Questions about the more detailed techniques in the book

Playing/Techniques
#1

Hello,

So I’m off to college in a dorm and I’ve brought my shamisen with me unfortunately for my roommate, and I was re-reading the book because I feel like I’m getting to the point that I need to take things a step further, and I had a few questions about the specifics.

About komazuke; I have a nagauta shamisen, and so if I’m not mistaken, is my dou smaller? Maybe it’s my hand size, but if I dampen the koma with my pinky, I’m straining to even play over the skin that’s adhered to the wood. On that, the difference between maebachi and ushirobachi is minimal when concerning distance. It concerns me.

About keshi; I don’t have any idea how I’m supposed to do this. If I press my finger lightly on the string, it silences the string. If I press too hard I’m sounding a note. I don’t really have any idea at all what I’m supposed to be doing here.

And, as an off-note for Kyle and potentially any other Bachido coffee addicts, I ran across this type of coffee online called “The Black Blood of the Earth” and it’s basically coffee made in a vacuum chamber to suck out as much acid and impart as much oil to the coffee as possible. It supposedly has ~40x the caffeine regular coffee does.

Any hints? Thanks!

#2

Been wondering about the keshi as well… :smiley:

#3

I will need to check out that bloody coffee . . . :slight_smile:

#4

ah I see a liquid coffee concentrate okay sounds rather like an energy drink fix to me and he wanted to get bitterness out of the coffee I like the regular complete taste . . . sounds spectacular in its own right though gonna check it out in detail later and thanks for mentioning this . . . :slight_smile:

#5

Just looked at my copy of the book, and yeah, I can see why you’d be confused about the keshi. Keshi comes from the verb kesu, Japanese for “erase,” and that might give you a better clue as to what it is. Using keshi is like erasing a note you’ve just played. You strike a note as normal and then instead of letting it ring, you silence it an instant later by placing a finger lightly on the string. Maybe I’ll put a video up later to make things clearer.

As for komazuke, I’ve only ever played tsugaru shamisen so I can’t help you too much on that. Are you sure you’re not putting your koma too close to the frame already, though? I did that recently and was like “Why the heck does my shamisen sound so weird today? It’s all dull and quiet.” Then I realized that I had put my koma so close to the frame that there was barely any resonance. Moved it up a bit and everything was better. While my pinky wasn’t my primary concern, I guess I also gave myself a little more room for komazuke, though. But again, I’ve never played on anything but a futozao, so can anyone more familiar with nagauta comment?

#6

Yah, so, I mades da videos:

It might be overkill, but hope it helps!

#7

Hmm. Can see that you learned a different kind of version of Kuroishi Yosare. Just sounds a bit different :stuck_out_tongue: Thanks Jamie. I’m sure many new ppl will appreciate this video

#8

what a great response and “old fashioned zoom” too . . .

as it happens (and taxi business was low) I have spent most of the day going through the basic techniques again as in Kyle’s book and practicing them as precisely as possible . . .

and I tried out some rage against the machine riffs that included keshi and something else I wondered about since my selfmade stick is not a true reference as for the sound of a good shamisen . . .

on a shamisen would percussive hits on the strings alone make any sense? you know like so often used in funky guitar riffs when you do keshi and keep hitting the strings for a percussive sound pattern

I did not pay attention to that specifically but am not aware of having seen or heard that done so I wonder whether it would sound dull or is not done because of shamisen tunes usually not requiring it?

#9

Great video Jamie! Don’t worry about overkill, going overkill will help those who need a little more help! As Grant said last time you posted a video on your practice routine you got a knack for these tutorial videos!

I would just want to point out that you can observe this in Kevin and Shmoolik’s video throughout the song but especially at the start. It really is essential to get that funky feeling! Remember that if you would play chords you can use it to dampen all the strings as well.

Reminds me I need to do a recording of the song as well.

#10

:slight_smile:

#11

Komazuke was covered extensively in this vid which was made for bachido. I keep trying to get on Kyle’s case about having a specific section here on bachido for questions and answers. This forum has been around for a while now and there are SO many questions whose answers can be found just by scrolling back through past discussions. The problem of course is…Who wants to scroll through 50 billion posts just to find the answer. So if anyone agrees with me please join me in the crusade to convince Kyle and Luke to make a new addition to this site, preferably away from the forum,IMO that is the source of the problem. I would prefer everyone can see the Q and A section without having to scroll or even look through the forum. Anyway here is a vid about some innovative ways to incorporate komazuke including my original application which I call
“Kmetzerization” which is a type of hyper-developed Komazuke.

