HD Tsugaru Shamisen - Tsugaru Aiya Bushi

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Like a layered cake, Grant and Kyle stack their Aiya Bushi's one on top of the other. Grant started first, and as you can see, the self-destructing-at-end-of-song strings he bought sure paid off!

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• japanese
• tsugaru
• shamisen
• aiya
• bushi
• 津軽
• 三味線
• 日本

[Chichiri520]

Fiddlefella, I heard that the Tsugaru shamisen was intentionally made so that its strings can be struck harder. Because of this, it fits well into pop and rock. Do you know if this song can be played on Nagauta? If I get a Nagauta, I want to be able to play folk songs. I heard this song on a CD once. It is also a sung song.

I think Tsugaru is awesome but It's too flashy for me lol. The Nagauta calls out to me more.

[fiddlefella]

@Chichiri520

Yeah, that's true. To fit in with the "tsugaru aesthetic", you have to play it on a tsugaru shamisen. But hey, before I had a tsugaru shamisen, I was practicing these songs on a nagauta shamisen and had lots of fun. So yeah, there should be nothing to stop you from playing tsugaru pieces on a nagauta shamisen. Just be careful with the skin. ;-)

[fiddlefella]

Well the tsugaru shamisen larger. It has a thicker neck, bigger body, and and thick dog skin. The naguta shamisen (hosozao shamisen) is much smaller and has cat skin stretched over it.

As a musical style, tsugaru shamisen is much more modern. The strings are struck much harder, down to the skin (thus you break more bachis than in nagauta music), and the scale is pentatonic. (except for tsugaru folk songs)

Nagauta is older, a bit gentler with the strings, but can be just as wild as tsugaru.

[shamisendemon]

AHHH! Grant is mixing up the intro and the vocal melody a little bit. It sounds good but this was the problem last year when he played it. Kyle sounds good too! Who (if any) did you pick up this version of Aiya bushi from? If it is available I recommend the Chikuzan Minor Aiya bushi for inspiration!

[fiddlefella]

Yikes! I'll tell him that.

Thanks Kevin. :-) I kinda picked it up from both you (the JCF video) and Takemi on "Shamisen Raijin 南砂商店会 '08.12.20"

When Grant told me that the judges are looking for vocal melody, (at least once) it was a bit disheartening, because mine sounds quite off.

The Chikuzan minor kind is good! :-) I'm torn between doing that and Kuroishi Yosare. Which do you think would be better for the tourny?

[Chichiri520]

@fiddlefella

Haha yeah, It's the skin I am VERY worried about. The more I hear Tsugaru and Nagauta videos, the more I am learning about each of their distinctive styles. ^_^

[VirtualDeath]

The urge to play is just too great.

[shigesa]

Nice! すばらしい演奏です

[ImmortalReaver]

Grant is way too figidty haha. Nice playing though, that was awesome.

[zhaotaisheng]

good!

[666deadpeople]

mdr il a peter sa corde ^^

[shamisentugma]

what is the difference between tsugaru and nagauta shamisen??