Bunkafu — Reading Tabulature Notation for Shamisen

How Bunkafu Notation Helps You

Bunkafu is a so-called tabulature notation. In classical standard Western notation, the melody's pitch is graphically represented by noteheads on a five-line staff. Notes written on a lower line have a lower pitch than notes written on a higher line. It is a graphic representation of what you're expected to hear. Tabulature notation on the other hand is more like an instruction manual for the instrument with the goal of playing a particular song. The player can see what position they need to press on which string. You can not intuitively tell what the melody sounds like - except for the rhythm.

Structure and Elements of Bunkafu Notation

The most important elements are - in general as well as in the case of bunkafu notation - pitch, rhythm, rests, metre, tuning, repetitions, technique, and fingering.

The top part of a typical piece of sheet music in bunkafu notation.

The Lines

The three lines in the notation represent the shamisen's three strings. The lines are arranged the same way the strings are when you're holding the instrument: The bottom line represents the thick string that lies closest to the player. The top line represents the skinny string that is farthest away from the player. The middle line... represents the middle string.

The three lines and the three strings as you see them when you hold the instrument.

Pitch

In contrast to classical Western notation, pitch is not portrayed in absolute values. The numbers represent certain positions along the shamisen's neck. But depending on your tuning, the actual pitch can vary. What stays the same is the relation between the positions and the result in pitch shift (interval).

Die gebräuchlisten Positionen am Hals reichen von 0 (leere Saite) bis zur 19. Bei Instrumenten mit einem geschwungenen Griffbrett, wie beim Nagauta-Stil, können keine Positionen oberhalb der 18 oder 19 gegriffen werden.

bunkafu notation positionen am sao shamisen

Pitch and positions on the big string (ichi no ito) when tuned to C.

The positions (numbers) are spaced a halftone apart. Thus, they correlate to all the white and black keys on a keyboard.

Corresponding keyboard keys for all positions on the thick string (ichi no ito) tuned over C.

Instructions: If you don't have position markings on your shamisen's neck yet but would like to have some, I recommend this article about Fujak Strip and Positions and the corresponding Videoin which I give detailed step-by-step instructions on how to find and mark positions.

Dashes

The dashes underneath the numbers specify the note's length and correspond in structure and logic to the little flags in Western classical notation. That means, the more dashes you see underneath a number, the shorter the note sounds. The lengths have a strict relation to each other: a note with one dash is half the length of a note without a dash. A note with two dashes sounds half the length of a note with one dash. This means, if you have a measure that fits two notes without a dash, you can also fit double the amount of notes with one dash or four times the amount of notes with two dashes in it.

tonwerte in der bunkafu notation und westlicher notation

Note lengths compared: Western notation on the left, bunkafu notation on the right. Both follow the same logic.

Dots

Thankfully, rests are rhythmically coded the same way as normal notes. A rest is indicated by a big black dot on one of the three lines.

pausenwerte in bunkafu notation und westlicher notation

Rests in comparison: In Western notation, you have to learn to differentiate between the different rest signs. In bunkafu notation the length of a rest is indicated the same way as a normal note.

If you see a small dot right next to a note, it's not a rest but a part of the note length. A punctuated note gets stretched out by half of its length. A note without a dash is, as explained above, the same length as two notes with a single dash each. A note without a dash but with a small side-dot gets extended by half of its length. Thus, it becomes the length of three notes with a single dash each. It's the same kind of side-dot you find in Western notation, which is where it derives from.

Normal vs. dotted note. The dot lengthens the note by half of its usual time value.

Repetition Signs

Repetition of Measures

The weird little sign that looks like a warped percent sign is a repetition sign that relates to a whole measure, called "abbreviation". It's a sign borrowed from Western notation. This is how you read it: The measure that's written before the sign is repeated in full. If the sign is placed right on a measure line, effectively spreading over two measures, it indicates you are supposed to play the last two measures. This sign not only saves you time and effort when writing down notation, but also makes reading and playing easier, because the player instantly knows there's no new information to consider but all you have to do is repeat what you just played.

left image: abbreviation in a real-life example | right image: magnified abbreviation

Repetition of Sections

The "coding" for repetitions of entire sections is also borrowed from Western notation. The repeat sign looks like a colon with an extra measure line. There's usually one such sign at the beginning and at the end of the section that is to be repeated. You repeat everything that's between the colons.

