Gion Kouta / The Ballad of Gion

Notation
#1

any chance someone would have tabs for this around at home?

with still no good itomakis and no bachi at all I nevertheless am playing around a bit in way low overall tuning and a soft fingerpicking touch . . . a couple of days ago the urge to start playing came up . . . :slight_smile:

so rather than tsugaru this would be more the style that I can play on the shamisen I have considering its current restaurational state I would love to learn this whole song and also having tabs would make learning and memorizing easier for me . . .

#2
#3

I donā€™t know if this will be useful, but I had printed this out a while ago. Donā€™t even know if itā€™s the same Gion Kouta, but give it a try.

Here is the weblink if the photo is too small to read

http://www.immortalgeisha.com/ig_bb/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=7457

#4

P.S. Later on in the thread, they say the tuning is Niagari. I just played it, and that sounds right.

#5

Far out! Thanks Lorraine! Looking forward to trying it out after work this evening!

#6

My pleasure! I donā€™t think the tabs are exactly the same, but itā€™s close enough to figure out the rest.

#7

oooo someone needs to film this playing!!!

#8

:slight_smile:

#9

I also have some tabs for this and a video of me playing it if your interested. I d have to scan the paper though. Let me know!

#10

yo that would be cool thanks a lot in advance and I will message you my email address in case that way should be preferable for sharing ā€œthe big pictureā€. . . absolutely no hurry of course whenever you may get to doing a scan that would be awesome . . .

also since the itomakis are back to their screwed up ā€œnormalā€ as in so slippy it does not make sense trying to play . . . I had the shamisen standing around in a corner for weeks until I picked it up again I guess it must have been some dust particles or something that made the itomakis less slippy I had a few enjoyable evenings of playing but now they are slippy again . . . anyway so there is no way around trying to make better ones and I am going to do that this or the next weekend for sure . . . also I plan on removing the quite useless cardboard skin and play naked for a while and with a long koma too . . . :slight_smile:

#11

Is there any way someone thatā€™s more familiar with this song could transcribe this onto this system so it makes sense? http://shamisen.karlhedlund.se/ Iā€™ve been trying to play it off that notation and it sounds completely different

#12

I made a hasty version for tabs with Shamicomposer. Mainly itā€™s easier to play than from the tabs Lorraine linked - itā€™s as directly based on those as I could make. I can only recognize some small parts of the song when I play it myself, would require somebody more skilled to look over the tabs and to play it.

I marked some hajiki, but some of those are not possible I thinkā€¦ donā€™t get scared if you canā€™t play them :wink:

#13

Okay guys, if I have notation that is biwa (likely Chikuzen four or five string), I will post to the threads. For instance, Gion Sho notation:
http://sonic.net/~tabine/heike081003/Heikechpt01.html

Gion Shoja is the first few lines of the Tales of the Heike and perhaps familar to you because many sing this in full costume in Geisha/Samurai formalityā€¦or beloved of karaoke fans?

Placeholder for adding my Gion Shoja notation notes soon.

Now biwa tabs will follow soonā€¦ My not-so-secret ā€˜evilā€™ plan is to encourage all to attempt Japanese style strings and encourage biwa playing so it becomes much more popular.

If I may digress a bitā€¦
I am a very slow learner in terms of feeling Japanese music, so it took me a few years to get the feel of three different biwas as I learned up to playing Gion Shoja (Gion Spirit Hut or Gion Temple) ā€¦I have only played the chikuzenbiwa and the four string or the five string student ones feel right to me. (They can be big and heavy for some 8))

If Kyle-san ever gets to making biwas, (another evil hopeā€“I have great hopes for other people!), maybe Iā€™ll get back to playing biwas. I have high hopes for shamisen/sanshin these next few years and if I do find Sanshin notation for Gion Shoja, I will post here!

#14

GionShoja

Gion Shoja, Chikuzen Biwa notation.

Note Biwa notation represents strings as actually on face of biwa. So lowest string has most strikes/plucking with plectrum with point down. Most people play biwa upright so you are looking at the side of your eye as you pluck down. The song and a video of Yoko Hiroaka playing is below, so hope this is helpful:

https://www.google.com/search?q=yoko+hiraoka+gion+shoja&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS769US769&oq=yoko+hiraoka+gion+shoja&aqs=chrome..69i57.11847j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Itā€™s poetry/recitation and the perhaps more appropriate to poetic tradition, this somewhat mournfulā€¦ and likely if you play it in appropriate season at a tea ceremony or formal occasion, perhaps you might ask a Japanese guest? Someone who is poetically sensitive might like to hear this near the end of summer? (Kind of like youā€™d love to hear Jingle Bells in December and you laugh or smile when you hear people say Christmas in July?)

I know we start our practises with playing Sakura, which is a very Springlike and appropriate at Springā€“but if you do a traditional demonstration, you might want to be seasonally appropriate. 8) I went to a Christmas performance once in California and the very happy woman who wanted to bring a beautiful Japanese flavor to her performance chose the easy and Springlike Sakura. It felt curiously different among other songs of sleighbells and Santa Claus and Christmas velvetsā€¦my suggestion may seem too old-fashioned to you so please ignore if you want to play sakura at in the winter!

Ā© 2020 Kyle Abbott