No new material this week as I continue to try to master last week's music. It is a song using many of the latest notes and techniques I've learned in the past three weeks. I'm having a hard time "getting it" because of timing.
As I have mentioned in several previous posts, I have no musical background. None. Zip. Nada. Many of the pieces I am learning are in 4/4 time, which for me, is a semi-easy concept to understand. However, tempo, which can vary widely, is difficult for me to grasp. Each piece may be in 4/4 time, but the tempo of the songs vary.
When to move on to the next note, when to pause, when to speed up a bit, when to slow down??? Some of the notes are combined together to make up one beat of the measure. Others are not. Some notes have to be held slightly longer than others because of the musical notation associated with them. Some have to be speeded up (like a grace note). It is all new and very confusing to me.
A perfect example is my practice. I play the notes, but no music is coming out. It's just a series of notes. When I play with my teacher, I can hear the music because she shows me the pace and the timing of each note played. I need to get to a point that I can do that at home during practice. I love playing the sangen and enjoy practice a lot. But I can't hear the music yet.
I am hoping a better instrument will help a bit with that and have purchased a much higher quality sangen from a friend of my instructor. The friend lives in Japan and the sangen needs to be reskinned. It will not be ready until late August or September. Cost plenty moola but looking forward to a better sound output. My instructor has lent a cautionary note, however, by saying that the better quality the sangen, the easier it is to hear your mistakes. Your mistakes cannot easily be hidden with a better instrument.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Shamisen Week 15 Lesson
I must be doing okay as to my playing although I think I am doing horrible. The "okayness" condition comes from the fact that we are again moving on to new material. I surmise that if I was really doing badly, we would stay on the material a bit longer. In any case, a long practice song piece is next on the agenda.
One new technique and one new note has been added. A dot under a note indicates that the note should be played one-half beat longer than a normal note. The new additional note is Position 5, ichi no ito.
The long musical practice piece also introduces major and minor themes. The tablature widens to accompany two sets or lines of notes going down the page. The rightmost line is the major theme. Left of that is the minor theme. On this piece, I am learning the minor theme. However, I assume I will learn the major theme as well sometime in the future.
This is once again (deja vu?!) getting much harder. Although the practice music is still in 4/4 time, most of the notes are either koki or combination notes (two notes combining to make one beat). Thus, it is not uncommon in this piece to play eight notes in a single measure. My fingers are flying all over the place and usually are not landing where they should!
I have not reached a skill level so that I can just read the note(s) and play them. At this stage of the game, I see the note(s), I then interpret them as to where my fingers are supposed to be, then I move my finger(s) to the note(s) and play. That is to say, things are speeding up and I am playing catch up most of the time.
One new technique and one new note has been added. A dot under a note indicates that the note should be played one-half beat longer than a normal note. The new additional note is Position 5, ichi no ito.
The long musical practice piece also introduces major and minor themes. The tablature widens to accompany two sets or lines of notes going down the page. The rightmost line is the major theme. Left of that is the minor theme. On this piece, I am learning the minor theme. However, I assume I will learn the major theme as well sometime in the future.
This is once again (deja vu?!) getting much harder. Although the practice music is still in 4/4 time, most of the notes are either koki or combination notes (two notes combining to make one beat). Thus, it is not uncommon in this piece to play eight notes in a single measure. My fingers are flying all over the place and usually are not landing where they should!
I have not reached a skill level so that I can just read the note(s) and play them. At this stage of the game, I see the note(s), I then interpret them as to where my fingers are supposed to be, then I move my finger(s) to the note(s) and play. That is to say, things are speeding up and I am playing catch up most of the time.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Shamisen Week 14 Lesson
No moss is growing under the sao. As with last week's lesson, the sensei has moved on to new material. This week I learned two new techniques that act like new notes. The first is the "grace note."
Not sure why it is called that. Think of it as a koki on steroids. In the standard koki, you play the note (the note appears in the music with what looks like a large letter "C" underneath it), then you move your fingernail down the ito to the correct position, making a sound as you go. If it is Position 4, san no ito koki, then you play Position 4 and slide your finger nail down the ito to Position 5. If it is Position 4, ni no ito koki, then you play Position 4 and slide your fingernail down the ito to Position 7.
In the grace note, you quickly slide your fingernail down the ito without pausing to a new position on the sao. You move your entire hand down the sao to the correct position while pressing down with your index finger on the ito involved and then lifting quickly. In effect, it is a koki that is speeded up and does NOT stop on the next note listed after the grace note (as you do with a standard koki).
This is extremely hard to master and my fingers are flying all over the place making for some interesting noi...I mean music as the grace note is played. Fun stuff--weird sounds!
Much easier is the Uchi Yubi usually shortened to just Uchi. The uchi is a notation just to the left of the note that you are supposed to play telling you NOT to play the note by strumming the ito but instead quickly snap or press your index finger down at that note. This causes a different sound from the note originally intended.
For example, in an uchi on Position 2, ni no ito, the symbol for this note is listed in the tablature with the uchi symbol just to the left of it. When this uchi symbol appears, strum the ni no ito in the open position, then quickly snap your index finger down on Position 2.
My instructor, while discussing the difficulty of mastering the sangen, said again that it would take me about three years to play well. I still don't have a problem with that. I ain't doin' nothin' else interesting! However, the sensei continued on saying that we were near the end of learning new techniques and notes such that we will be through that phase of our lessons together and soon move on to mastering songs.
