Sotoyama Bushi Bundle

Get the notation for the popular Japanese folk song Sotoyama Bushi from Iwate prefecture in two different difficulty levels including super useful play along files at different speed levels  to help you learn and practice the song!

The notation comes in three different versions: the simplified version, the normal version with more intricate ornamentations, and a lyrics version. There’s an additional lyrics overview sheet for more singing fun!

The simplified version focuses on sukui [ ス ] (upstroke). This makes Sotoyama Bushi a great song for beginners wanting to practice their upstroke.

The normal version stays true to the main melody but adds small embellishments to make it more challenging. The techniques you will find are sukui [ ス ] (upstroke), hajiki [ ハ ] (pull-off), and oshibachi (playing two strings in succession with one downstroke).

The lyrics version is great to understand where the singer starts or ends a section – it really helps for making sense of the piece and understand phrasing.

The lyrics overview gives you some more verses to make the song last longer, if you wish to sing along or have a singer join you.

You can download the files from your customer account page after the purchase – a link will be provided in the order confirmation e-mail.

Wanna have a short listen to see if you like the tune? Here’s the beginning of Sotoyama Bushi:

About the song:

Sotoyama Bushi is a traditional Japanese folk song (minyo) from Iwate prefecture. It’s also popular among Shakuhachi players. As every folk song, it comes in countless variations. This version is written out for shamisen in bunkafu (tabulature) notation. This version is without lyrics and is suited for beginners who want to try out the basic techniques in a relaxed song. The rhythm is very steady and the main technique is sukui (upstroke). The ful lversion adds a couple of oshibachi and hajiki. If you want to further level-up, you can add maebachi-technique, indicated with blue brackets, to fully bring out the dynamic of this light-footed Minyo piece.

• Tuning: Honchōshi
• Techniques
  • simplified: sukui
  • full version: sukui, hajiki, oshibachi

Tuning:

In every tuning, the strings are tuned in a certain relation to each other. For folk songs, there’s no fixed rigid tuning to a definite pitch (in contrast, the A-string on the violin is always tuned to 440 or 442hz) but what’s most important is how the strings are tuned in relation to each other.

A good rule of thumb is to tune your instrument over the base of C. This means, the big string will be tuned to C and the other strings according to the tuning of the song:

Honchōshi: C-F-C

Niagari: C-G-C

Sansagari: C-F-Bb

Also, check out my shamisen tuning resource for easy orientation 🙂

Access to the pdf and mp3:

Please note that this item is downloadable once only – just as receiving a physical copy of the scores would be. Consider it a “direct delivery” 🙂

After the purchase, you can download the file from your account page under “downloads” or via the link in your order confirmation email.

Make sure you save your file in an easy to locate directory. Please don’t hesitate to contact us via email if you need further assistance.