The Koto (13 string Japanese traditional instrument)

wow wow oh so you put on the i was thinking wow when i saw this like that must be really hard to transport you don't need to adjust the tension of the strings really to tune it you just move these to tune it [Music] already it's so beautiful i guess it makes sense with these that you would have to tune it every time like i shouldn't again because these were just i mean slide away so you just set the tension once yes it sounds so is an acclaimed musician she comes from the hiro family of the ikuta koto school in japan so we have an absolute kodo master with us yeah hey everybody welcome back to the channel we're here with an absolute kodo master today toki as well as our translator keiko and we're going to learn about the koto what is this it's a japanese traditional instrument and this is all hollow yeah and then like how many strings do we have one two three four 13 13 13. and so is this tuned i guess you can tune it however you want height yes and what do you normally tune it to when she listens to the song and then she listens to the main sound from that music she hears then she uh choose the closest uh tuning out of that sound so there's not a like a standard tuning of it it's always changing there's many standards tunics yes traditionally yeah so she has a traditional standard tuning yeah yeah this is a traditional sanitary kitchen it's instantly recognizable what gives it that unique sound that i instantly recognize the shape of the body or the string like what type of strings are these they're very different it's just a different material like it's not it's not nylon [Laughter] [Laughter] are all the gauges the same too these are all the same things yes [Music] that's like the thing i recognize most about that is the ability to do vibrato on this side of the string this side of the screen you can do it right okay yeah so you don't play this side at all every string is the same gauge same tension and then it's all just about scale length that changes it that's what like really unique thing about this i don't think i've seen any other stringed instrument that does it that way other than like the shovel which only has one string so it doesn't have different several should play the traditional japanese song yeah sakura cherry blossom [Music] it's interesting too that you have like one hand is almost dedicated to vibrato oh sorry labrado yeah like vibrato kind of thing and it seems like that's a big part of the sound to use the vibrato to change notes like off a half step or to use it just for vibrato yeah yeah yeah yeah see that's that way okay so you can bring it up a bunch let's talk about the the picks you're using on your plectrums even though you're left-handed it has to play with the right hand do you always play with three yes yeah three so thumb index and then middle finger do you use all of your fingers yeah and is it is the reason to go from say the middle finger to the ring to get a different sound hi so she wants to play that soft sound she use this finger so you're often using both hands what are the picks called the plectrum name direct translations now now nails oh okay yeah just like nail extensions when was this instrument invented so 1300 years ago it came from china china a really long time ago i just want to hear played more do you have any other pieces here [Music] do you always tune by ear perfect she [Music] guess having perfect pitch really speeds this up [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] do [Music] do [Music] this instrument is so beautiful i don't know i just love that it almost sounded like it was just written for me that's exactly right [Music] so what's what scale is it because i heard a high i heard that high g d major d major d i do not have perfect pitch d major [Music] all right yeah that actually sounds really nice together a lot of strings to make that happen [Music] dang yeah this is just so beautiful [Music] so [Music] this is for my thumb or maybe this on this side just so [Laughter] [Music] wow these strings [Music] it's like playing a huge acoustic guitar i have experience you know finger picking on on that but but this is like [Music] wow it's really hard and do you normally use um like these more like that or is that me being a guitar player oh so you're like you're like this yeah these two no she doesn't use these two oh no okay oh because i'm looking to like he's on acoustic guitar i play it like this why is this one shaped differently for example yeah and so still tight yeah so that's more to control the tension when you go low yeah and over here it's still the same about the same height i'm still playing it like a guitar player you know and i kind of want to go like this triangle [Music] it's like a caterpillar [Music] could we put it in the tuning that you had when you first started the first tuning [Music] amazing [Music] i love one inch that wasn't i love when instruments are tuned to a scale because then just every note works i'm also a big fan of just taking a chord you know and then just moving it one over in the scale and it's like a lot easier to do on this one on an instrument like this [Music] [Laughter] i don't have much experience with like guitar picks that go on your fingers but when they do they're always on the opposite side [Music] okay so this goes on the bridge and then that oh just and does your ring finger stay on the bridge okay [Music] oh [Music] there [Music] oh like that that's really tough to do [Music] because this side being having that different curve is a bit [Music] you're you're doing a scoop kind of yeah yeah yeah it's like slap days yes [Music] i imagine you don't really do that um [Music] oh that's cool [Music] so this one japanese kanji kanji kanji chinese character yeah and so this is one string one two three four five shakes like a japanese music sheet yeah this is a traditional reading so it starts from the right from the right to the left and vertically down so this stress list one measure two measures image of formation one two three four one two three four [Music] how's your japanese sight reading wrapped not good my english my english sight reading is horrible [Music] [Laughter] [Music] i learned guitar too through guitar tab which is just a bunch of numbers so shouting numbers at me is a lot easier for me than this [Music] okay it is weird because with so many years of this being higher notes lower notes my instinct is to always do the opposite like if i want to hear a higher note i go here it's really cool to be able to add expressions to the notes on this side [Music] i also love the sound of clashing notes ringing out like having that half step have them both ring out is a sound that i really love so now we're in g major whenever i have a new instrument recently i just try to play this song it's tough to get a just looking down at the strings to get a good sense of where i am how many students yeah there are many many strings yeah yeah is 13 um standard yeah yeah base quarter is a 17th 17th cheese then that would be probably two octaves on the face yeah traditionally 26th string in traditional yeah i know i can get thirds this way [Music] do you want to strum uh g on the guitar and try to jam gg [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] nice well done all right [Music] [Music] yeah yeah [Music] well done i think i'm gonna keep these now this just feels like a really small koto [Laughter] [Music] that's cool [Music] dang this thing it's just so pretty toki keiko thank you so much for being here thank you oh i have my youtube channel oh you do okay there's a youtube channel too also here's my channel i'm sure this isn't the last time you do something like this uh thanks again so much for being here and we'll see you next week [Music]

Channel: Rob Scallon

Views: 5,810,006

Keywords: Rob Scallon, music, musician, guitar, guitarist, koto, the koto, instrument, 13 string, traditional instrument, japan, japanese instrument, japanese traditional music, song, cover, strings, educational, music lesson, lesson, how to play, play, theorbo, pipe organ, carillon, hurdy gurdy, 400 year old guitar, baroque guitar, theremin, learning an instrument, huge instrument, koto (instrument), zheng, 箏, 琴, performance, Guzheng, Ji, 音楽, Ongaku, 歌, Uta, レッスン, 計器, Keiki, 日本, Nihon, プラウ, ストリング, musical instrument

Id: 3K6KpkFXKdM

Length: 22min 39sec (1359 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 22 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/baysaracheljoy]

i feel like im in other dimension when she play music..i like it