Shamisen Week 6 Lesson

I STILL don't have the holding of the bachi down. I keep on trying, but... The plectrum is not an easily handled item. Not like a small guitar pick to be held with the thumb and forefinger or the picks used with Okinawan shamisens where they fit over the fingers. This is a BIG piece of wood or plastic that must be held with the entire hand AND in a semi-awkward position IMHO. Will be working on that a lot this week in practice!

Sliding up and down the sao so I can get into the number 1 and number 5 positions correctly is improving. Not quite there yet but the coordination between plucking the ito at the moment my finger gets into position is much better. Again, without frets, getting into the same position consistently where the note will be played correctly is difficult. I can sometimes replicate it two or three times in a row, but invariably the fourth or greater time I miss the right point.

The instructor reminds me once again NOT to rely on looking at the mark on the sao that indicates position 5. It will become a crutch I will never be able to get rid of once I get proficient in playing the sangen. Looking at the sao mark while playing any of the numerous finger positions speeds up progress, my teacher says, but invariably holds you back because if you go with a different sangen, you will not be able to play it. The teacher had a student like that and it was sad. So long as the student had her own sangen, she played well--because she looked at the sao for all the different finger positions. When she borrowed another sangen, disaster. She could not play the instrument. I don't want that to be me.

We are finally onto a new musical notation--the back plucking of the ito. The teacher gives me the name of this musical notation and I quickly forget it. I'll mention it in a future post. Regardless, this notation tells you to pluck the ito with the back end or backward motion of the bachi with whatever note precedes it. That is, if the note that precedes it is a number 1 position for the san no ito, than the following marker tells you to strum the same string (in this case, the san no ito) with a backward (upward) motion of the bachi. Completely different sound comes out of the ito when you do this.

This is only introduced late in the session since we have concentrated on the note transitions I have already learned and not quite mastered.