And for those of you interested, maybe a bit on how and where you can start.

I started my apprenticeship with the Yoshida Brothers exactly eight years ago this month.

A year ago, I had the opportunity to play with them on TV, and shortly after that, I was lucky enough to be able to document the process of having a brand new shamisen built by a Japanese craftsman.

This is that shamisen here.

My old one is actually sitting there in the bag, and this is how I practiced pretty much every day, minus the camera had all that usually starts with tuning because a lot of people are curious.

The strings are tuned to C.

G.

C.

There are no frets.

The biggest ring is made out of silk, the smallest is made out of nylon, and the middle one is made out of something called Ted Tron.

After tuning, each practice tends to start with something called, but she's okay, which goes like this, and that's actually one of the most challenging things that you can do.

That is the warm up, and it serves two main purposes.

Number one is obviously an additional layer of tuning.

But originally, the Shami said, was played by blind musicians and this was their opportunity.

So let people know that a performance was about to start.

Many cigarettes, jammies and songs actually start opening with that, but she's a gay.

My first, while of Shami said, in practice or okay, Co.

Was literally just that initial strike that or or the It reminds me of trying kendo a while back and focusing on that first strike over and over and over.

And still, after eight years, every single gay co starts with a little bit of a shimmies and fun fact.

I go through about one of these bunch E every year to two years, and they do not come cheap because of the size that I use.

I used to be able to get them at about $1200 U.

S.

But recently they've gone up in price and are getting closer to tooth.

$1000 per Budgie were searching for alternative option after practicing the but sees a gay, we usually go into a song called DACA.

This'll is a great warm up because it has most of the difficult techniques in cigarette Emmys and wrapped up right inside of this one song.

Even in that one that I did there, I stumbled a little bit in the beginning.

I usually do a couple of rounds of this song to help me warm up.

Today, I want to do something just a little bit more interesting.

Called Comma.

She comes.

She's really fun.

It's really fast.

It's got a lot of building, but more than anything that definitely takes a lot of stamina.

It starts out real easy.

This side is easy.

This side that's doing all the work.

If I were to play that really slow, it's like this.

It's just that again and again and then use pick up the speed.

It's really easy to get carried away with those.

There's actually another one that you do at the end of the song, which again all this hand does is move up and down like this.

That's it.

Everything else happens right here like this, warming up with a mushy because it requires so much stamina because there's so many different ways to play around with, and because there's such a variety of different.

Come on, you can do like on usually after warming up the first song that our practice almost every single time.

It's called Subaru Jungle Taboo.

She is like the main song of To Get Them Inside.

Now that song that's on the really challenging it was actually passed to me from the older of the two Yeojun brothers.

And then I spent a couple of years adjusting it, changing parts and forming it into my own version that I use for performances and the shamisen competitions here in Japan.

Being able to play something like that takes years of dedication, which is one of the reasons that I don't always recommend people to start the Chinese, and I practice on average for a minimum of 1 to 2 hours every single day on days where I have a little more time.

That'll go anywhere from 4 to 5 hours if possible.

But for those really interested, I'm gonna share a little bit later on about how and where to get started.

My absolute favorite song to play.

So when I've been learning for about the last year or so, called yeah, honestly, this song is just so much fun to play.

And since this is my favorite part of this entire video so far I want to share something with you.

I've actually secretly been running up a tree on for the last while as a place where I can put out content and new streams for only those people who really want to be a part of.

It is a secret podcast hidden instagram account where I go live once a week.

Just a fun place to hang out and lets me spend more time with you.

A few people have found it already, so I thought it was time to let you know that it exists.

If you want to come out and hang out over there, I would love to have you.

Anyway, I think that's given my hands enough of arrest that I should be able to play a little bit more.

Okay, okay.

I honestly just love.

This instrument has become such a huge part of my life.

And a lot of people have asked where they can get started and how they can get started.

First and foremost, I'm gonna link below.

I would recommend starting in Chinese ink.

LaMacchia there's a couple different reasons, but the main one being that cool matzos on the shamisen maker who actually made my shamisen a is someone I definitely trust.

Both the interaction and the quality of his products and be even a beginner shamisen like the one that I have behind me here can cost you thousands of dollars.

That one.

There was well over 2000 American, but come outside has made something called the Shammy Boy, which is kind of more like a beginner, just kind of play around, Cheney said.

Like if you're not super super serious and you don't want to invest hours a day in thousands of dollars, the Xiaomi boy is a really great place to start.

The main part is actually trust the person who's selling it and the quality of their work and their products.

I've seen way too many people go in the wrong direction and spend far too much money on a shamisen that almost definitely wasn't worth what they paid for it.

So start with semi single Monsey.

If you have additional questions, feel free to hit me up.

If there's enough interest, it might even lead to the creation of something exciting, but I don't want to get back in do this a little bit more practice.

Also, I'm well aware that this video has probably created way more questions than it answered.

So if you do have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments down below.

I'm definitely gonna be doing a shamisen Q and A.

Video it sometime if we have enough interest.

I'm also gonna Lincoln entire playlist of shimmies and content that I have put together.

But I kind of want to wrap things up with just a little bit more playing.

There's so much that you can do with the semi center.

There's a few things that I've been working on things like That's actually the first part of the song that I used to open up this video, the one that went like Think, think that's all the stamina that I have for today.

This has been a lot of fun.

I'm so glad that you actually took the time to join and watch this video.

I'm hoping that this could be the beginning of much more shammy Sana content to come again if there's anything that you want to know.

But I opened up the question on INSTAGRAM the other day and got so many amazing responses that almost each and everyone could become its own videos of There's anything specific that you want to see or know, don't hesitate to let me know down below.

There really is so much more that I wanted to include into this video.

But it is kind of just a peek at how I practice the shamisen.

I hope that you enjoyed it.

I'm gonna get back to practicing and I will see you guys again.

Real suit.

I don't know if you can hear that, but just kind of been on a break for the last mile because there's because there's a dog that just keeps barking.

And if you're planning on making the ice scraper joke, I have already heard it.

Looking forward to doing this video so much, I cannot even tell you against a creator.

You tend to hold back on the content that you really care about the personal content and put out stuff that more people will be interested in, which is one of the reasons I created the patri on kind of a safe space where I can share the stuff that I really liked with people who really want to watch it.

But for those of you who have watched up to the end of this video and I don't know potentially enjoyed this piece of content Thank you.

I I appreciate you so much.

And I am so lucky to have you here.

Thank you for being a part of this.

I really I really enjoyed.

I'm actually I'm actually just gonna get back.

Teoh, get back to playing for now.

I It's not going to be good banging.