Why is the price for one CD so high? (Behind the scenes of the recording process)

This CD was a labor of love, but also came completely out of my own pocket. Making a CD on your own at a professional level without the backing of a label or record company is no small amount of money.

First you need to pay for all of the musicians and all of the rehearsals they need to learn your music. They don’t just come in and sight read. I guess in theory they could, but you wouldn’t then have the highest level of recording as possibly. You also need to pay for them to hang out at the recording location with you all day, for their instruments, transportation of their instruments (especially in the case of percussion) and food and drinks so they don’t run out of energy before recording is over. So, basically you need to be paying for them for multiple full days of work at a full time pay. It is a lot of pressure on everyone involved and even though professionals make it look easy, it is anything but easy.

You need to reserve and pay for the recording location. For this CD I recorded it in a live hall to get the most natural reverb as possible. The particular hall I choose gave me a lot of control over how much reverb there was so I could make sure the unique timber for the shamisen would come through. Because Tetsuya Nozawa was playing all of the shamisen parts and would have died if I had asked him to play all of the pieces at one time in one day, I had to reserve the hall three times for three whole days to complete this project.

You need to pay for the recorder engineers, their equipment and mics.  I was blessed with a really amazing recording engineer who both taught and guided me while making sure to let me lead. He brought in the best mics for this recording, set up and tore down everything and checked for everything I never thought of checking for. It was great! But everyday we recorded, I had to pay for them to come in and take off the day to work. It is not cheap!

You need to pay for the mastering of each track. A lot of completing a CD happens after the entire recording is over. This is both cleaning up the sound, making sure each instrument is balanced, as well as putting the proper timing between tracks. There is a difference between a professional doing this and an amateur (like myself).

You need to pay for the design of the CD booklet. Let me tell you, pay your designers. Not only do they know things that you would never have thought of, but also they can create something you would have never dreamed of.  Simply said, my designer Norei Yoshida did an amazing job!

You need to pay for each page in your CD jacket and printing. The more pages you add, the more the entire project will cost. I could have saved costs by only writing my liner notes in one language to cut down on the page count, but because I thought both Japanese and English was important, I wrote in both languages which added pages. Also just the raw printing of the CD, of course, cost money.

The last payments go into distributing the physical CD itself. Not just shipping costs but did you know you have to pay money for a bar-code? I didn’t know, and it is expensive! Right now I don’t have the money for it so I am selling myself CD more straight out of my hand method over Amazon.

Anyhow, I hope this explains the high costs of the CD. I know not everyone can pay for it but if you can continue to support me through your words and views that is more than enough! Soon I will put tracks on iTunes as well so you can hear it all at a much cheaper price (without the liner notes though =(

Thank you always for your support~ ^_^

First CD on Sale!／CD発売！

It’s finally happened, I am finally done it. I have been working hard for the last couple of years but there it is, the product of my labor.

遂に完成しました！2年間に及ぶ労力の結晶がここに！

I have finally released my first CD!

初のCDリリースです！

There are many ways you can get your hands on this CD. You can head over to my "Buy Colleen's Music" page and see the links there. Depending on what country you are from, one option might be better than the others so take a look.

CDの購入方法は何通りかあります。詳細はこちらのページにてご確認ください。国によって最良の購入方法は異なりますので、ベストな方法を選んでください。

This CD not only showcases the compositions written while conducting 9 years of fieldwork on traditional Japanese instruments, but also actively responds to my own dissertation’s thesis by showing the potentials of traditional shamisen musical theory within modern music. Each composition’s differing styles and variety of both traditional and modern playing techniques lets the listener discover how shamisen effectively expresses a multitude of musical colors without the need of western musical conventions. I believe that traditional instruments, like shamisen, forces composers and performers to discover new means of musical expression that have yet to be utilized within mainstream modern music.

このCDは、東京にて邦楽器を研究する傍ら、作曲活動に勤しんできたこの9年間の集大成であると共に、自らの博士論文で提起した、現代音楽における三味線の可能性に対する私なりの解答でもあります。各作品には三味線の様々なスタイルが鏤められており、より今日的とも言える西洋音楽的な表現のアプローチを取らずとも、古典的、あるいは本来的な技法を駆使することで、彩りのある音楽的な情感を効果的に際立たせることができたのではないかと、手応えを感じています。このように、三味線がのびのびと活躍できるような作品を作り続けて行くことで、現代音楽のメインストリームとは一線を画す、三味線、延いては邦楽器のための方法論や表現の幅を広げることができるのではないかと信じています。

What is Shamisen? 三味線とは？

 

Shamisen has been stereotyped as a muddled three stringed instrument that traditionally only played rhythmically slow, unclear melodies. However, this instrument that historically was developed to raise the spirits of tired famers, was the backbone for multiple musical theater genres during Edo, gracefully accompanied geishas as they entertained patrons, and was part of the Ryukyu Empire’s court ensemble is anything but an uninspired, old-fashioned musical tool.   

This blog not only showcases the compositions, performances and experiences while conducting 9 years of fieldwork on traditional Japanese instruments, but also actively responds to my own dissertation’s thesis by showing the potentials of traditional shamisen musical theory within modern music. I believe that traditional instruments, like shamisen, forces composers and performers to discover new means of musical expression that have yet to be utilized within mainstream modern music.

 

三味線は、時として、響きに濁りのある、何の変哲もない弦楽器であり、スピード感に欠け、明確なメロディーを演奏しない時代遅れの楽器であると思われがちである。こういうステレオタイプを通してしまうと、三味線は面白みのない楽器として、受け止められてしまうかもしれない。しかし、三味線は歴史の中で、時には疲弊した農民の心を活気づけ、江戸では歌舞伎など、芝居の音楽のための中軸楽器として活躍し、花柳界の宴席で色を添え、琉球では宮廷音楽の中で演奏されてきた。こうした歴史的事実をふまえ、一切の偏見を持たずに接した時、三味線はきっと面白みのある楽器として、人々を豊かな心持ちにするはずである。

これは、東京にて邦楽器を研究する傍ら、作曲や演奏活動に勤しんできたこの9年間の集大成であると共に、自らの博士論文で提起した、現代音楽における三味線の可能性に対する私なりの解答でもある。このように、三味線がのびのびと活躍できるような作品を作り続けて行くことで、現代音楽のメインストリームとは一線を画す、三味線、延いては邦楽器のための方法論や表現の幅を広げることができるのではなかろうか。