Otanjoubi Omedetou Nitta san!!

[Kyle_Abbott]

Fellow shamisen enthusiasts!

It is Masahiro Nitta’s birthday today! Of course, I found out the way all best friends do: Through Facebook. The now-27 year old Nitta san eagerly embarks on a new year of opportunity and inspiration! Both of which you will find out about later this year.

I feel very lucky that Nitta san is an integral part of Bachido. (as well as Luke, of course). I always knew that spreading shamisen across the world was a big interest for him, but I’m constantly, and pleasantly, surprised with the enthusiasm, effort and ideas he brings to Bachido. Likewise, Masahiro is thrilled by the passion, interest and spirit for shamisen you all bring to Bachido. I’m very proud of you all for that as well. Needless to say, we’re all swimming in awesomeness here!

Huzzah!

[Jessica_Dowd]

Happy Birthday! Keep up the good work!

[Karl_Hedlund]

So Kyle, are there any plans on adding more content to the site in the near future? Or are you too busy building your shamisen?

All of my questions have been answered on the forums, which I’m really grateful for, but it feels like the site is ready to get more content!

We’ve had Kevin made his appearance here, which is really great. Will Masahiro make one as well?

[Liam_Morgan]

Happy Birthday Masahiro!!!

[Kyle_Abbott]

Hey Karl,

Well, a lot has happened this morning, all due to your comment. (Don’t worry, it’s a good thing )

I read your post this morning and was thinking, “Gee, I have audio instruction for most of the pieces and tunings, as well as a crash course and other misc goodies. What’s left to add?” It was hard to think of stuff. Indeed, I am spending a lot of time making this new shamisen, because I want a really good sound before filming more step-by-step instruction for pieces. My current shamisen isn’t too bad. Perhaps my standards have risen, but I want to record with something really nice and crisp.

Anywho, so I talked about it with my dad before we started yoga. In the end, we came up with doing a weekly video. Similar to the Toneway show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxT73s1hS-U&list=UUGyOsuOCj07V_g0NPXTDFKQ&index=15&feature=plcp) but about shamisen. I’ll answer questions (some technical questions on the forum are easier answered with a shamisen in hand), record new pieces, have guests, showing shamisen construction progess, or just anything entertaining. That will be a fun way to create new content every week which will hopefully be both educational and entertaining.

Needless to say, I had trouble doing yoga because my mind was aflutter with the weekly show ideas.

If anyone else has anything they’d specifically like to see on Bachido (‘Shamisen Tuning’, for example) please let me know!

Many thanks for mentioning that Karl! It got our creative juices flowing!

It might be a while before Masahiro makes an appearance. His English is very limited, though he knows the most important phrase in the English language, “Let’s Party!!” Next time we meet, we’ll probably make an introduction video together, just to prove that his involvement is not a figment of my imagination.
What I really wonder, where is Mike Penny??? I mean, do we really have to create a petition to get him on here? Am I right people?

[Karl_Hedlund]

I’m glad my message resulted in good ideas! I am watching the link right now and it feels like the concept will be great applied to Bachido.

While I feel pretty dedicated right now, I know there will be times where the interest takes a dip. Having a weekly inspirational show about shamisen will definately help against those dips. I think Bachido will get many more people visiting the site more often.

Most of all I feel you and the other very talented people on the forum have so much experience that you can share and that it doesn’t always have to be shared as answers to questions on the forum. Of course it’s up to each person how much he/she wants to share, I’m just saying I feel you all got it in you

I’ll definately come back to you about any ideas I get for the show. Speaking of that, and Mike Penny, one thing that was a part of me deciding to play the shamisen was this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkOsdVv2gVA

Now I don’t know how much you are into Irish traditional tunes, but I definately want to see good traditional songs from other countries than Japan be transformed into epic shamisen tunes. It would be even more great with steps on how to play the songs etc. I realize that this is a very ambitious idea, but there you have it. I hope on being able to do this on my own later but I need to practice more!

Some other possible topics are:
Shamisen video clip of the week
Bachido forum member video clip of the week
Recent music news when it comes to Shamisen. Maybe Masahiro could help you out with this?

Again, I really appreciate the time and effort you guys make to teach us padawans how to play proper shamisen. I realize you all have many other things to do and we can’t demand anything. We can just show that we are eager to learn

[Kevin_Kmetz]

Excellent! Excellent! Yes! I totally agree. Bachido is a great site but the ideas presented here would make it even greater. This just might become “THE” Coolest website EVER!
I was thinking about how Karl mentioned that the Irish tune clip helped to get him interested in Shamisen and then I thought about Kyle and the Toneway show.

So After thinking about Karl`s words posted above, I came up with an idea. . .
I have always tried to create the image of a “Non traditional” way of playing Shamisen and have always focused the majority of my time and effort learning and applying all kinds of world music, jazz, rock, metal, and various other styles (with the final goal being the Shamisen-ization of everything
to the point to where a new style can come into exsistance.)
late 19th/20th century produced something called “Tsugaru Shamisen”
(synthesizing the various folk music of central and northern Japan)
SO early 21st century then should logically produce something called. . .

“Planet Earth Shamisen?” perhaps?
What do you guys think?

So here is my idea regarding the Toneway-bachido combination show.

Since you`re talking “Weekly” show. Why not have a host of characters that regularly appear each week with something that is their “Theme”.

