Kyle Abbott

Kyle Abbott is a shamisen player, teacher and instrument maker. He founded Bachido, the first global shamisen community, and makes lessons, workshops and recordings for new shamisen players. His own performances, albums and concert dates are on his website, Three String Kyle: Tsugaru shamisen player Kyle Abbott.

Kyle Abbott lives in Santa Cruz, California. On Waves of Harmony he plays shamisen, mandolin, banjo and igil, and sings countertenor, folk and throat singing.

A musical family

Kyle’s parents weren’t professional musicians, but they wanted music in the house. They left instruments lying around for Kyle and his brother Luke to play with, and the boys joined in whenever their parents played folk songs. Nobody taught them. They learned by listening and copying, the way children learn to talk.

That’s how Kyle picked up banjo, guitar, mandolin, bass and fiddle. The family played bluegrass together for 12 years, often for charity on the Pacific Garden Mall in Santa Cruz.

Finding the shamisen

Kyle’s father had studied shakuhachi in Japan in the early 1970s, and gave Kyle tapes of Japanese ensemble music to learn from. Kyle wanted to try the koto. His father suggested the shamisen instead: he already played banjo, so it might come naturally.

A family friend lent them a shamisen. There were no lessons or books in English, so Kyle just jumped, learning how to play shamisen the same way he had learned everything else. Not formal techniques, but using the same principles shared by all stringed instruments.

At 15 he introduced himself to Kevin Kmetz, a Tsugaru shamisen player who busked a few blocks from Kyle’s house. Kevin taught him standard technique and traditional folk songs, and focused on building his repertoire.

Building shamisen

A good Tsugaru shamisen cost about $1,800, too much for a teenager who wasn’t sure he’d stick with it. With his father’s help, Kyle measured Kevin’s instrument and built his own. He was 16, knew almost nothing about woodworking, and finished his first shamisen in three months.

He filmed the build and put it on YouTube, and people around the world started asking how to play and make one. So while building his second shamisen, Kyle wrote everything down. The result was his book, Shamisen of Japan, published in 2009.

Founding Bachido

Kyle founded Bachido in 2011, with his brother Luke writing the code. It started with three things:

Bachido is the first international shamisen community. At Bachido, shamisen enthusiasts can enjoy the following.

• Instruction: Lessons and instructional videos for learning the shamisen.
• Community: An English-speaking international community with forums where members ask questions and learn from more experienced players.
• Store: A store with shamisen, training supplies, and repair services.

Performances, recordings and collaborations

Kyle has released the solo albums The Cuckoo and Frosty, and plays in Monsters of Shamisen.

For the film Kubo and the Two Strings, he recorded live shamisen so the animators could see and hear how the instrument is played.

Together with his wife, they perform Tsugaru shamisen and leads workshops at festivals and concerts in the U.S., Japan and Europe.

Waves of Harmony

Kyle founded and leads Waves of Harmony, which sets traditional Japanese instruments against folk music from around the world. Its main work is a five-album series of 50 songs, recorded with more than 60 musicians.

Outlook

Kyle wants the shamisen to be something anyone can pick up, for players to meet through, and for new music to be made on. He keeps working on his playing, his instruments and his teaching materials, to make the shamisen easier to learn without losing what makes it the shamisen.