Transferring to shamisen later?

General
#1

Hello, I’ve just joined Bachido although I’ve been interested in shamisen for quite a while. I would like to purchase one eventually but they are all far out of my price range for the time being.

I noticed the store suggests the kankara and gottan as cheaper alternatives to the shamisen, and I’ve also found a couple of sources for affordable sanshin on the web. I understand that the kankara is shorter than a shamisen and doesn’t scale quite the same way, and that the gottan and sanshin are played differently, so my question is this: if I were to learn one of these instruments, which one would be most compatible with learning the shamisen later on? Could the shamisen lessons avaiable be adapted to any of these instruments?

I realize that none of them will sound quite the same as a shamisen, but I’m more interested in gaining the largest set of transferable skills in order to transition to the shamisen in the future.

#2

I guess the main thing you can only practice to some degree and cannot make sound well are the percussive strikes that also hit onto the skin … otherwise all go and green lights as for any of those options plus shorter neck means easier to reach the finger positions …

#3

Thanks for the reply! It makes sense that I wouldn’t be able to practice percussive strikes, but just to make sure, you’re saying that I could feasibly tune, say, a gottan the same way as a shamisen and play it using a bachi? I do like the sound of the gottan and I’m probably leaning toward that for the time being if the answer is yes.

#4

Yes! I play Gottan on the new MoS CD and for the material I used it on I tuned it exactly the same as a Shamisen. Pretty much any and all Shamisen music can be effortlessly played on a Gottan but it’s just as B H says you won’t have that same percussive snap as on a full scale Shamisen. But if you wanted to just get used to where to hold down on the strings , the various positions and whatnot then I would recommend getting a Gottan. I don’t really know anything about kankara so I can’t say anything about that. Anyway best of luck and welcome to the Bachido forum!

#5

Thank you very much Kevin! I’ve been a fan of yours in particular for a couple of years, and it’s nice to see people like you are such an active part of a community like this. I’ll be picking up a gottan in the near future as per your suggestion.

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