My first attempt at Kuroishi Yosare Bushi

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#1

I played on a shamisen for the first time three weeks ago, last week I travelled with Grant Reimer to Sapporo and got to meet the one and only, Masahiro Nitta! My shamisen hero! \o/
Thank you Masahiro-san for letting me be a part of your shamisen family!
I bought my own shamisen from Nitta last week and I’ve been going through Kyle’s excellent crash course the last three days.
So here is my first, really slow, piece!
Not really coordinated with my left fingers and the bachi strokes. And still not hitting the strings with the bachi as I want, but more practice will take care of that! (To my poor neighbours despair. :wink: )
Enjoy! And I’m happy for any feedback! :slight_smile:

#2

I quit. You can take over for me.

#3

Hey Anne, I think you made the clip private. Nice to hear that you managed to bring a shamisen back home to Sweden :slight_smile:

#4

It should be public now! Sorry for that… need to learn more about that youtube stuff…

#5

Nice, you’re getting there! Do you really have shoji doors in your apartment?

#6

I really appreciate the emphasis you are placing on the rhythm early on in your playing! The spacing between your notes is very consistent and it is important to remember to play each one clearly like you are so that when you eventually speed up, everything isn’t blurring together.
Most importantly, in my opinion, is your bachi; your are striking down firmly and going through the strings down to the skin almost, if not every time. This is very good practice and amazingly awesome to see you doing as a beginner this early on with consistency.
I want you to check out this video of Masahiro that Kyle took a while back to observe the more complicated bachi use and get an idea of how eventually the swaying back and forth from ushiro/mae bachi starts to fit into the rhythm of the song. Also, it’s a really good example of how you can add ornamentations and dynamics to it when you become more advanced.

Such good work for only owning it a week! I’m so happy to see you kicking ass! がんばって！

#7

yes playing each note clearly, concentrating on every single note and hitting it in a good sounding way instead of blurring things by speeding up “too fast” or too soon is good advice I was working on this today and enjoyed the slow playing I mean sometimes even couple of single notes can sound great and better than some faster blurred something :slight_smile: and then one goes faster again and those hajikis sound so much cooler the more clearly one manages to play and hear each note in all of that frenzy or so . . . anyway thanks for sharing the clip . . .

#8

Grant & BH already made the comment I wanted to post. But I’ll say it anyway! I like the way you’re striking the strings. You’re really focused on consistantly doing it properly.
As opposed to me. I had been a guitarist for many years when I started learning shamisen. So I could play with some fluidity fairly early on. The problem is now I’m having to go back and perfect the basics–y’know, the stuff most beginers learn FIRST–after already learing a bunch of songs, mostly western. That’s doing it the hard way. You’re doing it in the proper order. I kinda envy that.

#9

The video that Grant sent you is really good. I’ve used it several times when I had trouble striking properly with the bachi. It is really a reference that you can come back to to be inspired and always learn something new. Also when you are learning it will make you see that you are progresseing because you go like “ah, I’m actually doing that little part of what he’s doing nowadays”. What I’m saying is that even though you might feel that there’s such a gap between a master and a beginner, you will get better faster and the video will remind you of that.

Getting a rhythm going with ushiro/mae is something that is still eluding me. I change between the positions when I want to get the dynamics, but incorporating it with the rhythm is harder for me. Maybe there should be a bachido blogcast on the topic?

#10

Thank’s for all the feed back! I’ll keep on working with my bachi technique, the video was really helpful!
Perfect practice makes perfect! :slight_smile:

#11

Aaaargh!
Damn! The video link is not working for me.
I’d really like to see it though.

#12

Man, who would have thought that a simple trip would turn into being whisked to Northern Japan and meeting Masahiro Nitta! :smiley: … and joining Bachido, of course. :wink:

I am usually skeptical when people have the same opinion about a particular thing/point (“I can’t believe it’s not butter”?.. I can.), but I must say, your emphasis on bachi technique is really evident!! :slight_smile: Really awesome for three days of playing! You are doing great. Stay aware, but don’t worry too much about “mistakes” now. Everything will get more comfortable with experience. Looking forward to seeing your progression! :slight_smile:

Btw, the shamisen you are playing is the one of Masahiro’s shamisen, right?

Berhard made a great point! As I practiced for the Hirosaki taikai, I was reminded to only play as fast as I can clearly play. Even when you hear the pros playing wicked fast, you can still detect the space and clarity between each strike. Playing faster than the fingers are able will make it feel rushed and sloppy. As everyone here has said, it’s good to see that you have that feeling. Always feel the space between the notes :slight_smile:

Chet, I think it’s fine the way you started shamisen. :slight_smile: A way to think of it is: If you start with focusing solely on basics, later on you will need to focus on making it more natural and fluid. On the same hand, if you start with “learning by doing” (not focusing on a particular aesthetic style, but just getting experience by playing around on it), at some point you will need to focus on getting basics down. Either way, there is always something for us to work on. :slight_smile:

#13

Kyle: Yes it’s Masahiros old shamisen.
He played on it on one of his earlier CD-recordings “Departure”. He played some music from that CD for me and Grant when we visited and suddenly said, “it’s the same shamisen!”, and then he made a copy of the CD and gave it to me, with the the little note “Oh, same shamisen” on it. :slight_smile:
A little later he said, while we were still listening to one of the songs on the CD, Anne-san, this is you. Haha! No pressure! Just give me five years or so. :slight_smile:

I’ll keep in mind to keep my playing as clear as possible and hold the rhythm and keep working on making my bachi technique better so I can hit the san no ito without trouble.
I think my future Bujinkan (martial arts) training will make my forearm muscles a bit stronger too, so I don’t get tired so fast. :slight_smile:

Love this instrument! My goal is to play at the Hirosaki tournaments next year, who else will join!? I dare you! :smiley:

#14

Hey Anne,

Nice one, you are putting so much emphasis on every little movement, I imagine when you start to speed up you will very precise with a clear tone!

#15

Some day. I would like to try to find a way to arrange a big “field trip” to the Hirosaki taikai. It’s a great experience, and I’m sure that would be very inspirational for everyone.

Of course, if we have the Bachido festival in Hokkaido in 2014, we should start saving our money for that. :wink:

#16

I finally got to watch the clip. Nice work Anne . Now we need to start working out your jongara bushi for the tai Kai next year!

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