Hello bachido, I have an important question. Im new to the shamisen community and am in fact shamisen-less. Unfortunately I am broke so the beautiful shamisen on bachido are out of my price range even though they’re reduced. I have been searching all over the net and especially ebay for a more affordable shamisen. Now here’s the question. What shamisen would be the best choice if I want to learn various styles on the one shamisen?
Hey there~
Speaking as someone who learned both minyo and tsugaru minyo on a nagauta shamisen, any style of minyo can be played on any style of shamisen. What it really comes down to is personal comfort and need. If at this moment a tsugaru would break your bank, then jumping in with a cheap(er) nagauta/jiuta would be best. That way you can get a feel for the instrument and learn a couple tunes.
I eventually needed to upgrade because the volume produced from a nagauta dou is not nearly loud enough when playing next to a tsugaru shamisen.
Hope this helps you on your path to procuring a shamisen~
Thank you, that definitely helps a lot 
So I have learned from my nagauta teacher and a koto teacher who plays jiuta that nagauta and jiuta are played on a chuuzao shamisen. The position of the bachikawa changes depending on the style of music you play because of where you hit with the bachi. I have a hosozao which I have heard is to play minyo music, but it is perfect for me to play any kind of music on it because I have very small hands(I study naga-uta). I suggest first figuring out what musical style you want to play because like Adrian said, you can learn any style on a chuuzao.
If you have very very very small hands like me (I have to wear children’s gloves), a hosozao might be great, but if you have average size hands a chuuzao would be what you want because other wise it would be difficult to play anything other than minyo (maybe jiuta?) because naga-uta and tsugaru are very technical in the finger movement.
I’d get a chuuzao myself, but my fingers can’t really wrap around it to play the more complicated pieces. I might have to get one custom made if I get my natori lol.
Lol thank you for the advice Sara. As for hand size, my hands are a little on the big side unfortunately. Its always made finding a boyfriend a lot more difficult and don’t even get me started on how tall I am lol (5’ 10" aka a little over 170 cm!!!). Anyway, I don’t have any shamisen teachers near me and I’m too poor to travel so I’ll have to learn tsugaru style first since Kyle’s book and lessons on bachido are as close as I can get to having a teacher. Unfortunately, I don’t live in the more popular and more populated places in the United States, so my resources are very limited.
Truth Sara. The main reason I upgraded was because the hosozao and lack of volume started to hinder my playing/performances.
In response to not having a teacher near you: There is always Skype lessons~
Skype!!! I never thought of that! Do you think someone from bachido would teach me?!
If you are interested in learning nagauta, my teacher teaches through skype. Her name is Mary Ohno and you can look up Kabuki Academy to find her website. I’ve been learning from her over skype for 2 years and have become pretty good. And with her, you can always get your performer license (natori). She is with the kine-ie school. I also referred her to Chloe who’s a member of bachido and she now takes lessons with her. Mary sensei is very very patient and lives in Seattle. She welcomes all her skype students to visit. I just went last week to see her and take an intensive weekend session with her. You can pay her over skype and it’s $20 for a 45min lesson but she is not strict and often will go for the full hour. With nagauta you will learn how to sing and play at the same time. Let me know if you are interested and have any other questions
Awesome! Does she teach on a once a week basis?
Yes, so it’s $80 a month for four lessons. And it is a $30 annual fee which goes to the Kine-ie school for enrollment, but if you start now, I don’t think you need to join until next year. Most of her students are on the East coast. There’s someone from Georgia, Ohio, New Jersey and even a student in Okinawa. I’m the only one on the west coast. She has a lot of students and also teaches at Tacoma State, but she works mostly from home so she has some flexibility and I’m sure you can work a time that is best for you. Here’s her website http://www.kabukiacademy.org Another great thing about Mary sensei is that if you rip your bachikawa, or break your strings, she can send you new ones and during lessons she can help you over Skype.
Welcome to Bachido, Chi! It’s very friendly and informative here.
Oh, Chi, btw I just read your profile. If you are interested in geisha, naga-uta is the style that they play/sing because those are the songs that the dances are danced to. Tsugaru is the style you’ll find with taiko groups though.
I don’t know much about Indianapolis, but I went to Earlham College in Richmond, IN. They have one of the best Japanese language courses and might know of someone in your area if you’re interested in learning, or you could also ask Mary sensei. She teaches Japanese, and if you learn naga-uta you’ll need to sing in Japanese anyway - so it’s a good way to start. You’ll be able to learn the hiragana from that =)
I took a Japanese in high school so I know hiragana and can speak enough to introduce myself and tell someone what I want to eat or drink. Not much but an alright place to start i guess lol. Do you know how much she charges for her Japanese lessons?
Oh and thank you for the warm welcome Lorraine. I’m sure I’ll love it here
Oh, then you should have a good advantage. Most of her students don’t speak let alone read, so sometimes the singing is extra hard for them. I don’t know how much she charges, but she wants to make all her lessons affordable to everyone, so anyone who loves Japanese and Japanese culture can have to opportunity to learn. If you’re interested in that as well, I’d mention it to her and just ask.
Thank you so much for referring me to her. You have been such a great help, I couldn’t thank you enough! I just emailed her and can’t wait for her reply
You’re very welcome! I hope either the Japanese or the shamisen lesson (or both!) work out for you. And with the shamisen, I will mention this one last thing, if you do start with Mary sensei, the beginning is pretty easy. However, as you move on, you might find it more and more difficult - doable, but it can get frustrating. And when it does, don’t give up! Instead, definitely plan a trip to see her in Seattle. I did that and the reason it was getting so hard for me was my positioning of the shamisen, and posture. She corrected it for me and it has gone pretty smoothly. Which reminds me, I need to email Chloe about my trip hehe!
And another thing that I like about Mary sensei and the Kine-Ie school is that their mission (I’ll call it that, not sure if it is the right term for this) is to spread shamisen to the world through naga-uta. So Mary sensei really encourages us to become natori - also because it’s easier to practice if you have a goal you want to accomplish Like how cool would it be for you to become the only shamisen teacher in Indiana? I have the same problem as you. I couldn’t find any teachers in my area, so I hope to become a teacher some day so I can help future people like me =D
Sorry for all the long rambling posts. I just love naga-uta and the shamisen and Mary sensei. So when I get the chance to talk about all three, I tend to go on and on ^-^;;
Sara - then you should come to the taikai (even if you don’t want to play in the actual competition) — you’ll have lots of people there who want to talk nothing but Shamisen and Shamisen genres!!! 
Your posts are really informative so please let them be as long as you wish ^.^
I would really like to be natori so I will work hard and never give up! Fight! Fight! I will also try to visit her in Seattle.
Linda thanks! I wish I could but I’ll be in a show then so I won’t be able too :(. I hope one day my acting schedule will work out with a bachido taikai sometime in the future. I’d love to meet you all! =D
And thanks Chi! And I should make a correction, natori is just the performing license where you get your special Japanese stage name. It usually takes about seven years of study and then to teach it usually is another 3 years and you’ll become a shihan natori. The 3 years is also dedicated to studying the history of shamisen and famous composers etc. but with your natori you can start be all official and do all kinds of solo performances