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They call him ‘jimihen’
Continuing their tradition of releasing a commemorative t-shirt with album releases from legendary utasha Seijin Noborikawa, Respect Record has the “Suikojizai” shirt available for purchase at record stores (like Takara Records on Kokusai) or online at their website. The album is set to be released on 1/16/08. (Via the Campus Record Staff Blog.)
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Singer Kozue Chinen posts kunkunshi of her song ‘Imenshori Iijima’
In a very cool move, Okinawa minyou singer Kozue Chinen posted kunkunshi (musical notation) of her composition “Imenshori Iijima” on her blog along with the lyrics which are a tribute to her hometown. “Imenshori” means welcome in Iijima (Iejima) dialect and she also links to a YouTube clip of her performing the song.
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Community: Congratulations to Kenton Odo, June Nakama and Calvin Nakama
There’s a nice story by Steve Murray on Midweek.com (‘SHAMISEN’) on the accomplishments of three musicians from Hawaii who are “the first foreigners to earn a master’s certificate in the Okinawan shamisen.” Definitely worth a read. All three musicians will be performing in Hawaii on Tuesday, November 27 as part of the 14th annual TOBE!…
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Music: ‘Sanshin punk rock band’ Yamato
Yamato is a three-piece band from mainland Japan who are labeling themselves as a “sanshin punk rock band.” Lead vocalist, Hitoshi Tawaratsumida from Kagoshima Prefecture, plays sanshin and guitar (albeit not at the same time 😛 ) for the trio. The band’s second album, “Tabi no waraji no tsume wo kiru” (11/7/07 release), will feature…
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Links to Waste Your Time with: Videos Tagged with Sanshin on YouTube
If you’ve been following my posts today you’re already aware that I’ve been including accompanying clips found on YouTube. The amount of sanshin-related videos (amateur and professional) you’ll find on YouTube can keep you occupied for days so for those of you with enough free time on your hands to sit in front of your…
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El Okinawa Goes YouTube and We Love It!
El Okinawa, known as being a great online (although they also have a brick-and-mortar store near Kokusai-dori) resource for purchasing Okinawan instruments has just started posting instructional clips up on YouTube about a month ago. Besides the how-to on attaching a guitar strap to your sanshin, they also have a clip on the correct way…
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Remaking the Sanshin
We’ve seen sanshin+guitar hybrids in the past (not to mention what we’re seeing done with kankara sanshin) with Rinken Teruya’s Cheren, BEGIN’s Ichigo-Ichie (Nirai, Kanai) and now here’s a “peg” sanshin from Sanshin-ya Tururunten (above images are via their blog). Anyone tried one of these yet or seen it played by the members of Okichin?…
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Not Your Father’s Sanshin Uma
Continuing with the sanshin-related posts… Driving your family or neighbors (or both – yikes!) nutty with your late night sanshin practicing? There’s a uma (the free-standing bridge for the sanshin) that greatly mutes your playing no matter how heavy your picking style is and can be purchased for around ¥800. As pictured above, the uma…
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Other Ways to Tune Your Sanshin
Here’s additional information on gear you can use to help with your sanshin tuning. AW-1 Micro Tuner from Korg — all the cool kids are using it. TU-12 Chromatic Tuner from BOSS — the ol’ standby which I’ve owned for over 15 years but used mostly for guitar/bass tuning. Pitch Instrument (P-13E) from Tombo —…
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Searched Again on Karakui: Tuning Your Sanshin
Looks like there are still a lot of you who are finding us through a search for learning to tune your sanshin. We posted an entry about a neat little freeware app called Sankichi-kun at the beginning of the month. The only thing is that the app is in Japanese so here’s a quickie explanation…
Karakui 