Looks like there are still a lot of you who are finding us through a search for learning to tune your sanshin. We posted an entry about a neat little freeware app called Sankichi-kun at the beginning of the month. The only thing is that the app is in Japanese so here’s a quickie explanation chart for the app (note that you’re looking at the Mac OS X version).
- Tuning for Sankichi-kun is in the key of C which may be a tad too high of a pitch for most people. I usually practice in C but we’ll often perform in B and sometimes lower (A#, A) for female singers. This is the default, or “honchoushi”, tuning for sanshin.
- Click on this karakui to tune in “ni-agi” (ni-age in Japanese language), the raising of your 2nd (middle, nakajiru) string. You’ll find this particular type of tuning on koten ongaku (classical music) songs.
- Click on this karakui to tune in “san-sagi” (san-sage in Japanese language), the lowering of your 3rd (bottom, miijiru) string. We use this a lot on minyou (folk, shima uta) songs.
- This area indicates the current tuning (i.e., honchoushi, ni-agi, san-sagi) you’re in.
- This is the uujiru, or top string.
- This is the nakajiru, or middle string.
- This is the miijiru, or bottom string.
- This is a view of the available notes you can fool around with. For tuning purposes, you’ll be clicking on the notes at the top (合 ai, 四 shi, 工 kou) which are your open strings. With these notes, you can play “Asadoya Yunta” among other songs. Pretty neat.
- These buttons at the bottom of Sankichi-kun are extras. Clicking the one on the left-hand side will “take you to the beach” and clicking it again will “take you back home”. The button in the middle will quit the app. The pull-down button on the right-hand side has pre-set tunes you can practice with or just enjoy listening to.
This basically explains Sankichi-kun but if you have any other questions feel free to email me at karakuipress[at]gmail[dot]com or leave a comment on this post. Maybe I’ll upload a video of my tuning of the sanshin in the near future. 
I decided that this post deserves its own Page. You’ll find the link to our Pages at the top right-hand area of Karakui.
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I was wondering how high or low I can tune each sanshin string without breaking or slacking. Thank you!
Posted by Alif Muhammad | 2009/02/15, 6:18 AM@Alif Muhammad: Highest sanshin players normally tune to is C-F-C and sometimes up to D. On the low side and especially for female singers, I’ve gone down to A.
Posted by Richie | 2009/02/15, 7:47 PM