The Taishogoto: Japan's Keyboard Guitar

The taishogoto is one of Japan’s most underrated and fascinating instruments: a blend of guitar and keyboard, with a history dating back over a century. What’s more, is that almost the entirety of that history has never left its homeland. In a way, it feels like the idea of the keytar got inverted, and from it, an entirely different, divergent evolution of an instrument was born, and that's what we're going to be exploring today. I’m taking a deep dive into the taishogoto: looking into its origins, its creator, its development over the last hundred years, and the wonderful sounds you can make with it. Along the way, I’ll be asking a question that kept coming up throughout my research: Why isn’t the taishogoto popular outside of Japan? And could that ever change? Chapters 0:00 Intro - guitars, keyboard, and keytars. 0:45 Demo 1 1:00 The taishogoto 1:18 Demo 2 1:24 The essence of the taishogoto 1:53 The koto... and the typewriter 2:17 The creator of the taishogoto 3:00 Goro Morita's entrepreneurial endeavors 4:56 The dawn of the taisho era 5:38 An unmitigated success 6:06 The inspiration for the taishogoto 6:37 The expansion of the taishogoto 7:08 The taishogoto in schools, and new taishogoto models 7:46 The overton window 8:02 The synth taishogoto 9:01 The acoustic taishogoto 9:58 The electric soprano taishogoto 10:30 How the taishogoto works 11:11 Demo 3 11:33 Dealing with the drone string 12:00 The range of the taishogoto 12:47 Demo 4 13:13 Recording the taishogoto 13:30 Demo 5 13:47 Demo 6 14:02 The soprano taishogoto's textures 14:29 Demo 7 14:52 The bass taishogoto's sound 15:14 Demo 8 15:26 The range of the bass taishogoto 15:39 Demo 9 16:13 Demo 10 16:33 Tapping on the taishogoto 17:00 Demo 11 17:21 Demo 12 17:45 Limitations of the taishogoto 19:04 The bass taishogoto's ability to sustain notes 19:53 Demo 13 20:08 The soprano taishogoto's ability to sustain notes 20:31 The spacing of the taishogoto's keys 21:11 The price of the taishogoto 22:52 The taishogoto across the world 23:40 The akkordolia 24:09 The bulbul tarang 24:40 Why hasn't the taishogoto spread much elsewhere? 25:10 Kotodenryu 26:46 Why hasn't the taishogoto been localized to the west? 27:54 Not a "serious" instrument? 28:56 "Uncool" 29:12 The marketing of the taishogoto 29:57 The demographics of the taishogoto 30:40 The impact on the taishogoto's image 31:26 Could the taishogoto succeed in the west? 32:00 Ending 32:22 Demo 14 33:09 Closing remarks Contact: [email protected] Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s...