Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Tairaku wrote:

I met an Okinawan sanshin player who lives 20 meters from my teashop. Therefore we want to play music together, but I don't understand the stuff he's playing. Does anybody have experience playing shakuhachi with Okinawan music and can give me some pointers?

All I know is that you will have to play the Ryukyu scale and get familiar the with the usual feel and melody of those islands. I have a Shakuhachi manual somewhere the exaplined Ryukyu sclae and the standard melody etc I will try to look in my mess or maybe others will remember what book it is.

Thanks Bruce.

Yes I know the scale, but I don't really know how the shakuhachi interacts with the shamisen and voice. Probably just follow the melody.

Do you know if they usually play off of "ro" or off of "re" as the fundamental?

I noticed that he was playing in strange keys like Ab, so I should be able to cope with that by using different length flutes. He also said, "We have a different shakuhachi." I asked, "What's the difference?" Answer: "I don't know."

Of course we usually use 1.8 (D) for most ensemble work in Japanese music. Maybe they play in a lot of different keys in Okinawa.

Anyway he is across the street, so we should be able to get some serious practice time in and I'll learn by rote if I have to. It's going to be fun.

He came in with his roommate and when I played typical minyo like "Sakura" and "Kojo no tsuki" they were almost crying. They said, "It's like we are back home."

I have several Japanese girls working at the teahouse and if I want them to make me some good food I must play minyo. They don't really care about honkyoku or gaikyoku. They don't recognize it. Not even "Rokudan" or "Kurokami". They like minyo and "Haru no Umi". Although they usually get excited when I play Nezasaha, because they recognize the sound of Aomori.

Ciao,

BR

Ny personal suggestion would be to try to emulate the voice of the following songs from Okinawa. They are quite easy and are also famous.


So here ya go.

last two are a bit modern but if you get the voice part on Shakuhachi you will be ok since they also exist as solo pieces on the sanchin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EUNItTb … re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0LHfNml-Kw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_65TFH_ … re=related

Bruce Hunter wrote:

Blasdel/Kamisango (The Shakuhachi a manual for learning) has Ryukyu as:

Ro, Re chu-meri, Re, Chi, Go-no hi chu-meri (or Ro chu-meri), Ro...

Hi Bruce, I'm reading Blasdel (new edition pag. 44) as :

Ro, Re-meri (not chu meri), Re, Chi, Go-no hi chu-meri, Ro

of roughly corresponding to:

D  -  F# -  G - A - C# - D

That sounds right to me. The Re-meri being that infamous quarter-shaded #2 hole and half-shaded #1 hole played with chin in meri position, breath softened. For "authenticy's" sake I'm not sure if this is a slightly sharp F# or a slightly flat F#.

Go-no hi chu-meri as #1 and #2 closed #5 half-holed. For "authenticy's" sake I'm not sure if this is a slightly sharp C# or a slightly flat C#.

Oui? non? Have I strayed far afield? Will I be damned by the shakuhachi gods to play Smooth Jazz in pink shag-carpeted lounge for the rest of my days with a Robert Goulet look-alike?

(BTW, If Bill Schultz is reading this: I'm still playing my scales as ordered, honest. Really, Truly. But I like to peer to other side of the mountain every once in a while.)

It's a really beautiful scale. The two half steps sound tender. I wonder if there are ascending versions and descending versions too?

bluebamboo,

In the Blasdell/Kamisango book, in the chapter under discussion, there is no mention of ascending and descending scales having differences. This doesn't mean, of course, that you won't play/hear small differences, just that it won't be notated that way.

later...

Chris, confusion is the legacy of the shakuhachi score writers.  You have to remember that instead of Re Meri they call it Re Chu Meri and instead of Re Dai Meri they call it Re Meri. Inconsistencies? They do these things just to keep everyone on their two toed tabi.

Chikuzen,

You're very welcome. More (20+) are in the pipeline.

later...

you are the man.

Thanks Geni,

No, I didn't transcribe them by ear, as I have them in western notation. I was hoping to find some already in shakuhachi notation, but no such luck. The search continues...

later...

Justin wrote:

Hi Chris
I'm not sure about Tozan notation but at least in Kinko notation "re meri" on a 1.8 is F not F#. F# is "re chu meri".

Funny (maybe not), but it's always been clear to me that there is no 're chu meri'. You have re (G on a 1.8),
then a half-step down is 're meri' (F#), and another half-step down from that is 're dai-meri', which is the pitch of tsu (F).

'Re dai-meri' is usually notated as a 'special note' in Honkyoku; as a re kanji with a circle in it.

If I am in error here, please elucidate.

edosan wrote:

Justin wrote:

Hi Chris
I'm not sure about Tozan notation but at least in Kinko notation "re meri" on a 1.8 is F not F#. F# is "re chu meri".

Funny (maybe not), but it's always been clear to me that there is no 're chu meri'. You have re (G on a 1.8),
then a half-step down is 're meri' (F#), and another half-step down from that is 're dai-meri', which is the pitch of tsu (F).

Hi Edosan
So long as you don't play sankyoku, you'll be fine. Otherwise the result of your conclusion will be terribly out of tune.

This point does confuse honkyoku players sometimes though, as re chu meri does not generally occur in honkyoku, whereas re meri does.

Actually it follows exactly the same logic as "ri" and "tsu", where chu meri means one step (semi-tone) down, and meri (sometimes specified as dai meri (for example in Chikumeisha notation charts for tsu meri) to differentiate it from chu meri, but usually called simply meri (for example for tsu meri in the actual scores of Chikumeisha) means two steps down. So from ri, one step down is ri chu meri. Two steps down is ri meri. From tsu, one step down is tsu chu meri. Two steps down is tsu meri. And likewise for re.

Chi one step down is simply chi meri, as is ro, one step down at ro meri.
The logic for chi and ro is different. Chi at the pitch of re (2 steps down), and ro at the pitch of ri, are note commonly existing as independant notes, in traditional Kinko music (so far as I understand). The do exist as pitches by in the form of nayashi, in which case they are not notated as separate notes. I expect that it is because there was no need to specify 2 different meris for these two notes, that they chose the shorter written form for the one meri which does occur, thus naming them simply "chi meri" and "ro meri". The basic philosophy of the early traditional Kinko notation system seems to have been "write as little as needed". On the rare occasion then that ro at the pitch of ri occurs as an independent note, this is notated "ro dai meri".

Within Chikushinkai, there are 2 ways re meri is written. One is with a circle through the bottom line of re. The other is with a just an extra line crossing the bottom line of re - similar to the line which crosses tsu. That is used often in some versions of Kinko notation, perhaps more common with modern music, and represents the kana for "me" which in turn stands for "meri". Re chu meri, in that style, is written as the extra line crossing the smaller upper line of "re", rather than the bottom line. This is similar to how tsu chu meri is notated in that system.

Also for re meri in honkyoku it is often fingered with either no finger shading or 2nd hole partly shaded, whereas in sankyoku it often played with both 2 and 1 partly shaded. This is not something to worry about too much though I think, and can be flexible.

I think the reason for the Chikushinkai notation having re with a circle, representing "o meri" (great meri) is because many of the student who read that notation do not study sankyoku. So they do not come across re chu meri. So if they se only "re meri", they may be confused and try to play re chu meri, thinking it should be in between re and tsu (which would actually be re chu meri). So to make it quite clear to them, this notation makes the intention more clear.

The importance of these notes comes from key changes in sankyoku. For more details about that, see post #31 on this page:
http://shakuhachiforum.com/viewtopic.ph … 28&p=2

Justin
http://senryu.com/