Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Beardiago wrote:

Hey all,

I was walking along practicing this morning and it occured to me that Amazing Grace would sound amazing on a shakuhachi. 

Does anyone on here have a copy of the notation for Amazing Grace for the shakuhachi?  I'd be ever so gratefull if I could have a copy of it.

Pretty please?

Santi

Hi Santi, Here is a link to PDF of a bare bones version of Amazing Grace:

Amazing Grace notation

This notation was personally handwritten and comes from my Yung Flutes Introductory Shakuhachi Guide. It is written in the Dokyoku style that I learned from Kinya Sogawa. His notations were all hand written by himself. There are no beat markings like in Kinko or Tozan notations. Just feel the vibe

Feel free to ask if you do not recognized a note or the octave markings.

Enjoy, Perry

Marco Lienhard does a very fine Amazing Grace on his first album, 'Shakuhachi'.

It's played on a 2.4, and has a pretty freaky honkyokuesque introduction, but it's pretty easy to figure out; the basic melody begins
on a Ro.

The album is available on iTunes--you can buy only the one tune for a buck. I recommend the whole album, though, and also his
second album, 'Poem du Bamboo', also available on iTunes. 20 dollars well spent; Marco is a great player.

eB

Simple tunes like Amazing Grace are a great way to start learning to play by ear. Though it may seem difficult at first, going through the process of figuring it out without notation will teach you a lot more basic musicianship as well as specific shakuhachi skills.

nyokai wrote:

Simple tunes like Amazing Grace are a great way to start learning to play by ear. Though it may seem difficult at first, going through the process of figuring it out without notation will teach you a lot more basic musicianship as well as specific shakuhachi skills.

I can't agree with this more. Working out a simple piece (for which you already know the melody in good pitch) by yourself puts you in
an entirely different mind/ear space than working from a piece of sheet music. It is, of course, very useful to have a recording of the piece
on hand that is close to or equal to the pitch of the flute you're using.

Work on one line at a time, transcribing as you go, using conventional notational details or, if you're not familiar with them, make up your
own (such things as which holes to hit, meris, karis, and the like).

One caveat with doing this with honkyoku: It's very likely, especially early on, that you will make up techniques that don't actually exist,
such as treating a pitch change as two different fingerings, rather than as a meri, for example. I speak from personal experience here..

An even better alternative: don't transcribe--memorize each line, until you've got the whole thing, then transcribe it.

eB

Last edited by edosan (2007-10-18 15:14:52)

want a nice meri workout?  start on go no hi no meri or u.  enjoy!