I have started to play in a band and for certain songs it is convenient to tune the shamisen up a tone and have it tuned to D,A,D, however, after a short while of playing the strings wont stay in tune and loosen up (down) so its all out of tune and i have to be tuning it up all the time which is a bit of hassle… is that normal? well its just a tone up…
Hey Sid,
Pretty much every stringed instrument has that same problem when you try to change pitch. The issue comes from the fact that the strings have been tuned to one pitch for a while, so they adjust to the pitch over time and stay in tune. When you try to change pitch (up or down), they strings gradually go back to their original tension instead of immediately acclimating to the new tension.
Changes in weather and humidity will alter the pitch too. Depending on if the air is humid or dry, the wood will expand or contract, changing the string length, and thus changing the pitch.
Basically, you just have to give the strings time to settle in. They usually take a day or two to fully adjust their tension to the new pitch. Maybe just go in and retune your shamisen every couple hours that you’re not playing, that’ll speed up the process a bit.
ahh
ok i get it, so it should be fine in couple of days…
makes sense … the strings need some time to adjust,
thanks for that.
for now i am leaving my shamisen in D,A,D tuning, its easier for others to play with me, we are having a concert in two weeks, my shamisen first live appearance, so am looking forward to it, gambate!!
when i tune up for a singer who wants to sing out of E or F my homemade itomaki wont hold the extra tension so i change the strings to thinner one,s, the sound is a bit more lighter and twang-eee,but suitable for sanshin type songs, takes a day to settle stretch in, i can do this as i use and prefer nylon fishing line, . for c.g.c i use .90 .85 .55.
i have always wondered if one can buy proper thinner strings for shamisen?
so the other option is to stay in c.g.c or d.a.d and learn to play higher up the keyboard which is way out of my league, you could try experimenting with a guitar capo,
Kevin Kmetz has routinely played with all sorts of bands and different musical genres. I’ve never noticed him having any trouble with his strings or itomaki.
It’s true that when you mess around with the tuning, it is much more likely to skip out of tune. If this is the case, we will often “stretch the strings”. This is a technique in where you firmly pull on a string near the bridge (without pulling it out of the itomaki or breaking it). This will cause it to go out of tune. After that you tune it back up. You repeat process until it finally doesn’t go out of tune anymore when you pull on it. You do this for all 3 strings. This is most common to have to do when you are replacing a broken string, but may help you with your problem.
Kyle and I commonly tune our Shamisen very high for certain songs, and experience minimal issues with going out of tune beyond the norm. So hopefully that might help.
I haven’t played shamisen for very long but i play sitar, guitar, violin and dombra, well pretty much anything with strings… one thing that helps in the tuning pegs are the reason for it going out of tune is chalk, rub chalk on the pegs and then put them pag into the headstock, this will help them from slipping out of tune
Yes Shamisens can be more challenging than other instruments in the tuning department. When I was in high school I played cello and I always remembered how when you tune a cello string you are told to sort of press the peg inward as you adjust the actual string tension. When I began playing Shamisen I guess I almost subconsciously adapted that same approach. I find this technique does indeed work on Shami as well. Basically the idea is to push the itomaki in enough that it sticks. This will not completely solve the problem of the strings naturally gravitating back to whatever tuning that have been in, but it will temporarily eliminate that annoying slipping sensation like when the string just won’t “stay” no matter what you do…
^^ this… also i found that rubbing some rosin from my bow help.
Although tension on the strings will be slightly less that say that of a sitar or cello, purely because of the length, number and material of the strings. the push tenique is good in the absense of rosin or chalk.
Question, not related to this but more for ease of play.when play sitar and dilruba it’s common to use oil on the strings to allow for effortless legato, is this used much in shamisen?
Kevin Kmetz has routinely played with all sorts of bands and different musical genres. I’ve never noticed him having any trouble with his strings or itomaki.
Yeah, except when I smash up Itomakis on stage.
Word of advice for anyone planning to do head banging and metal with a Shamisen… ORDER EXTRA (SPARE) ITOMAKI!
This happened to me while on tour with estradasphere. Fortunately
I just pulled out the spare and went on with the tour.
Thank God for Shamisen Katoh!