It could go something like this…

Kyle could do his question-answering demonstration section, someone else could do their section and so on etc. etc. Someone could do a new weekly traditional tune etc. Obviously I would gladly volunteer to do the “This week on Planet Earth Shamisen” part which would basically just be a performance, demonstration and break-down lesson of Irish, Turkish, African, Alaskan, Martian or whatever other music.

I could take requests too. And it goes without saying that this planet has a practically infinte supply of interesting and amazing music so this could literally go on forever!

I could also talk to Mike Penny and maybe even Asano Sho about being contributors.
I think Asano Sho would be into the idea and he is already friends with Masahiro
So… Dont know about Penny though, for some reason he doesnt show up here much. hmmm. Grant could do something too.

It would be super easy to pull this off by just sending the vids as files to you Kyle!

[Kevin_Kmetz]

Oh yeah… and Happy Birthday Masahiro! I called him last night. Sounded like he was doing well!

[Kyle_Abbott]

Oh yeah!!!

Karl and Kevin, great ideas!!!

Karl: I definitely see what you mean. Being that there are no local shamisen players for most people, any feeling of “life” in the community is important, isn’t it. Excellent idea about Bachido member video clips!! I am definitely down for including that. I assume exchange footage through youtube, or some file-sharing site?

Kevin:
Du~de!!! This is so exciting!!! A whole host of characters is a great idea!!! I definitely want your involvement, including Mike, Asano san, and more!! Screw Penny, he obviously hates us. (Mike, if you’re reading this, sign up and give your rebuttal )

You obviously have the most knowledge/skill at fusing shamisen with everything from world to metal, so “Planet Earth Shamisen” would be a wonderful thing to contribute. And not just that. If you go on an adventure, or have a good story, that’s all good. Each week doesn’t necessarily have to be about shamisen. (A little bit is good though ) Building the feeling of community and having it entertaining is most important.

From experience of making video blogs, I can say that it would be a time investment to create a full show with several hosts each week. A tight, 7-minute show took about a day or two of editing/creating, which is the reason we put it on hold. Life just takes over. That said, what if each host will get a week?

For example:
1st week of the month: Kyle hosts (shamisen piece, guests, shamisen construction, random junk)
2nd week: Kevin hosts (shamisen piece, guests, random junk)
3rd week: Asano/Grant/Mike/Masahiro(?) hosts (whatever they want to do)
4th week: Member contributions! (video clips, pictures, questions) On this week, we can all answer questions.

I dunno, this is just a thought to space things out. I expect each week would be a 4 minute show. Long enough to be entertaining, but short enough that it’s not a big hassle to make each week. From blogxperience, a tight show is always better than long and drawn out. And I right ladies?? (Yoops. I won’t go there. Shut up Kyle)

And I stress again, building personal connection and having something entertaining is most important. Definitely, we’ll have plenty of shamisen instruction to share, but if you do something interesting (go to a locale, cook something, meet someone), it’s worth having even if it’s not shamisen related for one week.

[Kyle_Abbott]

Oh, as for the title of the program. “BachiTV”

Thoughts?

[Denver_Norwood]

Guys, that sounds like an awesome idea! I’d love to see something like that on the site sometime soon! The name sounds good too, very catchy lol

And 昌弘さん、お誕生日おめでとうございます‼

[Karl_Hedlund]

Great! The hype has been established!

I love the enthusiasm that you guys show! You are totally right about the community part. I’ve even called the Japanese Embassy in Sweden just to see if they had any contacts with shamisen players but they said I might well be one of the only people who play the shamisen in Sweden. I’m still going to try and find other people from various Japanese communities but for now all I have is the community for my daily dose of shamisen.

I’d love to contribute myself, so I’m going to push myself even harder to get good enough. That Kevin is willing to put that kind of effort into making world tunes into shamisen tunes is really thrilling!

I understand the time that it takes in making a video Kyle, so your schema looks like a realistic one. It would be super cool if you got said others with you on this!

The name is definately good enough, and you should include it in japanese characters as well. I’m sure there are some Japanese shamisen players who might be interested in an English experience and see how the instrument is getting a great community out in the world.

[Libor_Turek]

First of all - Happy second day after birthday Masahiro!! =)

This is incredible, your ideas are fantastic!
As Kevin already mentioned, this IS going to be the coolesttestest website since … websites!!

…really looking forward to Planet Earth Shamisen and BachiTV and the fully new experience it will deliver!

p.s. muhahaha I can tell ya that in the end everything is going to fuse into BachiTube!

[Ortjo_Nieminen]

Pretty much having same feelings as Karl. Haven’t found any shamisen players in finland either
but this community is great now and i can’t wait for those improvements it’s going to be epic! Lots of respect to everyone .D

[B_H]

awesome . . . I like all the names Planet Earth Shamisen, BachiTV, BachiTube . . . guess there is no need for every week’s show being exactly the same length so a couple of minutes at least or any time longer depending on the subject and available time for creating the show that week or so . . .

as for topics what quickly comes to my mind is NEO (I did not manage to follow one short and silent existing clip by Kyle) and in case someone would like to fuse one of my favorite tunes into a solo version for one shamisen and present it with tabs . . . I would watch that week’s show for sure . . .

(kizuna) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBwckGFlVH8

[Kyle_Abbott]

Cool stuff, cool stuff!

I whipped up a short, dorky video on the day that this idea started. Doesn’t really have to do with shamisen, but it’s a start. (I filmed some stuff the next day which is more relevant) I’ll probably upload it tomorrow.

Expect a bit of an…evolution. It is gonna get more pro as it gets established.