New video of my practice

Share Your Music
#1

I had hoped on mastering a song that I would convert to the shamisen and uploading it but I felt it was out of my league. I therefore started practicing on Rokudan and some other folk songs. I have still got a lot of refining to do and there’s a lot of mistakes, but when I look back I still feel like I have progressed a lot.

One thing that struck me when I watched the video is that my hand still looks very stiff and I don’t strike in the middle of the dou at all although I think about it when I start playing. I don’t know, I just have to practice more.

If you are wondering about the awkward camera angle it was to test how the sound was recorded when I angled it towards the dou. Unfortunately the two 120 degrees separated mics are fixed on the handycam so therefore the video have to be where it is.

I’ll also take this chance to implore you all to post more videos of yourselves practicing as it’s a good way of exposing what you need to work on, and that’s a really good thing. I haven’t seen any mean people on the forums so don’t be shy!

PS. My final strike went epic fail, so I added a little smooth ending after it to please your ears.

PS.2. I have been thinking about how crap my strings sound after being used for 6-7 months. My dad said he could hear they were dead and he doesn’t play shamisen :slight_smile:

#2

Hmm nice! :smiley:
It’s funny… Are these by the book? because when i play them they sound different :smiley: (i’ve managed to accidentally make my own versions or something lol?)
Maybe it’s about time to post my first videos too…

And yes this really points out the “problems”(or rather weaker spots) of your playing but, i agree your hand looks a bit stiff and not so comfortable… And yeah you play like you’re playing Nagauta instead of Tsugaru, meaning the hitting on the edge thing… I should totally film my playing also so i could see these things…

And uh… Have you tried to refine these songs? Meaning mostly the sound levels from silent to blasting :D? Because i’ve been practicing that and my bachi techniques mostly lately…
(mostly lately lol… sounds awesomely lame)

(camera bawls shot sry for pointing it out lol)

#3

I haven’t got around to think about the sound levels that much yet since I’m not comfortable with moving my left hand across the whole fret on one string together with the techniques that really require a nail which I don’t have (a long enough one that is).

Yeah my hand does look stiff, but when I play I don’t feel like it is. I think the reason may be that I feel I need to be “ready” for the next strike and therefore hold the hand closer to the dou. I can now fully hold the shamisen without my left hand, but it gives me a bit less power to strike the strings. Again, I think more practice will just make it more comfortable.

Earlier when I tried playing Rokudan I was always put off when I was to play the part where you traverse the whole neck because I couldn’t get it right. Now that I have at least reached a point where I can keep the beat and play it I can start focus on refining my technique.

Rokudan should be by the book, except that I make some mistakes :smiley: Kase no oyakko odori may be a bit different. I love doing the vibrato for example, so I may exaggerate that a bit. I may play some things different too. It’s one of those songs that I learn most of it but play it like I want to. I talked to Liam about this and he sent me a video of how Kyle’s book says it should be played, and it differs at places from what Kyle plays in his example file.

Yeah, you can film your lower body like I did if you are shy :wink:

#4

Why is your crotch in center? Could be shamisen at least :smiley:

#5

Why is your crotch in center? Could be shamisen at least :smiley:

Miscalculation.

#6

Great!

#7

Whoa. Dude, this is a family friendly website. :wink:

Seriously though, your bachi hand looks pretty decent, in terms of general looseness. However, it does look “stiff” in exactly the way to describe: The feeling of needing to prepare for the next note. When you slow the piece down, does your hand relax more?

Judging by the relative size of the bachi, I’m guessing that you’ve got big hands? Have you tried spreading the index finger and pinky farther (that is more advanced, so no shame if not). Also, have you tried sliding the thumb a bit farther down the bachi? I find that changes the tone, as the tip can flex more without the thumb on top of it.

Anywho, you’re sounding great! Thoughts about entering the taikai some day? :slight_smile:

Finally!! All done for today! Time to practice the songs for the album and then go back to bed. :wink:

#8

Thanks, well I got a bit inspired when Anne said she’s planning on going next year. If she thinks she can do it then so should I if I keep practicing. She told me how there was a beginner’s tier that is more like a “show how far you have come” show and that sounds pretty cool.

I have tried spreading the fingers more but I have problem doing it. When I let the bachi place itself in my hand it can end in up in different ways with minor differences. The main thing that makes me change my way of holding it is when I try to perform sukui very fast and my grip isn’t good enough to do that. What happens is the bachi is rotated and my hand is moving away faster. My hands may be a bit on the big side, but I don’t have any monster hands. Maybe a bigger bachi would be better for me. I’ve found that the thumb up there makes me perform more precise strikes but I’ll keep it in mind.

I’ve also been studying good players’ bachi strikes, but in general I can’t see much of a difference more than that they seem to have more power at their disposal which makes the strikes more precise and clear.

I’m seriously always impressed by:

Around 0:30, she manages to produce such a clear and epic tone by striking the ichi-no-ito with short intervals. Any tips on how to achieve that?