The repetition sign is at the beginning of the first measure and at the end of the last measure of the repeating section.

If there's no pair of repetition signs but only the closing sign (colon to the left, extra measure line to the right), you are to repeat the song from the top.

Technique Signs

Technique symbols are placed directly below or above the note that they refer to.

1 – Sukui

2 – Hajiki

3 – Uchi

4 – Suri

5 – Oshibachi/Suberi

6 – Keshi

Examples for oshibachi/suberi, sukui, and hajiki in the notation.

Examples for suri and uchi in the notation.

Example for keshi in the notation. The keshi is usually placed underneath a rest and indicates to not let the preceding note bleed into the rest/pause. This is achieved by muting the string and thus cutting the sound off.

False Friends:: The tie uses the same sign as the suri, but should not be confused with it. The tie indicates that two consecutive but separately written out notes on an identical position are to be played as one single seamless unit. It's always two same positions, for example 3 and 3. In shamisen notation you will find the tie spanning across a measure line. That indicates the note is to be continued past the measure line (thus the tie). You will only find ties in modern notations for shamisen. The suri on the other hand indicates an audible slide between two different notes. If you have two different positions, for example 3 and 4, it definitely is a suri and not a tie.

Fingering

The Roman numerals above or below notes are fingering suggestions. That means they show you which finger to use to press that position. I = index finger II = middle finger III = ring finger IV = pinky. Using the pinky seems to be a taboo in traditional pieces. It's only used in modern pieces (or when you're not associated with a traditional group).

The Sheet Music's Head Section

In the topmost section of a music piece you will usually find the title written in large font, the composer on the far right side and the meter and tuning on the far left.

The Meter

The meter information is often imprecise and at worst misleading. Without diving too deep into the topic, I want to point out a very important special type of meter appendage: Sometimes you will find the addition hazunde - and sometimes that addition is not written out but it's just implied you know you're supposed to add that. Hazunde means in practical application that you have to play the straight looking rhythm in "shuffle". It's might be easier to imagine it as a "heartbeat" rhythm.

The sign for hazunde rhythm is placed next to meter and tuning. Sometimes you're supposed to know that a piece is in hazunde rhythm so they don't write it out. It's probably assumed that the player has a teacher who would point out the piece being in hazunde to their student.

A direct comparison of what the notation looks like (top) versus what you're supposed to actually play it like (bottom).

Fluently reading things in hazunde can be tricky in the beginning, especially when there's fast notes or tricky technique-combos. My best advice to tackle the challenge: let the groove lead you.

Ich habe einen ausführlichen Artikel zum Thema Hazunde geschrieben (mit Video), in dem ich eingehend erkläre, wie der Rhythmus funktioniert. Weil die Anwendung in der Praxis am Anfang ein bisschen Überwindung kostet und der Körper und das Hirn sich nicht immer einig sind, gibt es dazu auf Patreon praktische kurze Übungen in verschiedenen Schwierigkeitsgraden.

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It's easier to focus on the rhythm notation when you understand it as a memory aid. Songs used to be orally transmitted from master to pupil. The student learned the piece by imitating the teacher and was corrected when they made mistakes. Notation still is in most part a memory aid. To really master a piece and understand it in its musical facets, you need to dive deeper, beyond the written text. That can be through a teacher, recordings, and experience. Especially when it comes to nuances in rhythm, phrasing, and bachizuke (alternating between ushiro bachi and maebachi) there's usually no indications in the written music notation.

Other Signs

Other signs that are not essential for playing shamisen and that I will talk about at some other point in time are:

taiko notation

kuchishoga

singing notation (text an sometimes melody)

Practice, Practice, Practice

If you're looking for shamisen notation in bunkafu style, I recommend taking a look at the selection over at Shami-Shop. You will find direct downloads for Tsugaru and other styles, but also paper sheet music for Minyou, Nagauta, Jiuta (different notation style!), Kouta and Hauta. Noten zum Direkt-Download für Tsugaru und andere stile, aber auch klassische Papier-Noten für Minyou, Nagauta, Jiuta (andere Notationsweise!), Kouta und Hauta.

Watch the video here:

If you'd rather listen to the content and have some moving visuals, head over and check the video I made on YouTube!

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