The Simple Theory Of JAPANESE Music Scales [Pentatonics, Guitar] 

0:09 I definitely misheard that

Your voice just plain SOUNDS like a smile.

Here In Ethiopia we use the same scales as these. We call them Ambassel, Bati, Yanchi hoye, and Tizita.

Ryu Kyu - 3:55 Min-yo - 4:50 Ritsu - 5:20 Hirajoshi/Miyako Bushi - 6:28

That trick with the tetrachords has been a revelation to me. Thanks!

Hirajoshi, or 平調子 ("Hira-Choushi", "Standard Tuning"), is a tuning scale originally created for the Koto, a traditional Japanese instrument. It was created by Yatsuhashi-Kengyou, who adapted the tuning of the Shamisen (a 3-stringed Japanese banjo, also sometimes called the "San-gen", which means "3 strings") to the Koto, which allowed for a lot more varied music to be played on the Koto. Before Yatsuhashi-Kengyou adapted this to the Koto, the Koto was strictly used for court-music, and there were only 6 pieces of music written for it, and to make it even more boring, these 6 pieces all used the same key, tempo and duration (according to what I've been able to find by researching this quite extensively during the Corona Quarantine thing). Creating the Hirajoshi system allowed the Koto-player to play virtually any Shamisen-piece on the Koto as well, which allowed for a lot more variation. Yatsuhashi also made the Koto much more accessible to the public, which made it lose its court-status. Also, a lot of sources incorrectly refer to him as "Yatsuhashi Kengyou", as if Kengyou was his given name. While I haven't been able to find any recordings of his given name, it is most likely that it wasn't Kengyou, as Kengyou is a title given to highly esteemed blind musicians, similar to how "Sensei" is a title given to teachers, doctors and authors. A modern-day example would be Stevie Wonder, who is probably the most famous blind musician nowadays. Also, don't sweat it with the pronunciation. Most of the time, it was better than what I've heard from many Japanese-learners.

So you're telling me I get to make up my own scales? Awesome.

There is an other Japaneese mode called "IN SEN" C-Db-F-G-Bb-C. Thé Ritsu scale can be also called "Kio" C-D-F-G-A-C

Wow, i recognize some of them like pelog, slendro, and madenda scale in Sundanese/Javanese/Balinese traditional music. 👍 Good work of presentation. Some of them are so jazzy, i like it Miyako-Bushi is the madenda one, Ritsu is slendro, and ryūkyū is pelog/degung

I know the ritsu-scale also by the name "scottish pentatonic". Interestingly, many scottish songs are also well known and popular in Japan (but with japanese lyrics).

The best music related channel on RU-vid. Period.

Love this eastern sounds codificated in western ways. We cannot be like them, for many cultural (even musically) differents, but we can search for an inspiration in their culture, and that's freaking great! Thank you for your videos, from an italian fellow.

Love it! More videos on theory outside of Western music, please.

I was wondering about animé theme tunes, and I've always been a fan of video game music, and I saw another RU-vid video last week about chord progressions in Pokémon games that got me like experimenting, but this video really helped me get into the heads of those guys. Great work. Thank you.

Quite possibly the most useful video I've ever seen about alternate scales. As a person who plays a five-string bass alternate tuned in a mix of fifths and fourths, this one lesson might keep me busy for a year or two. Thank you.

Horajoshi has me feeling some kind of way.

Ma che bravo... finalmente un po' di chiarezza. Salutoni dall'Italia!!

Wow, knowing how tetrachords form scales makes memorizing scale degrees so much simpler. why don't they teach this in beginners classes??

Ryu Kyu Scale is used in the Main Theme of Ty the Tazmanian Tiger (PS2) game. Look it up! Super rad theme.

The beginning of this was my first day in beginning music theory. My introduction to these scales though was a huge book my friends dad gave him. Best book on scales I've never seen again. It had scales from all over the world, and even had all the Indian ragas with all the quarter tones.

I never knew there were so many Japanese scales. I was blind to most of this but now the, ahem, scales have fallen from my eyes.

Fascinating and useful, thanks. I'm enjoying all your theory videos - I come away with some learning and something to experiment with.

Thanks for the video. Very informative. Love the sound of those scales.

YES!! This is exactly what I wanted to see. All for more content like this!

the Ryukyu scale totally same as the one used in Javanese and Sundanese music known as “Damilatilada” scale. very exciting to found similarities between distant cultures around the globe :)

Fascinating stuff! You've been making a lot of great videos. You make a lot of intriguing choices and your explanations are excellent. Thanks!

That was fascinating. Thank you for the great lesson!

Awesome work, very insightful and very helpful in a totally new perspective of a very common scale, you've made it refreshing to look at the pentatonics!

This is stunning. A simple explanation of such an interesting approach. Thank you again! I love your lessons.

Fascinating! My knowledge of chord theory and exotic scales has been enlarged immensely. Thank you!

I have just discovered your channel. It's just amazing!!! Thanks for it!

Excellent! Loads of new musical ideas in under 9 minutes!

Wow! You explained such a complex system in the most simplest way. Immensely appreciated 👍

I learned something new today. I knew what tetrachords were before, but I've never seen a use for them like you explained here. Pretty neat stuff!

Very good video. Thanks for sharing this

I enjoy your videos so much. You have so much knowledge and I thank you for sharing it.🎸

I got much more than what I was looking for. Amazing teaching!! I will use it on my music 🎶

It’s been amazing having such an informational source for learning all the possibilities that exist outside the normal major scale. Thank you. Some time you should do a video on renaissance scales

Excellent explanation « comme d’habitude « !! You’re a good teacher !

Incredible video, thanks a lot. Really helpful deconstruction of Japanese musical scales.

