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Is there any site online where I can download sheet music for shakuhachi, preferably honkyoku? I'd like to avoid paying taxes on sheet music, so I'm looking for a place online that will deal with credit cards and send me the music through download or email. Thanks .
Tots
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There are some free samples here: http://www.bamboo-in.com/shop/honkyoku.htm, including mp3 downloads so you can hear the tunes. A great resource!
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Yes, a great resource, but beware...the MP3s don't exactly go perfectly with the sheet music, as far as I can tell. I'm trying to follow Tamuke, for example, and the recording just doesn't seem to match it. I think Alcvin was playing meditation style on the recording, lol.
I'm not complaining about something free, mind you, and I'm glad Alcvin and Co. put this stuff up...I just wish they synched up for clarity's sake. I got super frustrated with it at first, then realized that I'd be much better off getting a real instruction guide with "proper" examples.
-E
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kyoreiflutes wrote:
Yes, a great resource, but beware...the MP3s don't exactly go perfectly with the sheet music, as far as I can tell. I'm trying to follow Tamuke, for example, and the recording just doesn't seem to match it. I think Alcvin was playing meditation style on the recording, lol.
I'm not complaining about something free, mind you, and I'm glad Alcvin and Co. put this stuff up...I just wish they synched up for clarity's sake. I got super frustrated with it at first, then realized that I'd be much better off getting a real instruction guide with "proper" examples.
-E
I doubt that. Al's playing the stuff properly. Shakuhachi notation does not tell you exactly what to do. It's a map, not a photograph. There are many confusing aspects to it which are not clear until you learn the tricks or shortcuts to it. That's why lessons are important. The teacher can clue you in on what some of the notation means.
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I concur with Tairaku on that.
The piece is written out by Teruo Furuya, a Dokyoku master and the senior player in Katsuya Yokoyama-sensei's school. Al is playing it by the numbers; listen to any other recording of it, say by Riley Lee, Tadashi Tajima or even Yokoyama--they are virtually identical, if a bit more polished.
Al plays all of the pieces on his website as written, and he wrote the notes in the sheet music instructions--Furuya did only the calligraphy.
Sometimes, even though you've listened to a piece repeatedly and enjoyed it, when you get up close to it and try to actually learn it, it's difficult to tell exactly what's going on at first.
In the notation, all the little back and forth undulations of the vertical line have specific meanings, which Furuya, et al, worked out as a simplified scheme for all the music they transcribe.
eB
Last edited by edosan (2006-01-16 23:43:02)
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This is a great set of downloads and MP3s that Takegawa-sensei provided, one's that I've referred to many times and I am grateful for the time and energy it took to create these and post them free of charge.
The download for Tamuke does look markedly different from the rest:
I notice that as of "page 2" (which is the third page of the download) that instead of the terms "Line 2", "Line 3" and so on, he uses the terms "Notes for Line 2" "Notes for Line 3", "Notes for Line 4", "Notes for Line 5" then jumps to "Notes for Line 8", then jumps to "Notes for Line 10", "Notes for Line 11", "Notes for Line 12" then jumps to "Notes for Line 17". The document then ends after "page 5" (the 6th page of the download).
A complete reading for Tamuke should probably be longer than 5 pages. All of the other instructions (which appear to show complete readings from line to line) are much longer. This appears to be a complete reading of "Line 1" and then "notes" for the remaining lines.
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Be advised that Al's notes for Tamuke cover only the tricky parts; much of the piece has similar lines which don't need to be deconstructed. You need the entire score to make sense of the whole piece. For any folks who don't have the whole score, I have posted a printable two-page scan of the piece written by Furuya-sensei, the same score from which Al's notes are taken:
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7000/tamuke18oe.jpg
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/132/tamuke20ys.jpg
eB
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Ugh. I just re-read my post, and it does sound a tad negative toward the end there. I really meant that it might very well be in synch, but it didn't seem like it to me. However, I'm a little frustrated with how long it's taking me to learn this, but that's what happens when ya don't take lessons. So, I don't yet know a few little tips and tricks yet, or how to properly read shakuhachi notation, and I suppose I'm taking it out on the material. I apologize for that, and didn't mean to offend anyone in the least. It's all me.
