle’s book is really good for beginners the way it is. Minor corrections could be made but I would see more a second book for more advanced techniques and players than changing the whole book to fit everything in it.
Any plans of doing a second book one day Kyle?