I find that hard to believe. I'm not sure if I understood the instructor correctly on that or not. If it's true, I'm surprised since new stuff just keeps on coming week after week! We'll see.
Not sure why it is called that. Think of it as a koki on steroids. In the standard koki, you play the note (the note appears in the music with what looks like a large letter "C" underneath it), then you move your fingernail down the ito to the correct position, making a sound as you go. If it is Position 4, san no ito koki, then you play Position 4 and slide your finger nail down the ito to Position 5. If it is Position 4, ni no ito koki, then you play Position 4 and slide your fingernail down the ito to Position 7.
In the grace note, you quickly slide your fingernail down the ito without pausing to a new position on the sao. You move your entire hand down the sao to the correct position while pressing down with your index finger on the ito involved and then lifting quickly. In effect, it is a koki that is speeded up and does NOT stop on the next note listed after the grace note (as you do with a standard koki).
This is extremely hard to master and my fingers are flying all over the place making for some interesting noi...I mean music as the grace note is played. Fun stuff--weird sounds!
Much easier is the Uchi Yubi usually shortened to just Uchi. The uchi is a notation just to the left of the note that you are supposed to play telling you NOT to play the note by strumming the ito but instead quickly snap or press your index finger down at that note. This causes a different sound from the note originally intended.
For example, in an uchi on Position 2, ni no ito, the symbol for this note is listed in the tablature with the uchi symbol just to the left of it. When this uchi symbol appears, strum the ni no ito in the open position, then quickly snap your index finger down on Position 2.
My instructor, while discussing the difficulty of mastering the sangen, said again that it would take me about three years to play well. I still don't have a problem with that. I ain't doin' nothin' else interesting! However, the sensei continued on saying that we were near the end of learning new techniques and notes such that we will be through that phase of our lessons together and soon move on to mastering songs.
I find that hard to believe. I'm not sure if I understood the instructor correctly on that or not. If it's true, I'm surprised since new stuff just keeps on coming week after week! We'll see.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Shamisen Week 13 Lesson
The instructor often stays with the same material we learned the week before. Usually because I have not mastered it or even "near" mastered it. However, we move on to new material this week, although not radically new.
One new note and several new techniques are introduced. The new note is Position 9 on the san no ito. I wish I could tell you where it is located. I cannot. I am having a devil of a time figuring out exactly where that note is. We did not replicate it enough during our one-hour session together for me to anchor the position in my mind. Complicating matters is that the note is played with the second finger. The second finger is on the note while the first finger trails immediately behind it.
An additional challenge is the transition from Position 9 back to Position 6 on the san no ito. My fingers feel glued to the sao and they don't want to move. When they do move, my second finger is spread too wide from the first finger when I reach Position 6 from Position 9 such that the note is off.
Position 6 is played with the second finger while maintaining the first finger on Position 5. When I slide down to Position 9 those two fingers get further apart from each other. When they slide back to Position 5/6 (first finger on 5, second finger on 6), the Position 5 finger is close to where it is supposed to be, but the second finger has been splayed as I move up the sao so that Position 6 is not correct. Since the note required to be played at this point is Position 6, this becomes extremely frustrating.
The new techniques are not really new--just new musical representations of something learned before. For example, hajiki, as mentioned in Lesson 12, is the plucking of the string with the finger (not the bachi). You pluck the note that immediately precedes the hajiki symbol. But suppose you want to pluck a different string--not the one that appears previous to the hajiki symbol? For this, the hajiki symbol appears immediately to the left of the position you are supposed to play.
Example: ^5 is hajiki, position 5, san no ito. So here, you pluck san no ito with the third finger while holding down position 5 with the first finger. This is not difficult, and although the musical symbols for the action to take are straightforward, interpreting them quickly enough and consistently takes me lots of practice.
One new note and several new techniques are introduced. The new note is Position 9 on the san no ito. I wish I could tell you where it is located. I cannot. I am having a devil of a time figuring out exactly where that note is. We did not replicate it enough during our one-hour session together for me to anchor the position in my mind. Complicating matters is that the note is played with the second finger. The second finger is on the note while the first finger trails immediately behind it.
An additional challenge is the transition from Position 9 back to Position 6 on the san no ito. My fingers feel glued to the sao and they don't want to move. When they do move, my second finger is spread too wide from the first finger when I reach Position 6 from Position 9 such that the note is off.
Position 6 is played with the second finger while maintaining the first finger on Position 5. When I slide down to Position 9 those two fingers get further apart from each other. When they slide back to Position 5/6 (first finger on 5, second finger on 6), the Position 5 finger is close to where it is supposed to be, but the second finger has been splayed as I move up the sao so that Position 6 is not correct. Since the note required to be played at this point is Position 6, this becomes extremely frustrating.
The new techniques are not really new--just new musical representations of something learned before. For example, hajiki, as mentioned in Lesson 12, is the plucking of the string with the finger (not the bachi). You pluck the note that immediately precedes the hajiki symbol. But suppose you want to pluck a different string--not the one that appears previous to the hajiki symbol? For this, the hajiki symbol appears immediately to the left of the position you are supposed to play.
Example: ^5 is hajiki, position 5, san no ito. So here, you pluck san no ito with the third finger while holding down position 5 with the first finger. This is not difficult, and although the musical symbols for the action to take are straightforward, interpreting them quickly enough and consistently takes me lots of practice.
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