Far East instruments

Dr Gradus

Hi there,

Trying to write a few things for Japanese/Chinese instruments, but can find little in the way of books that explain the various ways which they can be notated (if at all) or how they sound with Western instruments. I think the best bet would be to get hold of someone who plays a traditional Chinese or Japanese instruments and just get them to play for me and explain the instrument's capabilities!

*not sure if this should be in the classical music area instead.

Thanks in advance!

TroutMask

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamisen#Musical_notation
here's info on shamisen notation - seems tablature is the order of the day. It says that it can be notated in Western notation too.

Koto is also notated in tab. there are projects to create scoring systems for it, e.g., CCRMA 's project

LilyPond is a great way to create customised notation systems: adaptations of western systems etc.

Dr Gradus

Thats very interesting thank you so much!

Malice

Moved to Instruments.