My First Song - WIND SONG

"WIND SONG" is the easiest song among this ten songs. I have spent one week to learn this song. I can and I should finished it in half of the week but I am lazy to practice. I have spent many times to record this song with my friend's help. I also NG many times and recorded the better version of the song after about two hours.

MY GOAL

My goal is to learn Kotaro Oshio’s ten fingerstyle guitar songs by thirteenth week. Kotaro Oshio is a wonderful and amazing Japanese fingerstyle guitar player .He can use one guitar to make different sounds and play the songs like it is played by a whole band. I start to learn guitar after I listened to his song named “Hard Rain”, which is a really exciting fingerstyle guitar song. This song changed my thought toward guitar. It also changed my life because I know I will need to spend a lot of time and effort to master all the guitar skill. Since that day, I know my life will become different because of guitar. I really love fingerstyle.
Why I set this goal? What are the reasons?
I started to learn guitar since two years ago and tried to learn Kotaro Oshio’s songs. My dream is to master all his guitar skill. However, I can only play some part of his whole songs and can’t play with confidence and fluently although I have played guitar for two years. I think this is because I don’t have a right aim.
Therefore, I want to master the ten songs below by thirteenth weeks. The songs are really difficult to learn, but I will try my best. I will practise these songs for two to three hour every day. I will have to work hard if I want to improve myself. A lazy person will gain nothing. I will also spend more time to practise on Saturday and Sunday. As I didn’t have class on Saturday and Sunday, I will have more time to practise .I will practise the songs from the easiest to the hardest. Thus, I have already finished the two easier songs, which are “Wind Song” and “Twilight” in the first two week. However, I have spent too much time to learn the songs. I should practise more because the harder songs behind does need very long time to practise.
I have also joined the guitar club in school to learn and play classical guitar. This is because classical guitar is more formal than acoustic guitar and I can learn many new things as well as new skills and techniques. A classical guitar player needs strong basic skills and music theory. My basic was not very good, so through joining guitar club, I can enrich my guitar knowledge, particularly basic skills and music theory.
I also need to learn how to control myself because I usually can’t practise for two hours continuously. I can’t control myself. I tend to do other non-beneficial things, such as playing computer game, sleeping, shopping and others. I should spend my time on beneficial things.
I really hope that I can learn these songs by thirteenth week. I am sure that I will become a great fingerstyle guitarist.





Songs List: Planning Time:
1. Wind Song: Haft Week
2. Twilight: Haft Week
3. Tycho: Haft Week
4. Canon: One and Haft Week
5. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence: One Week
6. Hard Rain: One Week
7. Fight!: One and Haft Week
8. Wings~you are the HERO: Three Weeks
9. Dear..: One and Haft Week
10. Destiny: Two Weeks

The songs above are Kotaro Oshio songs that I like and I decided to learn .

WINGS~You are the HERO


FIGHT!


DESTINY

INTRODUCTION OF MY IDOL

KOTARO OSHIO ( 2 )

It was in December 1999 that Oshio recorded an album on his own as an indie effort. The album gradually caught people’s ears in Osaka area, leading him to release the second indie album in March 2001. “Blue sky” from the second album was selected the theme music on a TV talk show, and his music was introduced to the general public on various TV/radio programs and magazines. A two-hour special program on Oshio was also aired on nationwide cable radio networks around that time.

Oshio also made a stunning debut at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in July 2002. Not only did he amaze the audience with his solo performance, but he was also invited to the jam session with BB King in the main hall, where everyone was talking about “that incredible Japanese guitarist”!

July 2002 saw the release of Oshio’s first major-label album “STARTING POINT” which includes his original tunes, covers of movie themes and a track that he has composed for a movie for the first time. “STARTING POINT” portrays a musician’s pure love for music and one extreme example of what acoustic guitar is capable of offering.

The talent of the guitarist was soon recognized by the national TV station NHK for whom Oshio wrote and recorded the original main theme "Kaze no Kanata" for the documentary series that NHK produced about the Antarctica in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the station's founding.

While constantly keeping himself busy with live dates all over Japan, the second album "Dramatic" was released in June 2003. Living up to everyone's expectation, "Dramatic" debuted on the national sales chart at #24, quite remarkable for an instrumental album. Various tracks from the album were selected the theme music on different TV/radio programs.