#12

Wow! Someone said my name in a youtube video! Immortality is mine! Bwahahaha!

But no seriously thank you Jamie that actually really explained it well. In fact I’ve been doing keshi as a silly habit when I goof around with my shamisen, so at least now it has a name!

I haven’t yet watched the video on komazuke, but I will have to tomorrow when I have free time. I have classes tomorrow and what not.

#13

No prob, Nick! Hope you get something out of the vids.
Incidentally good old Berhard Hoffman (known here as B H) has once again caused Things to happen across the oceans on the other side of the world… by simply sharing his thoughts he has single handedly caused a Rage Against the Machine cover to appear on the three strings of the Shamisen. I took this as an opportunity to further investigate the Keshi technique as it applies to modern rock Shami techniques! Also featured here is my little rant about how we need to get organized with this stuff here on this site.

#14

Great cover Kevin! Would be epic to have a bass helping out with the heaviness that RATM involves! Despite that, you got the feeling really good!

Ok people, everyone please post that you agree with Kevin. When I had been on Bachido for a month (almost a year ago) or so I was asking lots of questions before I even had a shamisen. I noticed how people like Kyle and Kevin and Grant were spending a lot of time helping out and I saw new people coming in and asking about stuff that we had had the longest discussions about, just like Kevin says in this video. We really need that feature now. I mean come on, there should be a link that says “Sukui” and it should contain that lengthy thread we had last year as a matter of fact.

Let’s do it!

#15

Thanks Karl!
dang! I finally get a day off and was gonna get back on to your SHAMISEN COMPOSER, but instead I ended up hanging out on the forum, making RATM covers and another one for Cana.
Tomorrows another busy day. Shoot. Well after that= the weekend!

Groovy!

Bachi On, folks!

#16

so if anyone agrees with me please join me in the crusade to convince Kyle and Luke to make a new addition to this site, preferably away from the forum,IMO that is the source of the problem.

Dude, I’m busy! :wink: Seriously, I’m totally for having a section (even more in depth than Q&A), but development is currently a one-man operation. Updating the Bachido Store with the videos was a big operation which took up all my dev time, then the MoS CD (another daily project), and the shirt on the side (wasn’t as time consuming, but still something needed to be done). Most all of my social/hobby/spare time is spent on Bachido, so I have to rely on a project list/queue to keep focused and not overwhelmed with all the things that could be made.

Fortunately though, the store is up and as of yesterday, all of my overdubbing has been finished (just waiting for a friend’s percussion and Rick’s panflute contributions, and then looking for an accordion player… and then getting in touch with a masterer/mixer). The first shirt is almost finalized methinks, so at last there will be room for more projects. :slight_smile: Of course, one of those new projects will be the learning videos. I’m dying to start working on them.

Soon, I’ll make a new forum post presenting the projects available to start. Then people can vote on which ones should have priority.

#17

That’s a good cover… sure wish I could add some Shmetal vox though. :wink:

#18

Sweet, shout out! Truly, this must be what the Japanese call “shiawase.”

Anyhoo, as for the Q&A and whatnot, there is a search feature…

Maybe we should make that a little more prominent?

#19

Dude, Kevin, that Kmetzerization is one nifty effect. First there was the Sham-wow. Now there is Shamwah! Shazam, homie!

#20

:DD Yeah thanks Kevin for your videos! they include really neat stuff :stuck_out_tongue: especially Kmetzerization!
And as for Q&A section i actually bugged Kyle with this question even before Bachido.com :stuck_out_tongue: When it was still shamisenofjapan.com
But i really understand that Kyle has so many projects and jobs needed to be done at bachido that he’s missing his own life meanwhile :smiley:
So let’s just give the man a bit space. (Just also hope that the Q&A section comes someday ;P)

Ooh and btw. This RATM cover made me realize once again how good you are handling shamisen Kevin!

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