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#1 2006-10-29 15:25:47

amokrun
Member
From: Finland
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 413

Is kari E possible/acceptable?

I just noticed something strange that I wanted to ask about. I got a new 2.5 wide bore jinashi flute from Mujitsu a couple of days ago. It's tuned somewhere between G and G flat. By playing a tiny bit meri, it works as if it was tuned to G flat. Given my natural tendency to play a bit meri, this makes life pleasant.

Just a moment ago I was trying out various things and ended up playing the beginning of Sakura. At first I couldn't get the pitch right for the normal Ri->Ro->Tsu meri. I tried out how Ri->E->Tsu meri would work instead. All of the sudden I noticed that when I play Ri and E slightly meri like I do with other notes, I can actually get the pitch of Tsu meri in Kan by simply playing the same E but slightly kari this time around.

I tried this with my standard 1.8 flute and it didn't work at all. I just couldn't get the note go high enough so it would be even close to the same pitch as Tsu meri. In my 1.8 I can get the pitch of Tsu meri by opening the first two holes like described in several fingering charts. On the jinashi, however, doing that results in more or less nothing useful. Apparently because playing normally results in a bit too high pitch, even a slight amount of kari is enough to push it over to the next note.

My question, thus, is whether or not it would be "correct" to use the E->E kari transition on the jinashi? I understand that it's different from Ro->Tsu meri and I don't plan to use it as a substitute by any means. I'm just curious if it's proper to do things differently on that particular flute. It's my first jinashi, so I have no idea if it's normal to compensate for the pitch with tricks like this.

Thank you for your help in advance.

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#2 2006-10-29 16:01:19

dstone
Member
From: Vancouver, Canada
Registered: 2006-01-11
Posts: 552
Website

Re: Is kari E possible/acceptable?

Hi amokrun.

Any given pitch achieved by playing meri will have a very different tone color than the exact same pitch (Hz) achived playing neutrally or kari.  A tuner will never reveal this fact -- tuners lock into the fundamental frequency where most sound energy is concentrated, not all the harmonics and subharmonics and certainly not the waveform itself.  But every human ear, even an untrained ear, is very sensitive to this information.  In your example, tsu meri has a very distinctive timbre that cannot be matched by "I kari".

If a piece was written for shakuhachi first, then each note has (probably) been considered and chosen for the gestalt of its qualities, including color from meri.  This would be especially true of honkyoku.

If a piece didn't originate for shakuhachi though, then perhaps pitch is the main idea the composer/arranger is trying to get across, so maybe then it's less of a travesty to ignore the tone color as written.

I don't know the history of Sakura, but I think it's fun and light and it's probably fine to mess around with it a bit.  As long as you know it's not "the same". 

-Darren.


When it is rainy, I am in the rain. When it is windy, I am in the wind.  - Mitsuo Aida

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#3 2006-10-29 16:18:41

amokrun
Member
From: Finland
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 413

Re: Is kari E possible/acceptable?

dstone wrote:

In your example, tsu meri has a very distinctive timbre that cannot be matched by "I kari".

Yeah, I'm aware of that fact. I was mostly thinking of using the kari note instead of the other Tsu meri alternative that usually seems to be written as Ro kari in fingering charts. I wouldn't go replacing Tsu meris in traditional music, as that would not make any sense.

dstone wrote:

I don't know the history of Sakura, but I think it's fun and light and it's probably fine to mess around with it a bit.  As long as you know it's not "the same".

I used Sakura as an example, although I should have picked a better one since in that particular case it does make a difference. However, the general idea was whether or not it would be acceptable to play Ro kari - the alternative fingering for Tsu meri - as I kari instead. Between those two, I don't see any (dramatic at least) difference in either pitch or tone color. Both are, naturally, entirely different from how Tsu meri sounds and should not be confused with each other.

I'm not really sure if Ro kari actually appears in any notation. If it does, I have never seen it. I occasionally use it when I play random melodies because it sometimes tends to sound closer to what was intended originally. This of course applies only to pieces that were composed with some entirely different instrument in mind.

Edit:

Forgive me, for my english occasionally fails me and even I can't figure out what I was originally asking. I hope this post clarifies the question a bit. To clear up confusion, I'm only curious if the kind of technique I use is an acceptable substitute for the Ro kari note where you leave the first two holes open, not whether it's acceptable to use it instead of Tsu meri.

*is in need of tea*

Last edited by amokrun (2006-10-29 16:27:00)

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