Re: [Harp-L] Irish Reel with Jianpu Notation

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

I encountered this years ago when I had a Chinese harmonica student who was reading Jianpu that was included as a matter of course on Chinese sheet music. Thanks for bringing focus to it in the harmonica world.

Nashville number notation does apply to both melody and harmony. Not sure whether it distinguishes among octaves.

Winslow
 
Winslow Yerxa
President, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica
Producer, the Harmonica Collective
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
            Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
            Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.com
Instructor, Jazzschool Community Music School


________________________________
From: Brendan Power <bren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2015 9:14 AM
Subject: [Harp-L] Irish Reel with Jianpu Notation


On my travels Iâve been out to Asia several times, where there is a
thriving organised harmonica scene based around competitions at the big
festivals, notably the Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival. 



Most players there read music well, but not Western dots - they read Jianpu
notation (çè). Itâs a brilliant system, and especially good for harmonica
players, because itâs effective regardless of the key of the score or of
the harmonica. Similar to Nashville numbered chords in concept, this goes
much further and applies the numerical system to the melody notes, with all
the attendant supplementary information: stresses, note lengths, pitch etc
etc.



Itâs a simple idea, relating all notes to their scale degrees relative to
the home or key note. So if youâre in C, then D is 2, E is 3, F is 4, G is
5 and so on. Lower octave notes have a dot below the number, and higher
octave ones have a dot above the number. More info on Jianpu notation at
Wikipedia:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbered_musical_notation



Iâve done a short series of instructional videos for Irish Harmonica, and
decided to incorporate Jianpu along with Western dot and harmonica TAB. Here
is the first of the videos, a catchy reel called The Maid Behind the Bar:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z168IqSG3Xc



Brendan

<http://www.brendan-power.com/> www.brendan-power.com

<http://www.youtube.com/BrendanPowerMusic>
www.YouTube.com/BrendanPowerMusic