Lesson blog #10 - Iso Chidori (磯千鳥), pt. 2

Since we only barely started Iso Chidori (磯千鳥) last week, this week's lesson was focused on going through more of the piece with my sensei. In true Kikuoka Kengyo style, this piece already seems quite complicated from a singing standpoint. It has a lovely melody, but this is going to be a piece where I really have to practice the shamisen and singing separately for many parts until I become more familiar with the music.

One of my biggest concerns about this piece are the tuning changes. I'm not great with changing my tuning quickly anyway, but part of the problem is my shamisen itself. The itomaki really need to be replaced because they slip a lot, especially the ni-no-ito. I have tried several different suggestions from my sensei, but all of them are only very temporary fixes. The one that works the best is lightly wetting the inside of the itomaki hole. This causes the wood to swell slightly, helping the itomaki stay in place. The weather is also an important factor. If it is very dry (like it has been lately), the itomaki tends to slip more.