Shamisen Workshop

Last week, Kevin (my shamisen teacher) told me that there was a workshop gonna happen with Ryo Hagiwara and Pierre (sounds French) Ono. They are some famous players in Tokyo. Anyway, so I decided to go and a week later, I did. I brought my shirt that makes me look five years older (so Luke says). That’s not the reason why I brought it though. I brought it ’cause it has a pocket where I can put my DV camera. I went a few minutes early so I wouldn’t miss anything and I sure didn’t. I passed the time playing some of the guitars. Finally, they were all tuned up ‘n ready and about fifteen people were there so they started. Boy, it was unsuprisingly loud! Loud as any rock concert (even though I’ve never been to one) and none of the shamisens were plugged in! They were slapping away at the traditional tunes and there was a tiny bit of chit-chat after each song and later they went on to a novelty song. The song itself was rather traditional (Tsugaru Jongara Bushi) but how they preformed it was entertaining. They each played a little section one after the other and later Pierre (who actually isn’t French) stopped playing and waited. A little later, Pierre went up behind Ryo and pressed down the strings while Ryo plucked them. I’ve seen Jack and Billy (some Bluegrass friends) do that with the banjo. It’s hard to describe the rest of it but if you’ve ever seen The Best of Victor Borge (the part when the Turkish guy and Victor shared a piano), you’d know what it was like.

After the Traditional tunes, they did one medly of famous songs that weren’t so Japanese. The first one I heard was them doing the Little Feuge. I first heard the Brass Quartet do that at Victor’s 80th birthday gala. Anyway, it was neat to hear that on Shamisen.

I brought my camera to record them but I saw somebody record it with a much better camera so I just figured I’d ask him for a copy afterwards.

After the performance, they let people try out a Shamisen. I was one of three (out of fifteen) who tried it. Ryo showed me how to do that famous rolling sound that’s always done on the shamisen. I’ve always wanted to learn how to do that and I finnally did. He kept telling me to strike the strings harder (’cause I’m used to San Kyoku/Naga Uta). Afterwards, I took measurements of Pierre’s Shamisen (’cause I’m gonna make my own Shamisen [$1800+ is too much for that thing]) The neck is thicker and the body is bigger. It turns out he made a shamisen before and he said it was easy. (which is relative of course) After some measurements, I left.

About 3/4 way home, I remembered that I forgot to ask the guy for a copy of the video! I knew that would happen!