INDEX
Difficulty of Tsugaru shamisen and improvisation
Celeina：To reiterate, what kind of instrument is the Tsugaru shamisen? To begin with, I think there are several types of shamisen.
Oyama:There are three main types of shamisen: futozao (thick neck), chuzao (medium neck), and hosozao (thin neck). The Tsugaru shamisen is the largest of the three, called futozao.
Celeina: What are the differences between them?
Oyama:The characteristic of the Tsugaru shamisen is that it is played like a stringed instrument with the left hand while the drum part is struck with the plectrum in the right hand to create a rhythm. It is also called a “struck string instruments”.
Takano: So it is also a percussion instrument?
Celeina: It looks difficult to play.
Oyama:It is not marked in position like a guitar, so it is easy to go out of tune, and there are many technical points.
Celeina：You have brought the Tsugaru shamisen to the studio, so please play it.
Oyama: I’ll kind of improvise. (Performing)
Celeina: Great!
Takano: Cool!
Oyama:I played a lot. (laughs)
Takano: So it’s improvisation?
Celeina: Is it like a session?
Oyama:I just do what comes into my head. In the current one, I started with a folk-like part, did something that had a New Year’s feeling, and then added a rock-like part.
Takano: I really like the vibration of the strings. It was a luxury to see it from this distance.
Celeina: Thank you very much. It’s great! Now, I would like to share a song with you. It is a song in which Mr. Oyama participated on shamisen. Zutomayo’s “Engine oil”.
