March 19, 20206 yr Hello again, I am returned for a bit from my inactivity period, with a question that I hope will be interesting for you. But first, some context: I am playing Legend of the 5 Rings with a few friends. This is a table top rpg that's based in a fantasy world that takes after a lot of asian mythology, mainly japanese, chinese. I want to give it a try to compose some music that sounds like it belongs in it, but MuseScore has so many instruments that I have a hard time choosing which ones to use. Do you have any tips on what instruments you like to use or would use when composing something to sound Asian? Thanks in advance!
March 20, 20206 yr The Kokyu is a MUST is so caracteristic of japanese music (or that's what films have made people think...), in case you don't know is a violin-like instrument. it can play the main melody. The koto is a plucked string instrument, that's caracteristic on both japanese an chinesse, can be used as an arp acompaniment, or to make some contrapunct but, it isn't too common. The eru is the counterpart of the kokyu , is the chinesse violin, could be use to make some nice harmonies with the kokyu. Pipa, very similar to the guitar, can be used as acompaniment. Also one think to take in count is that, japanese music tends to be more melodic while chinesse tends to be more percusive and overral has much more energy than the japanesse (no talking about ALL the pieces but most of them) chinesse percussion: gongs, temple bowls, bass bangu, stone quin etc... Japanesse percussion: wadaiko,, bin sasara, denden daiko etc... most of this instruments have a occidental "counterpart", that with some interpretative techniques COULD sound similar, also take in count that oriental music uses scales that are different from the ones we use, in internet you can find some useful tutorials and books. Edited March 20, 20206 yr by Tortualex
March 20, 20206 yr I've done a number of tunes over the years for video games and stuff meant to sound like "Asian" music. Basically, the pentatonic scale is your friend here and the go-to instruments you want to use would be things like: The Dizi flute, Shakuhachi, Shamisen, Koto, Gongs, Taikos, Erhu, throat-singing and kabuki chants... Orchestral Horns and Strings playing pentatonic scales also work well alongside all that, and I'm pretty sure Musescore has at least some of those ethnic instruments.
March 20, 20206 yr Author 9 hours ago, Tortualex said: The Kokyu is a MUST is so caracteristic of japanese music (or that's what films have made people think...), in case you don't know is a violin-like instrument. it can play the main melody. The koto is a plucked string instrument, that's caracteristic on both japanese an chinesse, can be used as an arp acompaniment, or to make some contrapunct but, it isn't too common. The eru is the counterpart of the kokyu , is the chinesse violin, could be use to make some nice harmonies with the kokyu. Pipa, very similar to the guitar, can be used as acompaniment. Also one think to take in count is that, japanese music tends to be more melodic while chinesse tends to be more percusive and overral has much more energy than the japanesse (no talking about ALL the pieces but most of them) chinesse percussion: gongs, temple bowls, bass bangu, stone quin etc... Japanesse percussion: wadaiko,, bin sasara, denden daiko etc... most of this instruments have a occidental "counterpart", that with some interpretative techniques COULD sound similar, also take in count that oriental music uses scales that are different from the ones we use, in internet you can find some useful tutorials and books. Thanks! Last night I did some research by myself and I found that using the Shamisen, Koto, and Tarogato (I don't know if this one is asian) made for quite the good sounding trio. I'll definitely check those out 😄 9 hours ago, AngelCityOutlaw said: I've done a number of tunes over the years for video games and stuff meant to sound like "Asian" music. Basically, the pentatonic scale is your friend here and the go-to instruments you want to use would be things like: The Dizi flute, Shakuhachi, Shamisen, Koto, Gongs, Taikos, Erhu, throat-singing and kabuki chants... Orchestral Horns and Strings playing pentatonic scales also work well alongside all that, and I'm pretty sure Musescore has at least some of those ethnic instruments. I read something about the different scales that they use, but I didn't apply it yet to my compositions. Thanks for the info! I'll attach a little piece that I did last night and see what you think of it if it's alright
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.