Wakamizu is not going away any time soon. My sensei says that we must continue playing this until I get it right because it will help me in the next song that we will undertake. Unfortunately, I don't believe that we will move on to that song, whatever it is, anytime soon.
I love Wakamizu, thank goodness. Otherwise, I would have gone crazy by now. Three weeks plus on this song, an hour every day, can grate if it is something you dislike.
I am doing better in finding Octave 1, but it's still hit or miss, with a lot of misses vs. hits. Same goes for Position 7 which I had hoped I would have mastered by now. Position 5 is finally a lock. I find it every time. But Position 7 is not always as easy because that position floats a bit more as the san no ito gets out of tune.
I do believe there is such a thing as over practice. After a while, I'm not sure I'm getting the full benefit of my practice sessions going over the same material time and time again. With another musical piece to mix it up, I would think that when I went back to it (Wakamizu) I might improve. This is just my subjective opinion.
On the equipment front, I received my ivory itomaki from Japan and they are now installed. I did not notice more itomaki slippage with the ivory as compared to the kokutan wood as some sangen players have observed. The ivory itomaki originally came with this sangen when it was made in the '50s. Thus, they have had many years to "mate" the surfaces involved compared to the newer kokutan pieces. The ivory itomaki have a nice, yellowed aged look to them and although some experts dispute this, I believe I do hear a tonal quality difference between the ivory and the kokutan itomaki. It's probably just a placebo effect, but...
In addition, I purchased a bekko bachi from Japan and it also came at the same time as the itomaki. Bekko is SO much better than plastic! Flexibility on the blade of the bachi makes a big difference in control and sound. One thing I noticed right away is that the scrapping sound I sometimes made on the strings with the plastic bachi has disappeared completely.
>My sensei says that we must continue playing this until I get it right [...] I love Wakamizu, thank goodness. Otherwise, I would have gone crazy by now.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a recording of the piece that you can play along with, or at least listen to in its "full" version of koto, shamisen, and voice? (If not, and if you want one, drop me a line, I may be able to help.) Sometimes just listening to someone else playing the piece over and over helps "get it in" to mind and body, I find.
>I do believe there is such a thing as over practice.
Agree one hundred percent. It's hard to convince people of that sometimes, but there is definitely something to be said for changing it up for a bit and then coming back to the task at hand. I know how you feel spending a long time on just one piece - in my koto/shamisen school in Japan, for each of the three teaching levels, you spend an entire year practising six pieces only - and believe me, that doesn't "average out" to a piece every two months, it basically ends up being *each* of the six pieces for twelve months' worth of study.... Anyway, hang in there!