difference between sanxian and shamisen

[lumry]

i was wondering what the difference is between the two, and could you play the sanxian with a bachi?...and does anyone know any sites that have videos of people playing the sanxian or shamisen

[davidbadagnani]

I have a feeling you already know something about these two instruments, so what specifically do you want to know about the differences? You probably already know that the sanxian has snakeskin, and the shamisen usually has cat or dog skin. The box is also a different shape, the strings are different, and they're played differently, with different techniques and different scales.

It's my guess that a bachi was used in China to play the shamisen in the old days (hundreds of years ago, at least at the time it was introduced to Japan), the way a very large triangular plectrum was used to play the old pipa (and still is on the Japanese biwa). But I've never heard of any Chinese players using a bachi today. Part of the shamisen technique is that the bachi hits the string and also (lightly) smacks the skin, producing a drum-like sound. I don't think this is part of the technique of sanxian (correct me if I'm wrong).

There are some videos of shamisen (I can't vouch for how good they are) at the shamisen article at the English Wikipedia. I've never seen any online videos of sanxian, though.

[Charlie Huang]

At NAGA website, in the press room section, there is a video of someone playing Yangguan Sandie (if I can remember correctly) on the sanxian. It's in one of the events links, can't be bothered to search for it right now.

[davidbadagnani]

This might be the link. www.chineseculture.net/guqin/newsletters/masterclass/naga0512yajireport.htm
The sanxian is just a short excerpt, at about 5 minutes in. I can't see any video on my computer; I just get audio.

[lumry]

offtopic but does anyone know any good site that have instructions on how to play the shamisen?

[Charlie Huang]

Not to my knowledge. I bought a shamisen book from eBay, which was very very basic. There was a better one that I could have got, but it was very expensive to justify my current spending at the time.

Also, shamisen's neck is shorter than the sanxian.

[tamanafaa]

In China, Sanxian is played with a pick or with the fingers and is used often in story telling. It was not introduced to Japan directly from China. Sanxian came to the Ryukyu Kingdom south of Japan sometime between the 15 and 16th centuries where it became the most important musical instrument in folk and court music. In Okinawan language, the characters for Sanxian are pronounced "Sanshin". The Sanshin was played with a curved pluck made from bull horn. The Sanshin reached Japan sometime around the 17th century. It was played in Japan by Biwa (Chinese Pipa) players who used the Biwa plectrum because they were used to it and the Shamisen was born. The Chinese and Okinawan people used snakeskin to cover the sound box but the Japanese didn't have the right snake varieties so they used cat skin instead. The instruments strings were also altered. The strings only stay in tune for about a minute or so and then go out of tune hence why Shamisen players hold the tuning pegs as they play. The Sanxian dosn't lose its tune like this and dosn't sound as sharp as the Japanese style. The Japanese method and styles of playing shamisen are also very different from those of the Ryukyu islands which used the chinese styles of playing in indoor court music. I hoped this helped and I play the Sanshin.

If you wanted to see videos of the Okinawan Sanshin, check out Youtube.com and type in "sanshin" There are two videos of me playing, these videos are rather old and when i was first learning the isntrument. Ive been searching for videos of sanxian but haven't found any .

[sanmenxia]

I'm a bit suprised that the shamisen only dates from the 17th century. It's a bit strange the strings won't stay in tune, was this only in the past or do shamisen players still hold the tuning pegs as they play?

[Charlie Huang]

It's probably the design of the nut and the tuning peg system...

[johnwithajinghu]

you dont really hold onto the pegs the whole time, you just adjust them when one slips *hopefuly only a little* or when the music demands it like switching to honchoshi(5-1-5 in jianpu) to ni agari (5-2-5)

[kyokuhon]

Hi, sanxian lovers,
I just happened upon an intriguing and tantalizing article about sanxian. It was published in 2004 in "Chinese Music" magazine. To synopsize it, after talking about how sanxian, while a very expressive and versatile instrument, is not much used in Chinese orchestras any more, the author Mu Qian tells about how prof. (ret.) Xiao Jiansheng of the China Conservatory of Music (Beijing) and his colleagues Zhao Chengwei and Wang Lifeng (of the Academy of Chinese Traditional Opera) began giving free sanxian classes to try to make sure the tradition didn't die out.
The most intriguing sentence in the article: "These are all included in the TEXTBOOK (my caps) that Xiao and Zhao have compiled for sanxian players." (!!!!)
So, my question to all: Does anyone know any of these musicians, and can we somehow get in touch with them and let them know that there is a small but very interested group of people who would like to know more about sanxian?
I'll try to contact the author through the Chinese Music Association of North America, the publishers of the magazine, and will let you all know what I find out.
I'm also going to double post this in the "san xian" thread to attempt to make sure all interested parties see it.

Best to all, and keep playing.
K.

[kuduchi]

Apr 23, 2006 17:27:54 GMT sanmenxia said:

I'm a bit suprised that the shamisen only dates from the 17th century. It's a bit strange the strings won't stay in tune, was this only in the past or do shamisen players still hold the tuning pegs as they play?

It is designed to be like that. If you check Shamisen players online on youtube, you will see that sometimes they re-tune the Shamisen again, even while they are playing, all at the same time.