anyone know of a shamisen book with ko-uta in?
am curious
first notice of uta songs so no, this is like the nemesis of Naga-uta right? ko-uta or short song 
yes, short and the total opposite to nagauta.
i was curious as iâve actually been practicing without a bachi and wondered if there was a style that also did, apparently ko-uta was it
There are two works by Liza Dalby that you might be interested in. The first is the book âLittle Songs of the Geishaâ which contains 25 kouta written in Japanese kanji, then phonetically in our alphabet, and finally translated into English. There are also explanatory notes for each song, a short introduction, and sheet music for one piece. I really enjoyed this book when I was first getting in to Japanese music, and looking at it again just now Iâm struck by the beautiful layout. The cheapest used copy on Amazon UK is one pence (plus 2.80 shipping)!
The second is a DVD called âGeisha Bluesâ. I havenât actually seen it yet, but your message spurred me to finally order it today. She plays 12 songs, and the lyrics are included as subtitles in Japanese and English, but I donât think there is any sheet music. Itâs available on Amazon for about $17.
hi there
i actually HAVE the book and spent all day trying to find it without success (and hurting myself in the process)
Iâve just tried to buy the dvd but nowhere ships to the UK so i guess i have to wait and see if amazon UK will eventually give in.
Dalbyâs book was one of my early English-language purchases, too. As Gerry said, it was lovely to have both for its content and for its âlookâ.
You originally asked for a âshamisen book with ko-utaâ in it. There is a short âseriesâ of shamisen music books with about 30-40 ko-uta pieces per book. The series is âKouta Meikyokushuâ, books 1, 2 and 3. Hereâs a partial scan of the front cover of book 1 (for the other two, just sub the kanji for the numbers 2 & 3). I cropped the pic for ease of loading in the forum, itâs just more of that green pattern:
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg73/lhcaplan/Kouta_book1.jpg
The series contains a number of the ko-uta from Dalbyâs book (there are ten of them in book one). And the books are written in bunka-fu - same notation as the pieces in Kyleâs book - so if you can read his music, you can read this series.
Thank you Linda, you always post such great info!
Iâve become increasingly interested in the shorter songs but not reading more than a couple of kanji and google translate search, doesnât help in finding the GOOD stuff.
Will do a search on where i can get copies but i might come running back here for help again XD
Not trying to âhorn inâ on anyones territory or anything {g}, but fyi, Chords Canada has all three books in stock -
http://www.chordscanada.com/catalogue/sheet_music/sheet_music_en.html
thatâs the ONLY place i could find it XD
i really should pay attention an go to you guys next, if itâsnot on bachido itâs usually there XD
Yeah, Kyle and I are taking over the world⌠{lol}
one shamisen at a time!
I finally watched the âGeisha Bluesâ DVD yesterday, and wanted to clarify a few things: it doesnât actually feature live footage of anyone playing (which was a little disappointing) but there is some great music on it. The 12 songs are remastered audio-only recordings that Liza Dalby made in 1976, while she was studying to be a geisha as part of her PhD research. According to the notes, the songs are sung âby a geisha with shamisen accompaniment,â so they are not performed by Dalby, though she does appear on screen to introduce each piece. While the songs are playing, a series woodblock prints and early hand-tinted photos of the world of the geisha appears on screen, and the lyrics are subtitled in kanji, romaji, and English. If you were interested in learning to sing these songs, this wouldnât be a bad way to do it, but there is no shamisen tablature. The playing and singing are top notch, and while the production values are not of recording studio quality, the tracks do have the immediacy of field recordings (since that is what they are).
Gerry thatâs a great review and it sounds like a nice addition to a collection especially if you wanted to learn the song for singing.
Again i need some help guys n gals, iâve just spent the best part of two days trying to translate and understand the music for the song in Kouta Meikyokushuu #1 - Sakura Miyo Tote
Iâm REALLY struggling with it to the point where the title is about all i can do. The printing is more flowing than the printed hiragana that i was TRYING to learn and iâm having trouble just making the romanji.
Iâm going up the wall.
(i was trying to just LINK to the image but canât figure out how toâŚ)
also:
am i correct in assuming that the DOTS underneath the vocal notation is indicating the string number?
And: how the HECK do i understand the timing/tempo of notation like this as the only way at the moment i can do things is by hearing it firstâŚ
I know i ask a LOT of questions, but i do TRY to find the answers for myself first and only ask here if iâm desperate.
Hi Amanda,
Itâs really tough to figure out how to play this sort of piece without hearing the originalăbut luckily there is a version on youtube:
Check out her channel for more kouta and hauta.
It sounds like this clip is similar to the written version you have, so you can at least get the feel for it. Not every note is the same, but the important ones are.
About your other questions:
The dots are rests, so the shamisen should be muted at those points, but if that is too much to think about, ignore them for now and just let the notes ring and die out on their own (the horizontal lines at other places, like the second bar in the first line, tell you to let the note ring).
With this notation, the katakana above the three-line tablature is âkuchi-jamisenâ (mouth shamisen), which is how people used to memorize the shamisen part - they sang it until they had it down. The first line of the kuchi-jamisen here is âCHIN TON CHA- RE CHIN CHIIN TSUN TSUUN TON CHINâ,
The hiragana under the tablature is the lyrics, and the little numbers under that are the sung melody, which varies at times from the shamisen. You can find the pitch you are supposed to sing by playing those numbers on the shamisenâs third string.
The interplay of the voice and shamisen is really difficult to master, so donât try both at the same time any time soon.
Lastly, check that you are in sansagari tuning (this is written at the upper left of the score).
The lyrics are:
Sakura miyotote
no tsukete mazu
asazakura yuu zakura yoiyo zakura
yamabuwahiro ja toe e-e ----
doona to shubishite awa shanse
nandoki ja hikesugi ja
tasoyo andon chirari horari kana bohiku
Youâll get used to reading the typeface for this hiragana after you work with it for a while.
Lastly, if you find you arenât making much headway with kouta and are feeling discouraged, you might want to try some simple minâyou melodies, which are much easier to learn. After getting a few of those under your belt, you can go back to kouta with better chops and it will start to fall in to place.
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Gerry, as usual one of my bachido heroâs!
I managed to get the first 2 lines correct! and the tuning!
but it went downhill from there.
yeah this cursive style is far harder for me atm to read and recognise the characters properly, for example: i used JI instead of ZA on the second line etc etc
yes i think i might do what you suggest and learn a minyo while keeping this one as a goal to learn towards
(iâm trying to put together a few pieces themed about spring, any suggestions?)
Ahhh so iâm actually looking at quite a hefty amount of information on that score then.i had no idea so much was on there.
Wow, such discipline in thisâŚ