So, in my lessons, I’m learning a piece from a book, and the shamisen tab is straightforward enough, except I can’t understand how the marks for repeating a section are supposed to work. We seem to be having some communication problems on this point. There are angled brackets, at some points and lines with circled numbers above the tab at others, but his explanation confuses me. Can anyone clarify? I’ll probably feel silly for not understanding.
Could you maybe scan the tab you are talking about and post it up here.
I think many folks here on bachido will be more than happy to help but for me
I would find it easier if I could see what you are talking about visually.
I don’t have a scanner, I’ll see if I can get a couple of good photos though.
Edit: How do I attach images?
I’m inclined to see it too. 
Ah, currently attachments can’t be done. I upload images using http://imageshack.us/. It’s safe.
Ok, here you go. Hopefully the pictures are clear enough to give you an idea… http://imageshack.us/g/713/dscn0460c.jpg/
Since you don’t have a scanner, I tried to hunt around for a few examples of what it sounded like you might possibly be asking about. Here are some things I found:
The “angled bracket” thing first made me think of jiuta shamisen music (where the repeats are usually shown as what can best be described as a “less than” bracket (on my computer’s keyboard, it’s the uppercase item on the comma key), or the Japanese hiragana for “ku” (く). You can see examples of that mark, both shorter and longer repeats, on the far right and far left lines of the sheet music here:
http://rpmedia.ask.com/ts?u=/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/Shami_tab_vertical.jpg/180px-Shami_tab_vertical.jpg
However, I think you’re studying Tsugaru music, right? So I wondered if the following samples might have any of your angled brackets, lines with numbers above them, etc. (I couldn’t find any samples that had circled numbers above the tabs, though) :
http://shamimaster.com/pdffiles/asatoyayunta.pdf
http://kuroishi.or.jp/oldhomepage/yosare/g_jonkara01-2
Anything even close here? Let us know.
So the brackets enclosing the asatoyayunta piece you linked to are part of what I’m referring to, but they’re enclosing the entire piece in that one. I can’t view whatever’s in that last link.
I linked to some photos above, hopefully the link works and you can see what I’m talking about.
Thanks for the help.
Hi Eric,
Here’s a link to some basic music notation that might come in handy for your scores:
Scroll down to section 12 (“Repetition and codas”) and you’ll see the repeat sign – the ‘brackets’ that you mentioned. Clicking on it will take you to this link, which is more specific:
You repeat the section between a pair of those brackets. Two vertical dots to the right of the bracket signal the beginning of the section to be repeated, and two vertical dots to the left of the bracket signal the end.
The circled number 1 in your score is the standard way to play a verse, which you can repeat as many times as you like. When you want to finish the piece, you skip to the section with the circled number 2 - the coda, or ‘tail’ of the piece.
hope that helps.
Nice! I’ve got it now, that makes sense. In theory, I should know how to read music, but it’s been years since I learned and I’ve never actually played in a group that used it. Side note: So far, shamisen is the most fun I’ve had with any instrument I’ve tried.
Thanks guys.
Side note: So far, shamisen is the most fun I’ve had with any instrument I’ve tried.
That’s what I like to hear!!! 
It’s my style oyamakai scrore book, maybe it’s blue cover, niagari hen.jongara kyu bushi. Be careful about oyama style jongara kyu bushi is different from other style jonagara kyu bushi. It’s composed to make it easier to play shamisen. Original style is too difficult for beginners, so founder of my school made it for shamisen begginer.