Message for the bachido community

General
#1

Kinoshita Shinichi is one of the most influential Tsugaru Shamisen players ever. He was a tremendous inspiration to me when I started out and is actually a huge reason I started to think outside of the box of tradition since he was one of the first to really rock the Shamisen in a variety of world music settings which included eastern european gypsy shredding style, techno and rock.
Grant and I managed to track him down this year at the tournaments in Hirosaki and convinced him to give a shout out to the bachido community. It’s a short message and essentially just says
“Good luck everyone around the world”.

P.s. the link wasn’t working when I first posted this. So I deleted it here… Scroll down to watch!

#2

Hmmmmm. I guess the link is not working because I recently uploaded this. It says to wait a few minutes so hopefully it will be viewable soon.

#3

*sits here waiting patiently for the video to process" >.

#4

The message was too big for youtube to handle obviously.

#5

Go to the channel “Shamikami” and click the video from there.

#6

Yeah it worked Stev. Cool :slight_smile:

I think it may be hard for some people to realize the potential of Bachido. Kevin, in what way have you spread the word? Do you get the feeling that people see it as a small but cool thing, or something that has big potential? I am talking about the experienced japanese players.

That also got me thinking. Most people who want to start out with the shamisen and do not live in Japan or have a teacher will probably find this site. We’ve got quite a few beginners to intermediate players and of course a few pro players. It seems though that there are a quite a few already “famous” players who are not from Japan. What can we do to attract them? Obviously they need to feel that they have something to gain here except for the warm fuzzy feeling of helping people and seeing them grow as musicians.

#7
#8

Karl Hedlund,
Hey thanks for the fact that you are putting so much thought into this site. Even though this site is all created by Kyle and Luke, I still feel a certain pride in it.My dream from years and years ago was to spread the music and emotion of Shamisen to the biggest possible audience so in many ways this site embodies that dream .

When Grant and I were at the tournaments we basically did a lot of talking and mentioning of bachido. We made sure all the foreign players know, and as far as reactions, well you could say a lot of Japanese players were kind of smiling and nodding and giving us the impression that they really didn’t care too much about the gaijins and their neat little website. But on a positive note Kenichi Yoshida was stoked. He was cool with it and excited about foreigners transcribing and learning Kodo etc. and Kinoshita San and I talked a while about the way Tsugaru Shamisen is spreading throughout the world and gaining interest in many different countries. When I mentioned bachido his eyes lit up and I really did feel that he had a genuine appreciation to hear about this.
On another note, I can’t help but feel curious when you mention other established Shamisen players that are not from Japan. I used to have my radar out there pretty intensly searching for fellow Gaijin Shamisen masters and but in all honesty I do not consciously know of any other players that have done this professionally besides Mike Penny, Vincent Wuassi and then There’s Kyle and Grant here doing their thing teaching people etc.
Grant Woolard is really good but I don’t think he is making money with it (?).
Then there is my good good friend Greg Walsh (he and I go waaaaaaay back, haha!)
Hmmmmm, could it be that there are others out there that I simply have not heard about yet?
Just can’t help but be intensly curious when I hear something like that.
Anyway thanks again for the thoughts and yeah it is exciting to think about ways to keep the community here growing. I know we all talk about this but yeah someday we really do have to all meet in person. That is going to be awesome!

#9

Yaaaay!!! :smiley: That’s awesome to hear that Kinoshita san and Yoshida san were happy to hear about Bachido!

Heheh, I can expect that reaction. I may be wrong, but I think a portion of the competitors are in it for their own career/name, so don’t really care about the spread of shamisen . No offense to them, of course. I think most people don’t care about something if it doesn’t affect them personally/emotionally. Out of sight, out of mind. :wink:

However, Kinoshita san and the Yoshida Kyoudai have already made a success and obviously feel connected with the shamisen very much, and thus I think they have the space of mind to be able to really appreciate the spread of shamisen abroad.

Karl does have a point too. I know personally that it can be hard to understand the magnitude of something if it’s told to me without seeing it firsthand. Especially when the paradigm is that gaijin are unable to do Japanese things very well. :wink: I imagine that if some of them actually saw it, I imagine “sou desu ne” would turn into “maji de???” (or “sugoi!”) As they say, seeing is believing.

That is really awesome, Kevin. :slight_smile: Truth be told, Last week, I thought to myself, “I hope Kevin and Grant remember to mention Bachido to someone.” :wink: But man, you guys were really representin’!! :smiley:

I’m gonna bring an idea up with Masahiro. I think it would be awesome to have a Bachido congregation go to Hirosaki. Basically, a 3 day field trip. :wink: Going to a shamisen taikai and being surrounded by shamisen players is a really inspiring thing. I mean, they had already though about having a “gaijin section” of the tournament, so at least it’s something they might be open about. And I get the feeling that Bachido is starting to get a slight amount of recognition in Japan, which will only grow over time. (especially when we have the Bachido festival in Hokkaido! :-P)

Hey man, you should feel pride. When you were in Santa Cruz, I always remembered your vision of having shamisen spread cross-country, if you know what I mean. :slight_smile: As history has shown, it really takes a team to make a project/goal really successful. That’s what I really feel this becoming. :slight_smile:

#10

It gets me all worked up when i see the pro’s so excited about these things :DD
it’s so awesome that Kevin for example is waiting with excitement for a meet up with everyone!

And thank you for advertizing Bachido :DD we need this place to grow and grow :DD

(Awesome awesome awesome awesome…)
that’s what’s going around in my head :smiley: i can’t even form good comments or posts :DDD too excited

#11

Calm down and use that enthusiasm to play some shamisen Ortjo :slight_smile:

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