Tuning

Here's an advanced exercise in refining your meri - kari technique and getting your pitch accurate.

1. Record this up-and-down scalar melody in both otsu and kan (higher octave notes in brackets): ro - tsu - re - u [chi meri] - ri [hi] - ro [go no ha] - ri [hi] - u [chi meri] - re - tsu - ro. Make sure your pitches are accurate.

2. Play along with your recording, but use the fingerings tsu dai meri - re meri (holes two and three partially covered) - u dai meri [ichi san no u or ru] - u [chi meri] - ri [hi] - i [go no hi] - ri [hi] - u [chi meri] - u dai meri [ichi san no u or ru] - re meri - tsu dai meri. MAKE SURE YOU ARE EXACTLY IN TUNE WITH THE RECORDING!

3. Speed it up. You should get the feeling of your head working in unison with your fingers.

4. Variation: record ro - tsu meri - re - u [chi meri] - ri [hi] - ro [go no ha] - ri [hi] - u [chi meri] - re - tsu meri - ro

and play along as

tsu dai meri - tsu meri - u dai meri [ichi san no u or ru] - u [chi meri] - ro meri [go no ha meri] - i [go no hi] - ro meri [go no ha meri] - u [chi meri] - u dai meri [ichi san no u or ru] - tsu meri - tsu dai meri.

If you can play this exercise quickly and accurately, without any sliding between notes, you can be in tune on most sankyoku and honkyoku!