It looks so simple and effective :slight_smile: I should really try to replace my strings sometimes soon. Afterall I bought a lot of sets and the strings aren’t snapping.

#9

Hey Karl
Nice work.
You should try slowing down some of those phrases.
The 3400 phrases were consistently sloppy and can easily be
Smoothed out by just taking a little time to treat them with a kind of delicacy/ care and attention.
By 3400 phrases I mean specifically things like…

Kuroshi 0:07-8 and 0:23

Roku Dan 0:32-33 and of course the whole 1:00---- .

If you compare this to painting and brush strokes you can break it down to thinking like the space from 3 to 4 is one stroke and the flick of the index over the string at 0 3 0 is another. If you wave the brush too fast across the canvas you might get a sloppy example compared to if you sat in front of the canvas for a long time and with a lot of care.

It really takes a lot less time than you might think to get those phrases smooth. It’s more about taking care. Be willing to pull your mind outside of the realm of time and just pretend you are starting out on Shamisen for the time. then you won’t mind practicing slow.
And when you feel the phrase is solid and feels like a flowing river that is the moment to go step by step into speeding up the tempo.

#10

Addition note. Watching the vid again…
I think my seconds are off by like one or two seconds. But hopefully you get the point.
Also I wish I could go over some of the bachi strikes. Roku Dan is often varied from school to school but certain parts are consistent.
From about 0:47 onward there are some errors but probably the only way to clear that up is with a vid or in person. Either that or you could consult a score. It would just be too complicated to try to explain with words (at least for me).

But good job anyway! It is highly commendable that you are willing to post yourself. I agree that more of us should do that. I still stumble across thing I have to practice/ work on and wouldn’t mind hearing opinions, criticism (especially when dealing with newly discovered techniques and possibilities.)

Keep up the great bachiing Karl!

#11

Thanks for the feedback Kevin.

About the sloppy 4300 parts there’s not much to say - I can clearly hear the difference between a good player and what I am doing. I can’t pinpoint exactly what I’m doing wrong though, but I’ll rebuild the technique from start and try more slowly. I’m just used to playing the song I’m playing in my head while playing, and my whole body wants to keep up with that tempo that I hear from my brain. I need to tell it to be quiet :slight_smile:

When people like me post a video and ask for feedback I think that it’s always hard for the better players to find the right level of critizicm. It needs to pinpoint the problems you should start fixing while not going into all the things that need to be improve. There’s always a risk of discouragement when criticizing.

However when I look at the video with your feedback in mind, I think that you ended up with just the right level for me. I’ll start when I get back home today with a slow and controlled practice routine.

I think it was Kyle who said something about that it’s very annoying to hear people play the songs faster than they are capable of. I agree fully. This wasn’t meant as a “look, I can play Rokudan this fast and I’m doing it perfectly!” video but more of a “this is my current level and I’m going to continue to improve”. I hope I didn’t hurt any ears by uploading this :wink:

I’d love to hear the hajiki feedback but I’ll leave it to you to decide whether you want to make a video of it or not. If not, I’m sure we’ll meet up somewhere, sometime :slight_smile:

As a side note for videos about how to play certain parts, I think it would be really cool with a shoulder camera that can film the techniques from a player’s perspective. That way it will also be easier to talk about it while showing how the hand is positioned differently.

With no physical teacher in Sweden, I consider the whole Bachido community as my teacher and everyone’s suggestions and opinions help me do better. Posting videos that the community can give feedback on is the way forward.

#12

Karl,
Oh No! I was actually uploading a video for you and didn’t find out you had written again until afterwards. I didn’t even think about the whole shoulder camera angle thing so it’s just straight camera shot. Damn, that’s a good idea for next time though.

I hope this vid will help you. Anyway posting a vid tells me that you are brave enough to handle the feedback so I hope if I am being candid or something you won’t take anything in a discouraging way!
Thats never the intention but I can see how there has to be some sensitivity etc. hope it’s all good and helpful either way.

By the way, as you have seen me do in the past, I have noticed that posting a link to an upload just after its complete tends to generate a FAIL. I was just telling Evyn how I don’t really understand that or how long one should wait before its safe to post it as a link but well, that’s why I am waiting to do that here.
In the meantime please check it out at the shamisendemon channel.
It should be right under the Bowed Shamisen video for Evyn K.

www.youtube.com/shamisendemon

#13

Just finished watching both your videos. I was pleasantly surprised to see a video made partly for me!

I’m glad you push me in the right direction. I want to learn the bachi pattern and it feels like the right way to go and practice these two things right now.

Yes, just fire the cannons! I actually just wanted to give you a compliment for giving feedback in a way that I feel is exactly the level I need. These are two major things that I need to get better at, so the focus should be on talking about those.

I was also pleased to see/hear that when you demonstrated the 4300 pattern slowly it sounds like when I do it slowly. That means my basic technique is not the problem, but rather that I can’t do it properly when playing faster. I think that my sukui is part of the problem when it comes to speed as well so I should not forget to have that in mind. I will make sure that I try to not stray from a good and proper tone. I’m also happy to hear about those variations which will definately help me stay motivated.

