Engineering:Kuchi shōga
Kuchi shōga (口唱歌), also known as kuchi showa or kuchi shoka, is an educational musical notation for traditional Japanese drums, particularly the taiko and the tsuzumi.[1] Kuchi shōga phoneticizes (that is, phonetically articulates) drum strokes using Japanese sound symbolism. Each syllable conveys information about how the drummer is to play a particular note.[2]
Kuchi shōga notation is written in katakana, a syllabary familiar to all literate Japanese language speakers. Kuchi shōga can be transliterated from katakana to a Latin alphabet using one of the various systems of rōmaji.
Common phoneticizations
Although kuchi shōga does not have a fixed vocabulary, some phoneticizations are ubiquitous. Don typically means a deep, sustained sound from the center of the taiko. Do sometimes represents a short beat that is not allowed to resonate (i.e., one with a short decay). Doko, dogo, or doro means two drum-beats played in rapid succession. Tsu represents a lightly struck note; tsuku implies two soft tsu beats in rapid succession—one on the right side of the drum, the other on the left. Ka means a sharp tap on the rim of the taiko, and kara describes alternate right and left taps.
Taiko players commonly phoneticize a right-handed bachi stroke with don, do, tsu, or ka, respectively; and a reserve kon, ko, ku, and ra for left-handed strokes.
Rests
Rests are variously indicated with fricative syllables, such as sa and ho; or with semivowels, such as iya. A polysyllable, such as sore and dokkoi, indicates a two-beat rest.
Sample notation
The following is an example of kuchi shōga notation transliterated in rōmaji:
Don (tsu) doko don, don (tsu) don kon, doko don (tsu) don
When played in common time, this sequence constitutes three measures: 1 . 3&4, 1 . 3 4, 1&2 . 4. The sticking, describing which hand the note is played with (R= Right, L=Left)[3], is: R . RLR, R . R L, RLR . R
See also
- Konnakol and bol (music), syllables used similarly in Indian music
- Canntaireachd, a similar system for traditional Scottish Highland piping (pibrochs)
- Music of Japan
- Onomatopoeia
- Percussion notation
- Shakuhachi musical notation
- Solmization
- Transcription (linguistics)
- Taiko
References
- ↑ Seki, Shintaro (2024). "Making Japanese Imperial Court Music Scores Machine-Readable: Encoding of Hichiriki Notation as a Case Study". Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative (18). doi:10.4000/13d1r. ISSN 2162-5603. https://journals.openedition.org/jtei/5480.
- ↑ Bender, Shawn Morgan (2012). Taiko boom: Japanese drumming in place and motion. Asia : local studies/global themes. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 139. ISBN 978-0-520-27241-5.
- ↑ Kho, Anna (2025). The multi-instrumental percussionist: an exploratory study on the roles of teachers, parents, and students towards high school percussion practise across school and home. School of Music, University of Queensland. pp. 111. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:0cd5908.
External links
- Recording of Kuchi shōga
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