Shamisen, the Japanese "Banjo"

Let me tell you about how I fell in love on Tuesday night. It has been a rough two-month affair but things have finally fallen into place. It got so fierce the last time that last night I found something broken. It took a little swearing to get everything tied into place, and a bit of research on the internet, and in the end the thing that got me started again was a pair of pliers. Someday when I publish a romance novel under an assumed name, I am going to publish this paragraph on the back.

I am, of course, talking about falling in love with the Shamisen. I have played for two months and last Tuesday is the first time I have been able to play my second song from memory without my teacher helping me. My strings are made of silk, and the highest one is very thin and breaks easily. I had to switch it for a nylon one yesterday, and that is where the pliers came in. Let me do a little explaining so you can get the whole picture.

First of all, there are a lot of good Shamisen resources on the internet. All you have to do is google it and you will find a great comprehensive explanation of history, style, and mechanics. I am learning in a very organic and Japanese style, so that is the way my explanation will go.

One of my teachers here at the High School has played Shamisen for around 18 years. I went to hear her play earlier this year, and sat through a 5 hour concert. It was actually pretty interesting because I got to see a great exhibition of all the skill levels, and it was joined by the singing of traditional Japanese folk songs. With things like this you kind of tune in and out, and sometimes things seem strange and fascinating, and others they just seem weird, stupid, and way too Japanese. But in the end I really liked it. I mentioned that to my teacher after the winter break and she offered to set me up with some lessons. The kicker was I had to buy my own instrument and it ran about $650 American. I ended up getting an instrument a step above student level for the student instrument price. This was due to my teacher's connections and influences. It is a great piece of work and I really like the sound.

I have to state right now that my teacher only speaks Japanese. My lessons are conducted in Japanese and he gives me notes written in Kanji. I catch about 50% of what is said, and I think he gets about the same when I try to speak Japanese. I don't actually remember my teacher's name, so I use the catch-all "Sensei" when I talk to him or about him. He is a nice guy and I am glad to be his student.

He teaches me by giving me the song title and then playing about a phrase of the song. We repeat that for the lesson and he sends me home to practice for a week. The first week I remembered everything, but since then I definitely have a learning curve of about two lessons. I learn something new, and remember a little of it, but it takes me another lesson to get it down. I spend the next week trying to remember the new part. This cycle has repeated until the present.

Right before I went on vacation to England I finished learning two full songs. In total I can play about 3-4 minutes of music at a time, combining the two. Last Tuesday was the first day I was able to play all of my second song from memory and during my lesson we actually got around to playing with expression and feeling. I am really hooked now.

The construction of the Shamisen is one of the things I like about it. The bottom is basically like any other string instrument, a hollow box. It is covered in what looks like paper but is actually either dog or cat skin. I have not asked about mine as I really do not wish to know. Nevertheless, this is part of what gives the instrument its unique sound. The finger board is almost a meter long, and the strings are sized accordingly. They are tied to a braided rope at the bottom of the sound box. When my silk string broke I had trouble with the nylon one because it was so slippery. Nylon strings do not like to tie, so I had to use pliers to hold the tied end while I tightened the string the first time. I am lucky it didn't break under all the force!

I learned something interesting on Tuesday about my finger board. The Shamisen finger board is constructed of three separate pieces that are jointed together but not glued or tied. These pieces fit into the sound box and are held in by the string tension and the bottom peg. You can unstring the instrument, take off the soundbox, take out the peg and unjoint the finger board to carry or store it. There is no sound post, like in a violin, viola, or cello, so storing the box with no string tension will not damage it. I am glad because this will make it easier to transport home in tandem with my violin.

The Shamisen is played by striking the strings with the "botchi". This is a tool that is wide and flat at the striking end and thick and square at the handle end. They used to be made of ivory or bone, but these days I think they are made of some synthetic substance. The ends are pointed (the whole thing kind of looks like a spatula, or like an okonomiyaki tool) and you use the left end to strike the strings. It ends up being a cross between a strike and a pluck. After a downward strike you can pluck with an upward motion. When you add the twangy, rusty sound of the strings it is easy to see how it can be likened to a banjo. Both are also folk instruments used in a very specific type of music. The music of both is definitely appreciated most by fans of the genera. They are both considered slightly non-mainstream and have a folky feel to them.

For anyone interested in stringed instruments and Japanese culture, I definitely recommend the Shamisen. It is a bit expensive, with the instrument at $650 and the lessons around $100 a month (and likely more expensive in the States). However, it has a very distinctive sound and it is a genuine piece of ancient and modern Japanese culture.