Shamisen Week 2 Lesson

My fear about my first week of practice and not having the sangen and bachi positions correct has come true, although the damage doesn't seem to be too bad. As the session begins, I find I am holding the sangen slightly wrong. More importantly, the way I am holding the bachi is completely incorrect.

Part of the problem is that the bachi I am using is not a jiuta bachi. As I mentioned in an earlier post, many of these particular bachis are made of tortoise shell and can cost upwards of $400. I cannot find a plastic jiuta bachi readily online (eBay) although I could order it from the two major suppliers of sangen supplies—Bachido.com or CanadaChords.

My instructor has said that a former player will sell me a plastic one in the coming week or so. In the meantime, I am loaned a jiuta bachi that has had damage done on one of the striking edges. I will flip it and use the good edge. The jiuta bachi is quite different than the minyo bachi that came with my sangen. It is much longer, heavier, and the striking edge much wider. See below for a comparison.

 

 

 

 

I tell the teacher I am practicing five hours a week (fudging on one day last week because of my sore bum). The sensei replies that neophytes should practice at least 1/2 hour a day or 3.5 hours per week. I feel good that I am putting in the required time plus then some.

Before we begin each session we tune our instruments. The teacher's sangen sounds different than mine because it is made of different wood and the dou is made of cat skin not dog. In addition, the sao is not the same length as mine. I am surprised since I had understood that the length of the sao for each particular sangen (hosozao, chuzao, and futozao—corresponding to thin neck, middle neck, fat neck) would be the same lengths. The instructor and I both have a chuzao sangen—but the saos are different lengths. This comes into play as well when positioning the fingers on the sao to change the sound of the itos.

When I tune my sangen using a digital chromatic tuner attached to the neck, it is slightly different than the teacher's suggested tuning using a free-standing, pure tone megahertz tuner. I tune mine to match although my itchi no ito is tuned lower that what my digital tuner says is a D. In any case, we tune until the teacher is satisfied with all the itos.

We spend a lot of time in getting the bachi position correct with the new (to me) jiuta bachi. Since I don't have great hand coordination, I'm a bit slow in this--trying to mimic what the teacher is demonstrating versus my own hand and wrist position. It takes a while but I finally get it semi-right. It doesn't help that I am six feet tall and my thigh is interfering with the bachi's downstroke. The bachi's lower edge keeps hitting me. The instructor puts a pillow under me and that helps.

Since much of the practice time has been spent getting my bachi positioning correct, there's little time to review what I practiced the previous week. The instructor moves on to the next page of the music book with finger positioning.

Thus far, I have been taught Position Number 1 or Open position where no fingers are placed on the sao as the itos are struck. The four new positions in this session are Position 2 and 5 for the san and ni no itos. Since there are no frets on the sangen, this proves a challenge. In addition, because my sao differs in length than the instructor's, where I place my finger for position 5 is different than the instructor's—thus trying to mimic the sensi's finger position through visuals is not useful (Position 2 is not affected by this).

Position 2 is in the crook of the sao at the top where the chibukuro (heart shaped bulge below the itogura (holes where the itomaki or pegs are screwed in) bends inward and the sao technically begins. Position 5 is downward a bit, about six and 3/8 inches from the top of the chibukuro on my sangen. You only use your index finger for each finger position unless the note tablature tells you otherwise. In addition, I am introduced to 2/2 time. This speeds things up a bit in moving the index finger to press the strings and adds to the frustration level.

Position 2 on the ni no ito is a G sharp and on the san no ito a D sharp. Position 5 on the ni no ito is a C and on the san no ito a G. Again, without frets, aligning your index finger to press down on the string to get the desired sound is difficult. Position 2, since it is at the crook of the sao is much easier to get right than position 5 which is down the sao. I can see where this will take lots of practice to master exactly where the finger should go.

At the end of the session I ask about a fujaku which is a paper or plastic numbering system that can be placed on the sao facing you to help with proper finger position. The instructor replies that this speeds up the learning of proper finger positioning, but in the sensei's experience, becomes a crutch and those learning this way have a tendency to always be looking at the sao (even when the fujaku has been removed) instead of the music sheet facing them. Thus, they never learn the proper finger position by muscle memory. The instructor tells me that correct finger positioning is what makes the sangen hard to learn as compared to the koto.

I am once again surprised. The koto is a massive, six-foot long, 13-string instrument that would appear to take forever to learn as compared to the three-string sangen. But, the koto is set up before each song with the proper musical tones for each string adjusted using multiple bridges. After that, you just need to learn to pluck the strings in the proper order and tempo. You can play a song on the koto after only three days of instruction says the teacher. It takes about three years to master the sangen so that a song sounds right!

Am I discouraged? No. I have three years to retirement and had already figured that it would take me that long or longer to learn the sangen, especially since I have had no musical training in the past.

Although I don't consider the second lesson a huge success because I am a slow learner, I am enjoying myself.