Question about Octatonic Scales

Playing/Techniques
#1

Mostly for Kevin, but if anyone wants to jump in …

You showed the Octatonic in regular Niagari, but then re-tuned to Han Niagari … and then pretty much continued on from there …

Should we pretty much always use Han Niagari when playing Octatonic?

(If anyone doesn’t know what I’m talking about - this is regarding the World Scales course - in my opinion, the most important course in the lesson area. Everyone should buy this course at some point, seriously. Even if you DONT play shamisen, this course will help your musicianship!)

#2

What is Lorraine talking about?

Find out today! - http://bachido.com/lessons/world-scales/

#3

Lorraine,
Regarding the Octonic scale and the topic of tunings.
As is the case with most issues concerning musical expression, I would say go with what feels right. I think deciding to use Ni Agari or Han Niagari will also greatly depend on the context of the situation.
If you are tuned in Ni agari, in the middle of a Jam session with another musician and find that the octotonic flavor blends nicely with the direction of the Jam you will probably want to just stay in Ni Agari. But if you are working out a melody in your head or recording a part of a song and you have time to experiment it might be fun to try the Han Ni Agari as a way to mentally see(visualize) the scale pattern simply and directly. The advantage of that tuning pretty much lies in the fact that by using it scales such as the Octotonic or whole tone scales immediately become symmetrical patterns. which allows the exact same fingering straight up and down on Ichi, Ni and San no Ito.

#4

Ahh, I get it, thank you, Kevin (sorry so late to respond, didn’t see your reply until now). And again, huge compliments on the World Scales course! It’s actually making me play better in the other courses as well.

#5

Hope you are continuing smoothly in your music and Shamisen progress Lorraine! I’ve started to take steps forward into new scale territory as I have recently been experimenting with what are called modes of limited transposition. Octotonic scale is one example but it turns out there are in fact a ton of them! I’ll keep you posted and maybe next time I get together with Kyle we can film the follow up to this course!!

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