Hello! For Christmas my family gifted me a Shamisen Instrument, since I wanted to start learning it.
However, I not only don’t know quite where to begin, but I’m curious to if I should be careful about which tutorials I listen to.
The instrument I got was a smaller, more affordable option that was within the budget of my family. Red fuji Shamisen small scale 2/3size Japanese traditional strings instruments | eBay
And is roughly 2/3 the size of other Shamisen.
Should I be concerned about the difference in size when learning?
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Welcome! What a lovely gift, I think you’ll enjoy it greatly.
I don’t think your shamisen requires special instruction though you probably want to be a little gentler when playing. YUPO is considered strong but it’s not as strong as synthetic skins as Hibiki or Fibersen. The markings on the side don’t correspond to bunkafu (a popular shamisen notation used in the Bachido courses) but you can figure out the positions by ear.
You may find this article interesting as it talks about mini shamisen:
Thank you so much for the information!
Time to look up tutorials and start practicing then!