List of Shamisen notation symbols

#1

Hey everyone,

First time poster here. I stumbled across your forum while searching for a comprehensive list of notion used in shamisen music. I’ve recently started learning the Jiuta (地唄). I’ve been playing guitar for 18 years and actually teach music for a living, so I think for the most part I’ll be able to decipher the means from a list, but I’m having trouble finding said list.

I guess what I’m looking for is something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musical_symbols

English or Japanese is fine, I hope someone here can point me in the right direction!

#2

Are you using bunkafu or traditional Jiuta notation?

I can provide resources for the former, but the latter is a bit outside of my expertise.

Here’s a website that describes the different nomenclature and symbols used in bunkafu.

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~HB9T-KTD/music/Japan/Instrument/shamisen_score.html

1 Like
#3

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the link. It’s traditional style though that I’m learning (top to bottom, right to left). When I’ve got some time I might head out to few book/music stores and see what I can find.

#4

That’s the old, jiuta style. It’s based on koto notation which isn’t something I’m particularly well versed in - at least not enough to describe it in a vacuum.

I know that jiuta fingering slides the numbers around slightly.

If you post a picture I can probably suss things out.

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