Signature Techniques

Playing/Techniques
#1

Hey Bachido!

My name is Brian, I am completely new to Bachido and Shamisen, except for watching the crash course and a ton of videos on the YouTubes.

I wanted to share a video I found, maybe you have seen it. It is of Chikuzan Takahashi, I gotta be honest I didn’t know who he was until I messaged Kyle and asked him! He speaks for a bit in the beginning, wish I knew Japanese, and begins playing at about the seven minute mark. I want to point out something that I had never seen before, and lead into my question. At 9:58, had to ask Kyle for clarification about this too, haha, he starts using the corner of his Bachi to strike his strings sideways. Kyle informed me this was, what he would call, his ‘signature technique.’

My question for you: do you have or know of someone (famous or not) who has a signature technique?

If so, and you are willing to share, I would love to hear about it!

Thanks for being here for all us uninitiated! I have enjoyed finding y’all and look forward to being a part of the group, and hopefully learning Shamisen one day.

Best Wishes,
Brian

#2

Hey there Brian! And welcome!
This is an awesome first post by the way!

Chikuzan is well known for his unique style. The strumming with the bottom of the bachi is surely one of his signature techniques! I’ve pulled it out myself on occasion, but never have I achieved the sound of the classic Takahashi.

Signature techniques can be something you develop early on, or come up with your own during hours of drawn out practice over the course of years.
One of the techniques that I feel like it particular to me is getting harmonics on the strings with the bachi hand using my thumb while striking. It’s hard to explain, and not entirely useful, but it’s a cool effect when needed!

Anyway, welcome again brotha! Keep on truckin’!

#3

Thanks Grant!

That sounds like a really cool technique, could be used really well to add personalization and soul to pieces sounds like.

#4

Welcome to Bachido Brian!!

I never see this video, and it is an amazing use of the bachi. The sound changes a bit, I like it :slight_smile:

#5

Thank you Paco!

I agree, it is inventive and a pretty good sound.

#6

Brian,
Welcome to Bachido! Great first post and very interesting topic to discuss here.
Grant…video, brother! Video or it didn’t happen! haha, no but seriously yeah I have heard the “harmonics” thing that Grant does and it is cool! So let’s all hound him now to post a little example of it!

As for me I am almost afraid to start adding to this thread because I have too many signature and/or original techniques which I have created on the Shamisen so I must fight the temptation to flood this with video clips. Just to share a few though, I’ll start with this little thing I came up with fairly recently.
There are two things here. Both have to do with a hyper extension and development of the pinky in what is traditionally called komazuke.

I hope other bachido members aren’t sick of this yet since I have already shared this vid in several past threads on this forum…

Anyway sig. Tech 1 =muting across all three strings with pinky
(as far as I have seen I am the only Shamisen player who practices this)
Sig. Tech 2 = Kmetzerization ! This is Definately and probably one of my most definitive signature techniques So far…

#7

Argh ! The temptation is too strong !
Here’s another original thing that I don’t really see any other Shami players do (except for Shmoolik ) .It’s a stylistic kind of slide that I came up with for a tune I wrote for BH called Austrian Taxi driver.
It appears right around the 49 second mark of the song.
I call this technique “steering wheel!”

#8

OK…Ok… I know! I gotta stop here. Feel free to check out my YouTube channel shamisendemon for more or even better scroll back through past posts here on this forum. There is a ton of original ideas being shared by many of us here on the forum. This community has come up a bunch of original terms as well such as Shmetal ( a term born from discussions here on bachido which simply means Shamisen mixed with metal) and many others…

Don’t waste any time checking out the newest Bachido Blogcast as well as it demonstrates the use of chords on Shamisen, another one of my siginature things I do (not that I’m the only one playing chords but I Definately have my own approach and philosophy behind it)

So yeah…I’ll stop here for now but just to add on last thing.
I mean, I can’t really address signature techniques without including this old one…

#9

surely the shamisen flip, or roll or whatever you guys call it, deserves a mention somewhere?

#10

I think this technique is shown at 1:13

#11

Ah yes…the Spinner! That one was created by Bachido’s own
Grant (Shamisensation)Reimer. Hold on ,let me see if I can locate the origins of that one. . .

#12

Thanks for the welcome Kevin :slight_smile:

Haha, it is always funny to see y’all finish playing in a video only to have someone off camera remind you to do the spinner. It is a fun little thing. Ever done it in performance, Kevin, Grant, or Kyle?

