Shamisen Week 4 Lesson

Can't believe four Saturdays have come and gone since taking up the Sangen.

This week's lesson began again on sangen positioning in regards to the body. A few minor adjustments are made but I had the positioning close as soon as I picked up the sangen. Good news.

Left wrist position on the sao was not so easy. I keep opening up the hand (palm out) when sliding up and down the sao. A big no-no. The wrist must be held steady such that the wrist is straight, fingers curved inward a bit, as you slide up and down the sao. Sounds easy--its not for me.

In addition, note transition timing is still off. When you transition to a new note, it should be simultaneous with the striking of the bachi. Very coordinated. I'm not so coordinated, so although I am practicing this technique a lot at home, I still don't have it yet. I see many hours of practice ahead on this one.

Again, the instructor emphasizes that playing the individual notes on the sangen is like a conversation. The notes are played at the same timber. I am playing them as if I am saying "and THEN what happened IS it came LOOSE." The all caps amounts to shouting or raising the voice in a conversation on different words. That's what I am doing in playing the different notes. I am not consistent in hitting the strings with the same force and thus elucidating the same general level of sound. It makes for a discordant hodge-podge. I really need to work on this.

I have practiced the song given to me in Week 3. The teacher explains it is called "Spring Moon." The song originates from one of the oldest novels extant in Japan. The song is a brief narrative of how, as dusk falls on the landscape, you see grass in the mist, and then the moon rises as if coming out of the mist.

As mentioned in an earlier post, many of the songs in Jiuta are played with vocal accompaniment. This is one of them. Unlike most Japanese vocals that attend the playing of the sangen, this one is not sung a half beat before or after the note is played. The ito is struck and the vocal is sung at the same time. The instructor explains this is to ease me into the concept of vocals with music. Later, most of that will change with the vocal a half beat ahead or behind the playing of the note on the sangen, depending upon the song.

The teacher goes through each of the vocal sounds and I write them down phonetically to practice. I cannot sing for $hit but I will try. I can't read Japanese so this will be the norm for quite a while until I learn some rudimentary kanji.

We play together and the instructor sings. It is a beautiful song (the teacher has a great voice) even though I am butchering the notes playing alongside the instructor. I hit the itos with different force, I'm off on timing, and I don't get the note transitions anywhere close.

The teacher reminds me that if I am going to miss the position of the note, it is better to be short on the note (further up the sao), going from low to high in pitch, then long on the note (further down the sao), going from high to low in pitch. The reasoning is that it sounds more natural that way--more pleasing. Easy to say, harder to execute. Of course, the teacher points out you don't want to miss either way if you can help it! This needs a lot more practice as well.

I am making progress, but slowly.