I really do like the sheet music, and I printed it and bound it and everything...I'm learning it, but very slowly. This is one of the reasons I took up shakuhachi, to learn patience. It's working...slowly. I'm going to try and start lessons next month too.
Thanks to all for setting me straight, and to edosan for the sheet music. Nice stuff.
-Eddie
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kyoreiflutes wrote:
Yes, a great resource, but beware...the MP3s don't exactly go perfectly with the sheet music, as far as I can tell. I'm trying to follow Tamuke, for example, and the recording just doesn't seem to match it.
-E
For what it's worth, you might want to try Al's instructions for Honshirabe. On that one, the line by line teaching does cover the entire piece, not just the potential trouble spots.
Rich
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rpowers wrote:
For what it's worth, you might want to try Al's instructions for Honshirabe. On that one, the line by line teaching does cover the entire piece, not just the potential trouble spots.
Yes, Honshirabe, Yamagoe, Hi Fu Mi Hachigaeshi and San Ya are all complete line-by-line instructions on Bamboo-in.com. Only Tamuke is not.
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I think I might've realized that Tamuke wasn't fully "on", and that's what I got frustrated with. I wanted to learn Tamuke because I love it, and because of it's seeming simplicity.
Thanks for the info on these pieces.
-E
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Ed - I appreciate the scan of the full Tamuke score. Looking through it, I have some questions.
What is the 'tilde' on the first ro?
Also, what are the 'in between' notes called? For example, the second note. Tsu flat? Is the character underneath it indicating meri? What are the kari/meri notations in this style?
Also, are line breaks always corresponding to 'breathe'?
These questions are probably incredibly basic but none of my musical experience is with a wind instrument, and this notation is new to me.
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You talkin' to me?.....
That ain't a 'tilde', it's a 'nayashi', which is a smooth, but usually quick, dip in pitch--a half or a full step--from the current pitch and back again. The next nayashi--on the next Ro--occurs in the context of the preceding Re. It is done the same way as at the beginning of the piece. If you look at the last line in the piece (#17), there are two good examples of the nayashi occuring right after a note, in this case two Re's. The Re is sounded, the pitch goes down quickly, then returns. There is a matter of timing and style for this that is very important, and speaks volumes. They are not all done exactly the same way, even though they are....
In the case of that first one in Tamuke, it indicates that the pitch starts BELOW Ro, and comes up to it--just listen to it.
The note right after the Ro is 'Tsu no Meri': Tsu lowered a full step by dropping the chin and closing the second hole down about 75-80 per cent. Fair amount of work to get a good handle on that one--coupla years, more or less...
The 'meri' of the Tsu is indicated by the little chop mark on the downward curve of the Tsu. In this position it means 'Tsu no Meri'--a whole step down--as opposed to 'Tsu Chu no Meri'--a half-step down--which is indicated by the chop mark being placed through the little short line at the upper left part of the Tsu (none of the latter occur in this piece). This notation is called 'New Kinko' and is a streamlined version of the older style, which used small indicators placed 'round about the note notation. The same applies to Ri: Ri no Meri is indicated by the chop being on the right downward curve (see line 2)--Re Chu no Meri has the chop over on the left side through the verticle piece.
The breaks--short, horizontal (almost...) chop marks (often short lines) are breath marks. Not always slavishly adhered to, but usually. They are quite important: Besides being placed almost always at the end of one's breath capacity, they determine the phrasing of the piece, and give you your 'Ma', which is just as important in the interpretation as the audible parts. Kakizakai-sensei, for one, has some useful comments on these pauses in his playing tips at http://www.kotodama.net/shakuhachi/tips.html.
Occasionally--very rarely--a player will skip a breath mark for some added effect.
'Seeming' simplicty is spot-on...
PS: You guys gotta get a teacher--it's MUCH easier to show this than to tell it...
eB
Last edited by edosan (2006-04-20 09:28:10)
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Thanks, that explains a lot. I had trouble reading the character, as did my dad, who is Japanese (not a shakuhachi player). It certainly seemed like the first line had far more tones than as written; I guess the nayashi is something like a bend on guitar (down, not up, though).
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