Well, as of now I should be back to the regular every-other-day or so cycle of journal updates. In regards to my complete blackout the past 7 days, let’s just say that I juggle a lot of plates around here, something I’m usually highly successful at… and that last week about Thursday I dropped one plate, then another, and then they all just came crashing down.
No worries though, it’s all sorted out now, and the DJ train be back on track, homey!
Today, being Wednesday, was shamisen day again with Ishikawa-sensei. Like a good little student I had practiced my shamisen every day last week (excepting Saturday…), and showed up at Ishikawa-sensei’s house confident that I could play the 8 measures ordered of me without too much effort. I seated myself, we tuned our shamisen(no plural in Japanese you know), and then like an expectant mother he waited as I tentatively gripped my bachi…
I took a deep breath, exhaled, and then rattled off my 8 measures *almost* perfectly. I looked up to find his face beaming. Delighted, he congratulated me and then said “ok, now for the rest of the song!”
Err, what?!?
He, smiled, and then made it perfectly clear we were going to play the entire rest of the song, come hell, high water, or excruciating miscues on a shamisen. The next 45 min passed in a blur of maximum concentration, as Ishikawa-sensei’s teaching skill slowly coaxed a recognizable and pleasant melody out of my unwilling digits.
By the end of it, I was mentally exhausted and my hands had all but run out of gas. I was smiling though, a very very large smile, from ear to ear even. Why? Well, up until that point I had undertaken this bit of cultural enrichment with absolutely no certainty whatsoever that I’d even be able to do it. I have no musical background to speak of, and my parents aren’t exactly virtuosos… So it was a leap of faith, and by the end of my second lesson it was clear to me that this is not only something that I can honestly do, but something that I very much enjoy.
My shamisen homework this week is to nail down that song in its entirety. I’m looking forward to once again delighting Ishikawa-sensei with my work ethic and progress, and if you’re really lucky I’ll post a down-sampled recording of the piece on DJ sometime next week… if you’re really lucky that is…