Shamisen Week 21 Lesson

We continue the same material as we did in Week 20. We go over the latest practice piece along with the song Sakura. I am doing passably well, but nothing to write home Momma about. After we go through Sakura a few times with the sangen, the sensei pulls out the koto. A real treat as the instructor is a master of the koto as well.

We do a duet of Sakura. I butcher it in a few places, but the added sound of the koto makes the piece come alive. It is these moments, when I can "hear" the music, that keeps me going.

Next week is the fifth Saturday of the month and also Labor Day weekend. The master normally gives everyone a break when a month has a fifth Saturday, so we both take the following week off. As has been done since I started this blog, the 22nd week will be "counted" but the next blog entry will have Week 23 as the title.

I have some space here to do a little rant on the vagaries of practice. This past week is a typical week of practice. I warm up a bit doing the major positions on all strings (open, 2, 5, 7), kokis, and then some other string transitions. After a bit, I practice the current material (in this case, Lesson 15 as contained in the Lessons tab of this blog), along with the song Sakura.

The practice goes well. I hit around 90 percent of the positions and the tempo is mostly maintained. After an hour, I put the sangen away, satisfied with the session.

The very next day, same hour of day for practice, same place in my home, no difference in my temperament, weather, whatever, and the hour-long practice is a disaster. I can't buy a Position 5 and 7 is no where to be found. My transitions on the other notes are horrific. I can't get comfortable with the bachi and even the sangen does not seem to want to rest in its normal position.

What gives? I'm a former teacher and the research shows that you should study (practice) the same time of day in the same place every day to get the most out of your efforts. Yet here it is, everything replicated, nothing more than the next day, and the practice session is crapola.

I'm sure I am not the first one to experience this, whether it is someone playing the sangen, guitar, drums, or practicing football or tennis. But although I acknowledge that this is not a new phenomena, it is frustrating nonetheless that a perfectly good practice session is followed up with one that bombed.

It would be fun to see if any research has been done in this area of why one practice differs from another so dramatically when the conditions are as near to identical as possible.