Yes when I upload my videos I use my “HandyShare” software that comes with my ZOOM HandyCam. When I go to my youtube site after uploading I can see it “processing” for a couple of minutes. When it doesn’t show that anymore it should be working for other to see. But software is software so user experience may vary from user to user.

I think many people will benefit from the video you just posted, great work!

And thanks again for your time and effort to help me and others on the forum!

#14

Just finished watching both your videos. I was pleasantly surprised to see a video made partly for me!

Haha, I’d say it’s more than " partly!"
Yeah focusing on the bachi pattern more than just the notes
Is totally Friggin Awesome in the way that once you get the hang of it you can Feel the boundaries separating you from other players dissolve!

I don’t mean to sound like a Cd on repeat (in the old days we would say a broken record) but I can’t stress that and the speed issue enough. It’s kind of a magical feeling when you realize that one hour of slow and steady practice can increase your speed and accuracy almost instantly. Much faster results than years of careless practice. I mean… One hour vs. YEARS!
Its that powerful! That’s the only reason I keep stressing that is because It is thrilling to share this info (like a magic formula) and then sit back and watch the results.
The best experience results in a slight sense of disorientation due to bewilderment and Amazement and The urge to suddenly say out loud “Holy mother of God! I can actually DO THIS!”

Somehow I am hoping to convey the awesomeness of that experience to you and hopefully you can report back at some point.

Good luck Karl!

#15

Okay thanks a LOT for this video Kevin… I’ve been having a lot of problems with maebachi and ushiro bachi and don’t handle the change to that beat at all… So i’m gonna watch this video about a million times and try it a million times more and maybe someday it will grip into my conciousness :smiley:

And i hope to post my progress also soonish but, im afraid it’s not gonna have this pattern as i hope it would but… yeah

#16

Haha, I’d say it’s more than " partly!"

Hehe alright, that was a direct greeting. I will have to return the favor next time! I just felt that wow this video will help so many!

So I just finished today’s practice focusing almost exclusively on these two topics.

Thank you Kevin yet again. I feel a much deeper bond with the instrument when I play it properly. I felt an improvement already after one session. I will keep doing this every day now.

I started real slow to get the right sound. I noticed right away there the small things you can do to improve the tone. I noticed that I didn’t perform the pull off with enough momentum. This caused the sound of the 3rd position to not have much volume. I could identify and correct this much more easily when playing slow and as you said not care at all about how slow I played.

And I say pull off, because one thing that confused me as a guitar player is that the term “Hajiki” is imo used for two slightly different techniques. When you hold your index finger on the 3rd position, and your ring finger on the 4th and you strike the string followed by pulling the string away to get the string sounding with the sound of the 3rd position, I feel like that’s the pulloff that I am familiar with.

But then you have these sequences of 16 notes with the hajiki symbol. Instead of going from a higher note to a lower you just flick the string really fast. I just think these are two similar but different techniques and would like them to have different terms. I don’t know if you guys feel like this as well, but it might be a good thing to remember when teaching shamisen to guitar players at least.

I applied the same strategy with some hajiki (the same position flick one :slight_smile: ) today - starting slow and gradually increase the speed until I felt I wasn’t producing the right sound anymore followed by slowing down a bit and grooving there. I noticed here as I have before that it’s easily done to perform the other hajiki where you get a hammer on right before the pulloff, and this is of course not the sound you want.

As for the Bachizuke I decided to get a feeling for the rhythm with my right hand only first. I will gradually incorporate it into the songs I play so that they become more spiritual.

So yeah, can’t wait for what next day’s practice will yield, and the next day, and the next day, and the… (!)

#17

Ortjo,
Cool! Really glad that can help. I’ll Definately make more videos like this . Been meaning to for quite a while but needed Karl’s video post to finally get me off my feet.
Karl, glad to hear of results . Keep in touch!

And everyone else out there, don’t be shy to post your progress!
I have always thought of that as being one of the best functions of this site.

#18

Karl, I’m so excited to see how much more playing keeps improving! Way to go! It’s obvious you’re practicing a lot and taking all of it to heart.
Like it has been mentioned before: It is paramount that you learn the rhythm and the flow of these songs before you move on to play them full speed. You’ve obviously got the technical ability to handle all of this, so for you, it’s really just a matter of time.
You are more than amazing for how long you’ve been playing.

All you need to do is keep training! It will take time of course, but with any luck, you are going to grab these concepts a lot faster than I ever did!
;D

PS: Thanks for those videos Kevin!

#19

Grant, Grant, Grant!
Ok, I’m a jerk. I just totally put you on the spot bro!
Now you have no choice buddy! hahaha! Go look at the forum topics!
yeah!

#20

Thanks Grant!

I’m confident you guys are correct and I just need to practice :slight_smile:

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