The ''heike shamisen'' (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: 平家三味線), is a Japanese musical instrument, member of the

shamisen The , also known as the or (all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usual ...

family. Like its other counterparts, the heike shamisen has three strings, a slender neck, a body taut with skin, and it is plucked with a plectrum called a

bachi ''Bachi'' (, ; also ''batchi'') are straight, wooden sticks used on Japanese taiko drums, and also the plectrum (written ) for stringed instruments of Japanese origin such as the shamisen and '' biwa''. For percussion Drum bachi (, ) are ...

Construction

What is peculiar about the heike shamisen is that it is made particularly for the use in one song, called Heike Ondo, which is a folk song from

Shimonoseki is a city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. With a population of 265,684, it is the largest city in Yamaguchi Prefecture and the fifth-largest city in the Chūgoku region. It is located at the southwestern tip of Honshu facing the Tsushim ...

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). Y ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. As the song calls for a higher range of notes, the heike shamisen is constructed with a shorter neck than conventional shamisen. It is possible to use a normal-sized shamisen in place of a heike shamisen, but it must be prepared with a capo device, known as "kase" in Japanese. In Japanese music, there is a buzzy sound quality that is often preferred called "sawari," and this effect is adjusted by a device often found built into the shamisen, that raises or lowers the 1st string at the nut. A drawback to using a shamisen with a capo in place of a heike shamisen is that it disables the use of an on-board

sawari In traditional Japanese music, ''sawari'' is the name of a buzzy sound quality, or timbre, that is often found in and/or expected of certain traditional stringed instruments. In the shamisen, for example, the sound quality is produced by the firs ...

device.

Heike Bachi

The bachi, or plectrum, used to play the instrument, is also smaller and more slender than most plectrums used to play the shamisen. Whereas most plectrums are triangular in shape, the heike bachi is more square and angular.

Tuning

The heike shamisen is usually tuned in ''ni agari," which means "raised two" or "raised second," which is a reference to the fact that the pitch of the second string is raised from a base tuning called ''honchoshi." Normally, the shamisen is tuned so that the first and third strings are tuned to an octave, and the second string is tuned to a fourth from the first string. In "ni agari," the second string is raised to a fifth from the first string. An example of ni agari is D, A, D.

Musical notation

Traditionally there is no musical notation for heike shamisen, and students are expected to learn the melodies by heart. In recent times, however, common melodies have been written down in tablature notation to facilitate learning.

References

{{Traditional Japanese musical instruments Japanese musical instruments Drumhead lutes Necked lutes

Construction

Heike Bachi

Tuning

Musical notation

See also

References