At the start of most every (if not every) video I watch of Jongara Bushi, I see players holding onto itomakis while they suberi and sukei’ing (does that make sense?) the top two then bottom two strings. I’m assuming they are tuning to each other?
I actually like the sound of the suberi done this way and I do it just as a beginning and not really to tune to anything lol.
That’s called chōshi awase (調子合わせ) meaning “harmonization” or “keeping in tune.” Awase (合わせ) also means “joining together” and chōshi (調子) is tune or tone, so it could also be translated as “joining tones” or something like that.
It comes from back when the old monks called bōsama in Aomori would go door to door playing. To make sure everyone was in tune they would tune together like this, but beyond that chōshi awase helped get people’s attention to listen before a song, and I recall reading that some gave it a sort of spiritual meaning about connecting to one another and the song, but don’t quote me on that last one.
I do fine tune a bit during it, but typically the shamisen is already tuned for the most part while doing it. It does help to get it just right though. People do it as a sort of rhythmic intro before a piece so it sounds nice rather than the squeaks and off notes of regularly tuning something. In group playing it also gets everyone together in time with each other.
It’s not just jongara Bushi too, people do it before all of the godai minyo and I’ve heard it sometimes before just regular minyo too. Though it does seem far more common before the godai ones.
Thank you Ian so it was as I suspected. I do really like it and it took me a while to figure out what they were doing.
Am I right though? It’s a suberi+sukei of the top 2 then bottom 2 strings?
Thanks again your explanation and including the Japanese words for them are much appreciated.
You’re welcome! It’s sort of like that, yes. Typically it starts in a similar rhythmic pattern like this if it makes sense. I’ll use zeros to show the timing of the open notes.
00…00…00 0 0 0000 0 0 0(oshibachi)
00 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0(oshibachi)
00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 00(ス) 00 00(ス) 00 00(ス)
So basically after the ichi no Ito you start doing mae and ushiro bachi on the ni and San no ito and by the end you might be on the San no Ito doing regular bachizuke for jongara Bushi, or for something like aiya Bushi you’d be doing 0 00 repeatedly with the sukui on the third note.
Does that kinda make sense? It’s a bit hard to type out, and the “notation” I gave isn’t spot on but shows the general idea haha. Later on I can take a pic of notation that includes it and post it if you’d like, I’m on mobile right now so it’s a bit tough to write out all the zeros in the proper timing.
Alrighty, here’s a shorter version used in Jongara Kyu Bushi (Oyama ryū notation). You do ushiro and mae after the first seven notes for this one
You can do longer chōshi awase than this though using bachizuke and such, the type of which depends on the song’s general bachi pattern.
I’m not 100% sure but Kyle’s book might have a helpful section on this, but right now I’m on vacation and don’t have that particular book with me to check.
Sorry for the triple post, but turns out I DID pack kyles book haha
There is a section on chōshi awase and it also does detail the whole spiritual aspect and describes the technique as a whole but doesn’t give numerical notation for doing it. But if you have the book it could be helpful!
Such great info Ian. Thank you.
So it’s actually tabbed out!! lol ok. I thought it was more a just a “thing” that pros do.
You’re welcome!
It’s really kinda both haha, some books have it tabbed so you know the pattern for a specific song, but listening and repeating the rhythms especially once you have a handle on bachizuke is a good way to pick it up too.
Glad I could help!
Yea I’ve been studying bachizuke but I’m still way too beginner right now and still need to focus on just tone and precision.
May I ask what tab book that is that you posted an image to? I wish I could speak and read Japanese.
Well, that of course takes priority. Do your best 
That’s from 津軽三味線小山貢民謡集第十一集 (Tsugaru Jamisen Oyama Mitsugu Minyō Shū Dai Jū Ichi Shū), which is volume 11 of the Oyama minyo book collection.
They’re actually available on Amazon under the name Tsugaru Jamisen Score by M. Oyama. Though, nothing in the books is in English so to know what you’re playing you either have to be able to read it or post a pic and ask. If you buy it and go with the latter I’d be happy to help 
Wow you are very awesome Ian. Seriously man thank you for offering that! And thanks again for all the great information.
I’ve played a few instruments and finding information is the greatest challenge for me for shamisen.
Thanks so much and you’re welcome!
That’s why we’re here - I owe pretty much all my shamisen knowledge to Bachido and everyone here so it’s nice to be able to pay it forward haha
Always happy to help!
Btw. Rob, if you’re going to buy the Books (they are more of a magazine format and come with Shami-Tab, regular notation and lyrics for singers), be sure to buy the accompaining CD with all the songs found in the appropriate book (some tracks have a slowed-down version to play along).
I’ve only bought #1 from that extensive collection, but going to buy gradually all the others after mastered all the songs in one book.
cheers
Ale
Oh yeah, great point Ale! Almost forgot about that.
They’re also on Spotify if you are on there, and I think the free PC version lets you pick and choose songs to listen to so if you don’t want to buy them all you could use that too.
Thank you both!
Any time!