"Dramatic" further showcases Oshio's creativity as a songwriter, and also his rendition of the famous classical pieces "Canon" and "Bolero", the latter of which was later placed in the soundbed of the TV campaign for a revitalizing drink in Japan. His promotion activities included interviews with Tuck ＆ Patty and Pat Metheny.

Oshio returned to Montreux Jazz Festival in July 2003 to fascinate more crowds. The Jazz Club located just outside the main Stravinski Hall was nearly 'dominated' by the solo guitarist who performed there for the last three nights of the festival. Oshio also opened the main stage on the last night for ZZ Top and one of the top Swiss rock bands Krokus. It was on one of the nights when Oshio was asked to perform a few songs each for Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) and Cassandra Wilson personally in the dressing room, receiving extremely high praise. The fact that the Festival has not invited an artist two years in a row except for very few selected jazz/blues giants also shows the level of the potential that people find in Oshio.

After another round of Japan tour and various collaborations with other musicians, Oshio's 3rd album "Be HAPPY" hits streets on June 23rd, 2004 in Japan. The album is again full of beautiful melodies and percussive rhythms, all generated on one guitar, and most of the tracks are familiar to people's ears through TV commercials. TV program themes and movie. For a wider range dynamics, he adopted baritone guitar on "Fight!", in addition to his usual selection of guitars.

Twice at Montreux Jazz Festival was just not enough to satisfy Oshio's desire as a live performer. In love with the beautiful site and people, he's returning to the festival once again in July 2004, for three years in a row.

INTRODUCTION OF MY IDOL

KOTARO OSHIO ( 3 )

Not too many Japanese guitarists get plucked out of obscurity to play Switzerland's world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival-only one, to be specific.

"If you can't get signed by a major, then you will never acquire a significant fan base."

"The producer of the festival, Claude Nobs, was approached in Tokyo by the international marketing department at my record company, Toshiba-EMI. He agreed to meet me," recalls Kotaro Oshio in an interview held at a Tokyo recording studio. "He asked me to play for him, and Claude likes blues, so I played some blues for him, and some originals. In Japan, if you're asked to play for an executive, it's unlikely that you will be signed then and there. Often nothing comes of it, but Claude asked me to appear immediately."

Such were the serendipitous events that saw Oshio, 35, make his international debut in 2002 on one of the most prestigious stages the world has to offer, even before he had issued his first major label album. In fact, events have happened so quickly for the tousled Osaka native that even he seems a bit bewildered.

As recently as 2001, Oshio was another struggling Osaka musician trying to eke a living out of the Kansai live houses. He had released two indie albums featuring his solo steel-string guitar work in 1999 and 2001, gradually building a local following.

Word of mouth led an A&R man from Toshiba-EMI to come to Osaka for a closer look but, says Oshio, after many years of fruitless efforts to woo major labels, his expectations were low. "Even when an A&R guy came to see me, I never imagined things would reach this point. But he was really serious about working with me."

Record label heft and the selection of Oshio's song "Blue Sky" as the theme to a TV talk show meant that he was soon a national topic. It didn't hurt that his smoldering good looks made him a hit with the ladies, but Oshio's real strength lay in his passionate and original approach to the steel-string guitar, which draws on folk, jazz, and New Age.

Yet Oshio wasn't one of these perfectly formed virtuoso instrumentalists-the kind that Asia seems to turn out like flawless Toyotas-who master their instruments when barely out of diapers. Rather, he was a bit of a late bloomer, beginning the guitar only at age 14.

"At first I was into Japanese folk music-I took a fairly conventional singer-songwriter approach," he says. Heading to Tokyo to attend a music college, Oshio returned to Osaka after graduation, joining a rock band with whom he played electric bass. But after years of slogging away without scoring a deal, the guitarist was at a turning point. "When aspiring pop musicians reach around 27, they begin to quit if they haven't found success; the need to get a 'real job' and marriage take their toll."

Despite parental pressure, however, Oshio wasn't ready to give up on music. "I felt like I wanted to continue even on my own," he said. "I again picked up the acoustic guitar and started playing around solo, and gradually began to make a living at it."

