Shamisen tonal system

Notation
#1

Ok, maybe I missed something, but I cannot find someone who explain this clearly and in detail.
I know a bit of the japanese music system and I’m studying it right now, and to me it looks pretty similar in many ways to the western system, although the shamisen notation left me confused.
The 4th position is clearly five semitones away from the open string (a fourth), the 3rd is a minor third, so I guess positions are like the grade of the western diatonic scale. (am I right?)
At the moment I play it this way, but some pieces seem to not follow this rule.

I’m a beginner with the shamisen, but I play guitar, piano and violin so if you point me to some serious studies about japanese music system and shamisen theory I’d be happy!

#2

The shamisen notation depends on what type of shamisen you have! The crazy Japanese! :slight_smile: I think all of them use the chromatic scale.

For Tsugaru shamisen you have the 0, 1, 2, 3, 3#, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10b, 10

which corrisponds to the 0-12 tones in the western notation.

And as for the subtle tiny off-pitch frequencies that happen with Pythagora’s division of the string in halves, I would say each player playing a fretless instrument justifies this by ear on each string and remembers it in the muscle memory.

#3

Allow me.
As Karl said, off-pitch things happen. It happens to me all the time!

In my opinion (as a min’yo singer / shamisen player), the Japanese scale (and many others in world music) is different from the Western system.
When you think about the musical interval, it is fundamentally different from the European way.

Let’s say… obviously the 1st position is not the semitone. but is almost a quarter tone from the open note.
My 4th note is usually constant, but the 3rd, 9th or other notes are variable depending on the other players. It also depends on what kind of music (tsugaru, min’yo, pop, classical…) or who I play with.
Sometimes, I slightly change the position of fingers during the piece.
My teachers do it pretty regularly. Someone who is not used to playing with western instruments (piano, guitar, or recorded music) is very off from the western key.

Japanese old style players (including me) play shamisen like singing, not tuned to anybody or any mode.

And I have to admit that I love the song a bit out of tune… adds character!

aki

© 2020 Kyle Abbott