#13

Have to agree… Great thread and i’ve been thinking about “custom” techinques myself also and this opens some thoughts…

#14

I don’t remember doing it in a performance but one of us might have . I traced the roots of the “spinner” to this video. Grant does it in the last second of this one, right before the camera cuts off.

As far as I can recall that was the first time anyone’s done it, now it’s kind of a “bachido trademark”! Way to go Grant!

#15

Please don´t be afraid about putting here videos, I can´t talk for other but for me I am hungry of knowledge! :slight_smile: Very interesting techs! :slight_smile:

#16

Thanks Paco!
Now we need Masahiro and Mike Penny and Grant to post something here!

#17

I agree Kevin! Would love to hear and see what all three have to offer. Still especially interested in seeing/hearing Grant’s harmonics technique.

#18

agree with the comment above word for word actually . . . also I just thought about the top clip and using the back end of a bachi and my take on traditions . . . I guess just like most if not all traditions that ever made any sense tsugaru shamisen is a tradition that is about innovation and to honor such a tradition and its pioneers we should rather share their spirit of being open for innovation than stick to exactly what has been done before even including what they did I think doing something different than the pioneers of a tradition can actually be the only right thing to do to honor them and a tradition as they tried to find the best way of doing things in their time and circumstances and we should do the same in our time and circumstances . . . of course using the back end of a bachi is a timeless technique and in this case we should keep it in and just like he did be open to expand a collection of cool ways to play with the strings . . . anyway I guess . . . :slight_smile:

#19

Yeah you hit the bullseye right there B H! I totally want to reach the Shamisen world with that exact same message! There are actually a few haters out there who have been critical of the California Shamisen movement and me especially saying that we are “messing” with a “Japanese” tradition and that I (we) should not boast of new innovations into something that has already been established as a tradition. I have always felt myself as one who generously waves my middle finger in the faces of such critics. When I look into the world of music and Shamisen it strikes me as obvious that this is not and never has been strictly a “Japanese” instrument.
This gets me in trouble with some purists but it only takes a few seconds of “general” (surface) research to find out that the three stringed lute or three stringed instrument of an sort has only spent a small percentage of it’s exsitance being called a “Japanese” instrument. Before that for over a thousand years it was only known in China. And before that, the middle east. Gerry McGoldrick in Canada once showed me an ancient seal from Mesopotamia , way back in the annals of recorded history which shows none other than a three stringed plucked lute of some sort.

So this brings me to the need to point out the obvious…
The Shamisen embodies a spirit. This Spirit is not Japanese, or Chinese or Mesopotamian or Californian or Austrian… But what it is is something that is in the middle of a journey. I may be called arrogant for thinking that I can take this thing and assume the position of being one who will usher it into the future but to that I say that it is more arrogant to tell me that I can’t do that because of some selfish cultural notion that the Music of Shamisen belongs exclusively to "your culture " and someone else trying to create a new path should be dismissed as a charlatan .I think that’s nonsense!

Fact is those who we call the founding fathers and masters of Tsugaru Shamisen were criticized and hated on in much the same way when they were first creating the "Tsugaru " style. They were told “that is not proper technique!” and that their method was too “loud and crazy” and on and on…but they stuck with it which resulted in the traditon of non traditon which we now call “Tsugaru Shamisen” and today the young acts like Yoshidas etc. are making it seem like they are honoring something sacred! But just as B H says the true tradition is when it evolves. what they are honoring is the moment. The passing through Tsugaru…The little bit part of it that sticks up on the surface of a much deeper ocean…The Ocean of all of human history as expressed through ALL music of all times, including the future!

I really think that “Tsugaru” was only one stop. One encounter on a long journey that is far from over and in a very real sense might just be beginning! Or at least the best part of the journey may very well lie in the future not the past!

I love Tsugaru Shamisen with all my heart but I also recognize that love means not restricting something that wants to reach out and touch new lands and new horizons ! My gut tells me that the tradition of Tsugaru style Shamisen has already reached its peak. Perhaps that was a good 40 years ago when that happened. The honorable performers of today who try their best to roproduce the sounds created by Chikuzan, Gunpachiro and others are doing a wonderful tribute to the work of the past masters. They give us the raw material upon which to build. But the building has already begun and it’s too late to stop it. All the haters out there (don’t worry…I won’t mention any names) can suck it!!!

#20

yeah I agree (why should I elaborate when this already sums it up)

also and especially as for artistic expression it can only be a matter of taste anyway so who could claim to be an objective judge of what is right or wrong except an arrogant frustrated and superficial fool :slight_smile:

© 2020 Kyle Abbott