Shamisen Week 25 Lesson

I practice a number of San Sagari and Ni Agari pieces that have 1/8 notes in combination with 1/4 notes in a single or an immediate following double measure. I do this in preparation for the week's lesson as I assume we will be playing the pieces my sensei has asked me to practice.

Surprisingly, I do much better this week with the tempo issues associated with those note combinations when playing the new instrument. My errors, as predicted by my sensei, are more obvious for sure. When I miss a note, it sticks out like a sore thumb now. But somehow the new instrument gives me renewed confidence. I believe a light bulb has gone on regarding how I need to approach playing 1/8 notes that are not consistently through an entire measure. Still errors abound, but I am getting better. The sound of the new sangen is incredible and reminds me of why I took the instrument up in the first place.

The lesson for the week does NOT go over the previous week's practice but goes on to learning a new song called "Wakamizu." Translated that means fresh or young water. This piece is one of the five I will have to master before I can get my beginner's certificate in sangen.

The song is in Ni Agari tuning, 3/4 time, and straightforward. There are a number of new notes (Octave 2, 3, 4, 7) which go way down the sao and are not easy to find. However, there are no intricate transitions and absent the new octave notes, the music consists mostly of san no ito positions 3, 5, 7, and 8 with a smattering of ni no ito parts.

The problem is I am still having difficulty finding Position 7/8 on the san no ito when I have to move from the lower part of the sao to the upper part. I am hitting Position 5 on the san no ito about 90-95 percent of the time within one cm. Not perfect, indeed, but much improved since I began the sangen six months ago. And finding 7 (and of course 8) is normally not a problem when I can move from the top of the sao downward. In that case, when there is a rest in the music, I have time to briefly pause at 5 and then lower the finger onto 7 or second finger on to 8.

Coming from below, when I am playing notes below (higher) than 7 or 8 (like all of the octaves!), is problematic. If there is a rest involved after a higher note (as noted earlier), again I can move to the top of the sao, slide down, pause at 5, move to 7 and/or second finger 8 with some consistency. I don't do this with the consistency of when I need to play Position 5, but still okay. When I have to come up from below, it is murder.

I know it takes time for motor memory to lock in, but it is a hit-miss situation moving to 7/8 when I don't have time to transition to the top of the sao and try to locate the notes using the anchor position of 5. I am attempting to use hand/finger/body positioning to help, but this often does not work. Wish there was some handy-dandy trick to finding those notes when transitioning from below them, but somehow I doubt there is one. Practice, practice, practice.