Monkey Majik and 吉田兄弟：夏の情事 HELP plz :)

Playing/Techniques
#1

Hey all,

New to the community. Anyone taken a whack at Natsu no Jyouji by Monkey Majik (夏の情事）? It seems like an easy song, but watching live performances it’s hard to see how to tackle this one. Especially the chorus (I can resign myself to waiting on the solo until after I have a firmer grasp of the instrument). The 2nd half of the chorus is particular confusing to me. Will anyone watch it and see if there is a particular method they are using that I need to practice (i.e. strumming the string with the left hand middle/ring finger, uchi/hijiki, etc.) It doesn’t seem that they are only strumming our half of the notes that sound out. Thanks all for your contributions!

#2

Btw, if you haven’t already, go watch their most recent live performance of this song. It was incredible, part of why I finally took the plunge on this endeavor (shamisen).

#3

Hey Jack,

Haven’t listened to this one before, but for the second part of the chorus it’s a repeating pattern of downstroke, hajiki, upstroke, downstroke, downstroke. If you’re counting in 2/4, then starting on the “&” of the 1st beat, the rhythm for the five notes sounds like 8th note triplets, 8th note, quarter note.

Hope that helps.

#4

No, it helps tremendously. I just couldn’t visualize it. Thank you much!

Also, funny enough, I live in Colorado (Denver) and am from Houston (you say you are from Dallas). From your picture, id ask if you play banjo as well, though I don’t see one. I particularly love shamisen, but I enjoy stringed instruments in general, seems like you do as well.

#5

Small world, I’m originally from Houston myself, Sugar Land area.

Yeah, big stringed instrument fan for sure, no banjo yet though. Been playing guitar for over ten years and have a small collection of other instruments I’ve accumulated over time. But the shamisen has had a special hold on me since I first heard it, and I always have a great time playing it

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