Dear Zachary Braverman,
Useful study tip which will serve you well in determining (with
occasional question marks...) the flute length you're hearing on a
recording:
You need four things--
1) The written music in standard katakana notation for the
piece in question.
2) The recording of the piece in question (naturally...);
preferably on a CD--easier to navigate that way (cassettes can have
questionable pitch).
3) Your favorite 1.8 flute (it is assumed here that it is in
pretty good tune, both to itself and to an actual keyboard "D."
4) An ear ready to listen.....and listen....
It is helpful to also write out at least one octave of a chromatic
scale beginning with D (Ro...) and then write the appropriate
katakana over the top of the corresponding western note letter:
(D--Eb--E--F--Gb--G--Ab--A--Bb--B--C--Db--D--,etc.)<--cheat sheet.
Also, make out one more chart--or just write the appropriate flute
length UNDER the corresponding western note letter on the above cheat
sheet:
A=2.4, Bb=2.3, B=2.1, C=2.0, C#=1.9, D=1.8, Eb=1.7, E=1.6, F=1.5, F#=1.4, G=1.3
Then, sit down with your 1.8, the music, your cheat-sheet, and the
recording and do the following:
Note on the music where the first occurrence of Ro (Otsu or
Kan) occurs; play the recording and follow along on the sheet music
until you hear that note.
FIND that note on your 1.8 and determine it's katakana name (say the
note you came up with on your 1.8 is Chi), then consult the
cheat-sheet, finding that Chi is written over a western A, thus, you
know that the piece is most likely being played on a 2.4.
This method is not infallible--some flutes (and some recordings...)
are not in tune with anything in particular, BUT most players of
Yokoyama-sensei's caliber are playing flutes that are in tune with a
western keyboard (in fact, I know this to be true on "Zen," since I
have employed this method with it...); really loooong flutes can be a
problem as well as esoteric older recordings, but Riley Lee, for
example, plays some monsters and I've managed to figure out what size
he's playing since his are in tune. You should be able to figure out
9 out of ten flute lengths.
This method works well and quickly if you have the sheet music on
hand--which you'll need anyway to learn anything the likes of which
you'll find on "Zen;" I have also used this approach to learn and
transcribe pieces for which I have no written music--recordings by
Riley Lee, Tani Zensan, Masayuki Koga, John Neptune and Yamamoto
Hozan to name a few.
I have a hard disk recorder which can vary the sampling rate on
playback; once I determine the length of the recorded flute (if it's
different from the ones I own...), I record the piece on to my
recorder, adjust the playback sampling rate to a pitch for a flute
that I have on hand, and re-record the piece at that pitch. Voila!
Something to follow along with and learn from.
Good hunting!
eB
>Hi,
>
>I just got my hands on Yokoyama's first set of CD's, Zen, published way back
>in 1982. I've always loved this collection, and I finally got an original
>copy.
>
>The liner notes, however, contain no information about shakuhachi length.
>It's hard to tell from the recordings if he uses only 1.8 or longer flutes
>as well. Anyone wouldn't happen to have any information about this, by any
>chance?
>
>Thanks.
>
>......... ....... ...... .... ... .. .
>Zachary Braverman
>J-E Translations
>zachary@kotodama.net
>Oita, Japan
>. .. ... .... ...... ....... .........
-- "The human brain is perhaps the only example of evolution providing a species with an organ it does not know how to use."--Arthur KoestleredBeaty edosan@indra.com
****-_-_-_ ^..^ > /\ /\ "Buzz"
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