Koto Tips & Techniques → Koto's Special "Chord"
Topic: Koto's Special "Chord"
According to Western music theory, "chord" is a technique in which multiple notes are sounded together. In the case of piano, the main melody is played with the right hand, and accompaniment, which mostly consists of a chord, is played with the left hand.
Then, how about the case of koto?
The simplest way of playing chord by koto is "Awase-zume", which is a technique that play two strings with right hand's middle finger and thumb.
But, we can use all of our 10 fingers to pluck strings. Why don't you play chords including more than 3 notes?
3 note chords are played with all fingers wearing koto picks (the right hand's middle finger, forefinger, and thumb).
Then, if you also use other fingers without picks to pluck strings, which is called the "Pizzicato" technique, the number of notes in the chord can be raised to 4, 5, or 6.
Of course, The pizzicato sound is different from the sound played with a koto pick. This difference does not exist in piano music and therefore broadens the Koto's range of expression.
In Ikuta school, the note of picking the string by the left hand's finger is... (Check the picture below)
In Ikuta school, the note of picking the string by the left hand's finger is... (Check the picture below)
(The marks in the red circles!)
These Chinese characters in the same section are name of each strings that consist of the chord. If they need to be play with a left hand, they were enclosed with a circle (or simply add "左" (meaning "left") mark beside them).
Some "kind" western style music sheets mark Pizzicato with a "+" mark.
However, in most cases, these notes are not so strict. As long as players pick all tones on music sheet, It depends on players which hands use to play which tones.
So, when there is a chord in the music, how do koto players decide which note is played by which finger? Many things need to be considered, for example, which note should be the main of the chord?, if the song is Ensemble, which combination of sounds can harmonize with other instruments? and basically, the fingering should be capable of players themselves.
As mentioned before, there is a difference between the sound played with a koto pick and the sound played with bare fingers, and the strength of the sound also changes depending on which fingers are used. Furthermore, there are subtle changes in the sound depending on the strength of the force with which the string is plucked, depending on the performer.
Even the same song can have completely different tones depending on the choices you make, so one of the best parts of playing the koto is racking your brain and trying to find the expression you want.
By the way, in classic koto tradition, each of the three fingers with koto picks (right hand's thumb, index, and middle finger) has a different role: the main melody is played with the thumb, and the tone with techniques (for example "awase-zume", "kaki-zume", and "waren") is played with index finger and middle finger. Even though this rule is not fully valued in modern koto pieces of music, the main melody played with thumbs is still the basic style of playing. So, if you are beginner, do not forget to master this style first.
Written by [KORORIN-SHANN & Tone]
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