Once again you’ve hit a bull’s eye with your lucid explanations of tetrachords and their many possible practical uses - congratulations! Your presentations are always very illustrative, stimulating, friendly and to the point.

Many years ago i read Japan had five pentatonic scales, each one coming from a specific area/region/prefecture. My favourite is Hira Joshi (or Miyako Bushi) as you can get some particularly oriental triads from it over a (low) E pedal tone.

I love your channel. I am a new subscriber. I look forward to seeing many of your videos. Thank you.

Love your videos. Very informative.

Questa cosa dei tetracordi è fenomenale, non la conoscevo proprio! Interessantissima! Grazie per la condivisione 😊

Wow!! That was great!!! It's really fun to know these "outside" theories.. you have definitely expanded my realm of knowledge and playing. Thank you.. Love from India.

the ryu kyu is so beautiful !

I LOVE your tutorials! So the ritsu scale is basically playing along the black keys. I remember in 20th century comp class that Gustav Holst use to play along the same scale in his Military Suites especially for the marches.

Great explanation. You saved me a lot of time. When you see all these different names, it's very confusing, but if you approach it with the concept of clusters (trichords) and modes, it all becomes clear.

Thanks man! U explain clear the things ❤️

I really enjoy your videos. They are interesting and very informative

This is very informative. Thank you. I use miyako bushi (or its western equivalent) quite often. I composed a few pieces with that scale.

Thank you! I was looking for this since years ago

Mind Blowing... Thank you Tommaso

4:00 Holy crap that brought me back to when I lived in Okinawa I miss it there man, I miss my mom 😭

Man you really just make music theory fun and easy to understand, gracie gitarrero amigo haha 🌴

Arigatougozaimasu! This is great. Clarified so much for me

Clear and informative. Loved it! Subscribing.

Very cool video! Thanks!

Thanks! This was news I could use. I used the pentatonic with a C E F G Ab C and it sounds great! I've been playing with it for two days.

Thanks so much this makes so much sense

Very interesting. Thank you

This is fascinating, thank you!

This is brilliant. Thanks

Dude i love you so much. Thanks for all you do

Great stuff as always

I stumbled onto the Ritsu scale after doing some noodling and couldn’t figure out which western scale it matched (it didn’t 🙁) but C# Ritsu matched perfectly. It’s all very new and confusing but I discovered you can make some nice music with it 😀

6:16 the difference between the "Miyako-Bushi scale" and the "Hirajoshi scale" is that in the Hirajoshi scale, you replace G with Fsharp ( replace tone from 4th [F]) with a semitone [Fsharp]). So the "Hirajoshi scale" goes like so: C - Csharp - F - Fsharp - A sharp - C.

Thank you !!

Good video. Thanks

Hirajoshi scale - 1 2 b3 5 b6 8 Or W H M3 H M3 Great over minor chords/ minor add b6 chords My favorite is the: In scale - 1 b2 4 5 b6 8 or H M3 W H M3 - great over sus4 and dominant chords Kumoi scale - 1 2 b3 5 6 8 or W H M3 W m3

Thank you, enjoyed

Amazing lesson!!!!!! much love from Colombia!!!!

Very interesting and cool as hell!

Cool stuff!

Thank you for a very understandable explanation. I love the sound of those scales. I have a software instrument that has a sequencer built in with preset sequences where the notes are offsets from the selected root, played over a choice of different scales to interpret the choice of notes. One of those scales is labeled as a Japanese scale. This scale wasn't one of the models you mentioned, so I don't know if it's truly a Japanese scale. If I set the root to C the scale it uses is C D Eb G A C, making the intervals W H H M3 with a gap of two whole notes between the two "trichords". I'd love to know the name of this scale. Correct or not it sounds cool enough.

brilliant! And of course now it makes sense to me as a matter of physics, because strings depressed at specific fractions of their length make the perfect fourth and fifth, and that would be universal musical knowledge, I imagine.... so a pretty good AHA for me here, that within that "tetrachord" structure lies the other scale tones. Grazie.

Haven't seen cool video for a while. This gives me some ideas to experiment with.

Thanks a lot for the interesting video. The Ryukyu scale's sound is very similar to Tay Nguyen's in Vietnam.

I still cant imagine that this channel, with all this useful stuff, is still relatively small keep up the vids are so good both the topics and the explanations And i also agree with mister @Fishy Phish that more non-western music lessons would be great

best video yet!

wow! i was blind, now i can see! i noodle using some of these constructs, to match my hapidrum, but this video takes everything to another level of expression. arrigato, grazie tommaso!

Hi Tomazzo, You can search for raga Gunakali on RU-vid .. the notes of the miyako bushi scale and raga gunakali are same.

I love this 👍

Great video

😍 Thank you for this

That Jamming out in the Miyako-Bushi / Hiraioshi Scale sounds really cool! Mind if I sample this? Also very interesting video, didn't know about that tetrachord thing before.

Favorite youtube music teacher!!! :D

Really interesting video. To me Ryu Kyu sounds very nice :-).

Fantastic sounding, please do more on non-Western music!

awesome, thank you :)

6:33 I have that as the Kumoi-Joshi scale. 1 b2 4 5 b6 1. I am trying like hell to find out what the Hirajoshi scale is cause some say it's the Akebono scale and vice versa. I have Hirajoshi as 1 2 b3 5 6 1 and Akebono as 1 b2 4 b5 b6 1.

The best music teacher

This is excellent didactics!

that's great

Now *this* is interesting!

super !!! thanks ;-)

Some of these scales work like modes. So you can link them together. I really like the Balinese Pelog scale.

wow very nice. im from okinawa(ryukyu). thanks for sharing our music scales to internet~!

Thanks you o