Citing guitarists from Windham Hill innovator Michael Hedges to Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page to jazz great Wes Montgomery as influences, Oshio set about perfecting a style that utilizes open tuning, harmonics and finger-tapping to create the illusion of more than one guitar being played at once.

His sophomore release, this summer's Dramatic, showcases a range of Oshio originals, from the breezy counterpoint of the opener, "Splash," to the sweetly intimate "Happy Island" and even an interpretation of Ravel's "Bolero." Bringing out the best in his handcrafted Greven guitars (which have been made for everyone from Eric Clapton to Johnny Cash), Oshio's music is easily accessible without being "easy listening."

He says his compositions are the result of a lengthy trial and error process. "I start with a theme, and then try and express that on guitar," he says. "When I compose, I play my compositions at a very early stage for people and gauge their responses. If the response isn't good then I'll shelve that idea." Dramatic debuted at No. 24 on the national sales charts, quite remarkable for an instrumental album, and went on to a second life when many of its tracks were selected as theme music for radio and TV programs.

In spite of the growth of independent record labels in Japan in recent years, Oshio thinks that for solo instrumentalists, signing with a major is still vital for getting exposure. "There are not that many individual Japanese guitarists who have signed with major labels," he says. "If you can't get signed by a major, then you will never acquire a significant fan base."

Having cemented his status by playing the Montreux Jazz Festival again this summer and touring concert halls across Japan, Oshio is now in a position to branch out and experiment a bit. He's worked recently with everyone from shamisen prodigy Hiromitsu Agatsuma to French jazz singer Clementine. But when asked who he would most like to collaborate with, his answer is surprisingly conventional: "Mariah Carey: one-on-one!"

Kotaro Oshio made a stunning debut at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in July 2002. Not only did he amaze the audience with his solo performance, but he was also invited to the jam session with BB King in the main hall, where everyone was talking about “that incredible Japanese guitarist”!

Kotaro Oshio

INTRODUCTION OF MY IDOL - KOTARO OSHIO (1)

Kotaro Oshio was born in Osaka, Japan on February 1st, 1968. While there are many solo guitar players who play nylon-string guitar, Oshio took the challenge of mastering a steel-string acoustic guitar in a highly unique style. It was Oshio’s strong desire to bring out the maximum capacity of an acoustic guitar that impelled him to boldly employ various techniques such as open tuning and tapping. Oshio artfully infuses those inventive techniques into the emotional core of each of the songs on “STARTING POINT” - rather than overpowering, Oshio's astonishing technique enhances his lyrical interpretations. From the whimsical to the bittersweet, Oshio brings science and poetry into perfect harmony.

Listening to his music for the first time, one would think there are a number of different musicians performing together in a room - but in reality, it’s just Oshio alone that does absolutely everything on one acoustic guitar. His music is full of emotions backed with state-of-the-art technique, often treated with percussive arrangement. Oshio not only performs self-penned original tunes, but he also covers great music of various fields, from movie themes to animation themes to nursery rhymes to school songs.

Oshio's music

Oshio's music is classified within various categories including pop, new age, and jazz. He became internationally renown after performing a live jam session with B.B. King at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 2002, and his style has drawn comparisons with other highly regarded musicians such as Michael Hedges. Oshio's musical technique includes fingerpicking, tap harmonics, and a unique strumming style referred to as a "nail attack" in which he slaps the strings with the nails of his middle and ring fingers.

While his albums include mostly original material, Oshio is also well known for his covers and movie soundtracks. His unique skill in interpretation and arrangement can be heard in tracks such as "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" from his album "Starting Point".

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Discography

* Love Strings (March 24th, 2001 in Japan)

* Oshio Kotaro (October 11th, 2002 in Japan)

* Starting Point (July 10th, 2002 in Japan)

* Dramatic (June 18th, 2003 in Japan)

* Be Happy (June 23rd, 2004 in Japan)

* Bolero! Be Happy Live (December 15th, 2004 in Japan)

* Panorama (September 7th, 2005 in Japan)

* Color of Life (November 29th, 2006 in Japan)

* Blue Sky, Kotaro Oshio Best CD (Jan 31st, 2007 in Japan)

* Nature Spirit (Jan 1st, 2008 in Japan)

* You & Me (Oct 1st, 2008 in Japan)