Hey folks. This is my celebratory post about finally obtaining a tsugaru shamisen. I’m super excited to finally have my own and this seems like the place to announce it and throw up digital high fives. I’ve been lurking the site for a while and after starting lessons with a local instructor in March I finally tracked down a beginner tsugaru shamisen I could afford on ebay and took a chance. It arrived this morning and I couldn’t be happier. Especially since I only got to play an actual shamisen during lessons. At home I started practicing bachi technique on my bass and then quickly moved to a borrowed sanshin for learning songs. It’s been an interesting journey.
While I’m learning shamisen for myself, I’m planning on bringing some three string goodness to my taiko group, St. Louis Osuwa Taiko. If all goes as planned I hope to be performing a song or two in front of an audience by September at the local Japanese Festival. Fingers crossed.
So for those out there having a hard time finding a shamisen, don’t give up. If you don’t luck out like I did, the beginner shamisen Kyle is selling looks to be a sweet deal. Thank you Kyle and company for the site and wealth of knowledge on this awesome instrument. I’ve learned a ton from the articles and forums and the crash course videos are great. Rock on party shamisen people! -Joel
