Sanshin Lesson Two

I am practicing Sanshin for my upcoming live performances next month, and have so many songs to practice. From Shima uta, culture songs, love songs, Eisa-songs (a kind of matsuri songs) and old folk songs, too many songs to master them all. It is a never-ending story to practice traditional dance and music.

This is my practice room at home. 

Today, I practiced Ganbare Bushi, written by BEGIN.

Now, we all know that Begin was originally from Yayeyama Island.

One thing I have noticed is that Ganbare bushi is very similar to Hanjo Bushi, which was also created on Yaeyama island, and the lyrics of Hanjo Bushi are written in the Yaeyama dialect, and Ganbare Bushi 

is written in the Japanese Language.

As an example, 

I will compare the beginnings of two songs below:

Here is the beginning (Kun-Kun-Shi) of Ganbare Bushi (がんばれ節）

四老四上尺老工五四七五七工尺工五 

while below is the beginning of Hanjo Bushi (繁盛節）　

四老四上尺老工老工七五尺工老工五　

(danjyu tu-yu ma-ri-du ）

I tend to not to practice these two songs on the same day, since their Kun-Kun-Shi are similar,

and I get confused.

 The tempo of these two songs are similar, too. 

Today, I am going to talk about the Kun-Kun-Shi of Ganbare Bushi:

Jakuhai monode wa arimasuga :四合四上尺合工尺工七五五工四工尺

hitokoto iwasete moraimasu：上合上尺上合上老四上四乙合

minnaga genki ni naruyo-ni：工合工五七四七五工七五七工合工尺

Ganbare Bushi wo utaimasho：上合上尺工合工尺工七五尺工

Ganbareyo- Ganbareyo-：尺工五七工合尺上尺上老四

若輩者ではありますが

一言言わせてもらいます

皆が元気になるように

がんばれ節を歌います

がんばれよー　がんばれよ

サッサ！

I am a fan of Yaeyama folk songs, including Bigin's songs.