Sweden Shamisen Viking Taikai 2012 - part one

[Anne_Liljedahl]

First get Shamisen get-together in Sweden. All known players were gathered - that is, Karl and I!

Karl took the bus from Gothenburg and started out his summer vacation in the best way possible, a weekend devoted to shamisen!

We used the time well. On Saturday we probably played together for about 7 hours and yesterday (Sunday) we counted to 9-10 hours of time with the shamisen in our hands!
Most of the time we spent in the dojo, the training quarters where I practice Bujinkan, since it’s in a cellar and no one lives on top of it, so we could play as long as we wanted without annoying anyone. Great!
Of course there was time for food, beer and a little sightseeing too!
The joy of having someone to play with, it’s amazing! We reached our goals we had set up and of course there’ll be some new video posts of what we’ve done, you just have to look out for it!

In the meantime, here something to lay your eyes on.

Sweden Viking Taikai 2012 - official coffee making movie

We’ve learned that coffee is one of the most important aspects when it comes to shamisen culture, so we went all in to have the full experience!

Kyle - I hope we can match your standards, at least a little.

Kevin Kmetz - I want that coffee grinding song, any day now!

[Kyoko_Senga]

Hi! I am so happy to see you two from being in Japan, privileged place to first find this.you two look so fine and happy!

On the same day, Kevin, Norm and Jamie were playing a nameless song that Kevin composed. As I am pushing, Kevin says Abbot bushi.
But now It seems to be named coffee grinding Bushi.
What do you think, Kevin?
Cheers to Viking Taikai!

[Karl_Hedlund]

Great weekend!

It’s crazy how much shamisen playing we managed to perform WITHOUT hurting our bachi hands!

I think I’m aiming for tomorrow for the release of the footage from our playing in the dojo. It needs to be edited nicely.

P.S. The coffee was really nice!

[Cana_Rochbell]

hehe looks awesome guys did it really take an hour to grind coffee!?!?! thats dedication! <3

[Karl_Hedlund]

hehe looks awesome guys did it really take an hour to grind coffee!?!?! thats dedication! <3

We were half way through after an hour.

[Cana_Rochbell]

oh wow ^.^ you guys should get bachido medals
was the coffee good?
did you guys have it with milk and sugar?

[Karl_Hedlund]

I’m just joking of course It took a couple of minutes and it felt stupid to just show a couple of minutes of coffee grinding to you guys so we tried to be a little bit funny!

I drink my coffee without anything in it and I liked the beans Anne bought.

[Kevin_Kmetz]

Wow! awesome! this is really cool when we can share these video posts! Ok guys, got to get to work on the coffee grinding song! Haha!

What’s really cool is how much Shamisen was being played with first time meeting of bachido members in different parts of the world at roughly the same time.

This plus the recent completion of the new Monsters of Shamisen CD ! cool. Seems like a lot of cool things are coming soon for the
つながりof 三味線 and the rest of the world! Good times, my friends!

[Liam_Morgan]

Looks like you guys had a lotta fun

[Liam_Morgan]

P.s loving the name of the taikai

[B_H]

haha good first video . . . and looking forward to the others those hours you have mentioned sound like serious other than coffee sessions . . .

[Anne_Liljedahl]

Yey! A coffee making song!
Looking forward to that!

[Matej_Kolenic]

uau you guys played a lot…cool…its nice to see that the internet relations are turning into something more, and bachido members are starting to meet up all around…it is great…
btw. last weekend I was also playing shamisen, had a concert with my band and played a short “shamijam” hehe was good fun…

[Kyle_Abbott]

Yay! I approve!

That grinder is suteki! When I started planning espresso/grinder equipment, a friend offered to give me a grinder just like that, which was in his family for a few generations. Very touching. However, I realized that I probably wouldn’t be able to make the ideal “45 second espresso shot” with it, so it should remain a family heirloom.

Wow!! I can’t believe your hands weren’t hurting! Boy, when I was starting, my hands hurt after an hour. (Later, Grant informed me of the importance of staying relaxed)

Being a musical genius, I’m sure Kevin can come up with an hour long coffee grinding song for that grinder. In the meantime, I’ll try making a 30 second coffee grinding jingle for the Mazzer.

I second (or third?) what Kevin and Sid say. It’s amazing that these connections on the forum are turning into actual, in-person experiences! It’s been my hope for this to happen from the Bachido Network, and how cool that it’s all starting at once! This just makes the dream-come-true coming even truer!

Hey Sid, I want to see your band in action sometime.

[Marvin_Asato]

Really enjoyed the video,
Can’t wait to see more… : )
Three (counting Sid’s) or more great Shamisen happenings all over the world the same weekend…
Great stuff… : )
I was practicing my Shamisen, too!!!
But I am not as EPIC as some… Yet : )
But I think I am slowly making progress…

[Kevin_Kmetz]

Marvin,
I’d like to encourage you to post a video sometime.
I think it’s exciting to witness Shamisen playing develop
Regardless of whatever skill level someone is at.
Of course no worries if it is something you are not comfortable with yet, just wanted to invite you to post sometime cause it think it is expeceially cool when we get to see and hear each other.
In the meantime I await more from Karl and Anne!

Bachi On!

K

[B_H]

coffee song

[Marvin_Asato]

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the encouragement… : )
I have to find someone brave enough to video tape me…
and then figure out how to post it…
But, we’ll work on it…
Thanks