{"id":5862,"date":"2016-04-03T14:14:06","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T05:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/?p=5862"},"modified":"2016-04-03T14:14:06","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T05:14:06","slug":"nia-lambert-koto-and-shamisen-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/2016\/04\/03\/nia-lambert-koto-and-shamisen-lessons","title":{"rendered":"Nia Lambert: Koto and Shamisen Lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past semester, I decided to continue studying Koto, which I had been playing for roughly half a year at my home institution.\u00a0 As a result, I initially came in with the expectation that lessons would be pretty much the same as my typical group lessons.<\/p>\n

In the end, I believe private lessons provided me a unique opportunity to not only learn more technical tricks but also to gain a deeper understanding of music and discussing music in Japanese.\u00a0 Reaching those realizations, however, was initially very difficult.\u00a0 On my first class, especially, I was amazed that after all of my hours and hours of studying Japanese, I didn\u2019t understand a word my teacher said. \u00a0I later came to realize it was because she used Kansai dialect. \u00a0If she hadn\u2019t been playing the Koto with me I would have had no idea what she was asking me to do.\u00a0 I was overwhelmed, and even wound up making silly mistakes like saying \u884c\u3063\u3066\u304d\u307e\u3059(ittekimasu=I\u2019ll be back, but used only when you leave your home) after class.\u00a0 However, this language barrier forced me to listen even closer and to constantly ask questions, which thankfully made me more comfortable with my teacher.<\/p>\n

Around half-way through the semester, I met a Japanese friend who is studying English and preparing to study abroad next semester.\u00a0 He takes really diligent notes on all the English phrases, idioms, and words that he hears pretty much all of the time.\u00a0\u00a0 From looking at his notes and its benefits with his language study, I figured I would give it a try for my CIP.\u00a0 It was by far one of the best decisions for my studies.\u00a0 Not only did it let me keep track of new vocabulary and phrases, it helped me pay closer attention to general speaking, be unabashedly inquisitive when I didn\u2019t understand, and opened up different conversations that in turn taught me interesting everyday objects and phrases.\u00a0 For example, tying string into a bow or \u201cbunny ears\u201d is called \u8776\u3005\u7d50\u3073\uff08chyou chyou musubi\uff09 or a butterfly knot.\u00a0 During my newfound confidence I also began studying Shamisen.\u00a0 This new study unexpectedly lead to a plethora of conversations about different materials, finger and plucking styles, and words to describe the moods associated with certain note changes.<\/p>\n

Through my CIP I\u2019ve been able to understand far more Kansai words like\u3082\u3046\u3044\u3063\u307a\u3093,\u3000\u308f\u304b\u3089\u3078\u3093\u3001\u3061\u3083\u3046\u3001\u3048\u3048 instead of \u3044\u3044\u3001and so much more.\u00a0 Currently I\u2019m working on \u6625\u306e\u6d77 (Haru no Umi), a very difficult traditional koto piece, and look forward to learning more about the different cultural and linguistic words and phrases associated with traditional Japanese music.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>

Two of my Sensei’s more expensive \u64a5\uff08\u3070\u3061\uff09or picks for Shamisen. The white one is made of elephant tusk and tortoiseshell.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"This<\/a>

This is an antique shamisen from the the Edo period. The face painted is an \u304a\u591a\u798f\uff08\u304a\u305f\u3075\u304f\uff09\u9762 or mask of a homely woman.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"This<\/a>

This is the koto my sensei lent me to practice throughout the semester. I have it in my \u548c\u5ba4\uff08\u308f\u3057\u3064\uff09,or Japanese style room, in my homestay.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past semester, I decided to continue studying Koto, which I had been playing for roughly half a year at m … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080 →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_locale":"ja","_original_post":"5862"},"categories":[124,8,128],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcjs.jp\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}