Listening to the local radio station the other day I heard a song by The Pussycat Dolls. The tune would have been forgettable except for the fact that it sounds like an Okinawan sanshin is playing in the background. Does anyone happen to know if it really is a sanshin?
The song is called Whatcha Think About That
The Okinawan sanshin is a three stringed instrument, similar to a banjo. It is a close relative of the shamisen that is played on mainland Japan. Here’s a shot of professional sanshin player Byron Jones that I took for Okinawa Living.
Byron Jones & Okinawan Sanshin
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 
sounds like a shamisen, mainland Japanese version. Most probably it is sampled notes of a shamisen played by a soft sampler like kontakt…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kontakt
Thanks for the info Keith. Did you see my earlier blog about the use of a shakuhachi on a Linkin Park song. I wonder if that was sampled also?
no didn’t see that – I’ll check it out. Probably is a sample or samples played on a softsynth. R&B artists have been plundering the riches of ethnic sounding instruments for their tracks for a few years now. Most famously Missy Elliott’s ‘get ur freek on’
which samples an Indian stringed instrument called an ektara. The rhythm is based on the Punjabi ‘Bhangra’ style.
Linkin Park suck ass though so don’t know if I can bear to listen to it 🙂
The Missy Elliott song also starts with a bit of Japanese which is always a bonus!
there’s a Japanese version of pussycat dolls called Tokyo Cabunny
http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/tokyo-cabunny-japanese-version-of-pussycat-dolls/