I am not a good shamisen player, have trouble using a bachi (30 years of guitar, old dog new tricks), but play one anyway with a banjo playing friend here in Nairobi, Kenya.
We are currently working on an album and in the meantime we produce these weekly videos. I hope you enjoy them.
don’t worry the playing is not so bad 
I would even go as far as saying this is another album preorder I have to hereby officially make !
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
I really enjoyed that, Peter! (I showed it to my parents and they thought it was great too. 
) I’m with BH, pre-order please!
Nice!
At first I misread this as a thread about a shamisen with a Banjo body for a dou!
Duo! Lol
Ha! If only we were that smart!
Cool! Are you guys playing live in Nairobi as well?
We’re trying! Nairobi is a rough town to try to get live gigs in.
At this point, an open mic night has been our best bet. People were freaked out by the shamisen haha.
super cool and awesome!
That’s nice. I’m taking that as a positive freaked out How can you dislike the shamisen? If you play with a plectrum you don’t even get the skin snap that in my experience is what people generally dislike with it if they don’t like the instrument.
It’s sad how ignorant you get when it comes to some parts of the world because there are practically no news from for example most of Africa. It happens very seldom that I get exposed with culture from over there. Maybe it’s time to get more active in googling for culture around the world.
How’s the general vibe in Nairobi when it comes to street music etc?
I’ve got a piece I’m in the process of finishing. Would have loved to have more players nearby so that we could jam more because that leads to more music that doesn’t have to be written in stone.
Nairobi is great for music, but there’s not a lot of street music here. At least not as much as there is in other African cities. Probably has something to do with how crowded the place is and general insecurity… or there might just not be a tradition for that here… or if there was, the Brits might have quashed it.
Regardless, there are music events most nights all over the city. A lot of Afro-fusion, some reggae, no rock at all and OCCASIONALLY there are events with people playing indigenous instruments.
Yeah, what’s to not like about the shamisen? Musicians here are extremely intrigued by it. “There’s only three strings??? No frets? How do you play this thing?” Yes, freaked in a positive way.
My nyatiti (a lyre like instrument native to East Africa) likened it to an Orutu (a one string violin like instrument)… and, of course started to jam out on mine.