How to Read Chinese Music


by Howard Fosdick © FolkFluteWorld.com



Playing Flutes
(Courtesy: Shine.cn)


This article explains Chinese musical notations and conventions. If you play a Chinese instrument like the dizi, xiao, bawu, hulusi, or xun, it will prove useful.

You'll be able to play songs from Asian sheet music and understand the information distributed with Chinese instruments.

The Chinese system is very different from western musical notation. But it's not hard to learn. We'll help you "crack the code".

We'll cover these topics:

Determing the Key of an Instrument

In the western musical tradition, the key of a folk flute is defined by the note you play on the instrument with all the fingering holes closed.

This is called the base note or the fundamental of the instrument.

For example, close all the fingering holes on a common soprano recorder, blow a note, and it will voice a C. Thus we call it "a recorder in the key of C," or a "C soprano recorder."

The Chinese tradition differs. Chinese name the key of a flute from the note produced when all three left hand fingerholes are closed, and all three right hand fingerholes are open.

Another way to state this is to say that the instrument's key is the 3rd note up from its base note.

If you buy a bawu or hulusi or xun in the key of G, for example, in western terminology, it's actually a flute in the key of D.

Similarly, a Chinese flute in the key of F would be in the key of C in western terminology.

This chart summarizes how Chinese keys map onto western keys, and vice versa:


Key Equivalents

It's especially important to keep these mappings in mind if you buy a Chinese instrument. Buy a bawu in F, and you've purchased an instrument in the western key of C!

This information is also helpful when playing western music on a Chinese instrument, or when playing in ensembles.


A Notation for Notes

Asian nations use several notations to describe notes. Most common is the simple numeric notation we'll describe here.

This chart maps modern western notes to the solfège mnemonic system popular in Europe, and then to their Asian numerical representations:


Notations for the Key of C

Here's a practical application of this system. It applies to a bawu or hulusi in the Chinese key of G, as you would see it in Chinese fingering charts:


Notation for Bawu and Hulusi

The first row shows the numeric notation you'll see on a Chinese fingering chart for a bawu or hulusi in the key of G. The dots below the numbers indicate a lower octave. (Dots above represent a higher octave.)

The second line shows the equivalent Chinese notes.

The third line shows the notes that sound from the instrument, based on standard western musical notation.

Thus a bawu or hulusi in the Chinese key of G is actually in the western key of D. The third line shows how these notes sound in western notation, in the western key of D.


Reading Chinese Musical Notation: Jian Pu

Chinese have evolved several different musical notations for writing scores.

The most popular is called Jian Pu (or jianpu). Being able to read it can be very useful if you want to play authentic Asian songs that you find on the internet.

Let's discuss the building blocks of jianpu.


Pitch: A song typically will have an indication of its key at the top. This tells you how the numeric note mapping works. For example, a declaration like 1=C tells you that the key of the scale is C, so the mapping will be:

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    C D E F G A B

On the other hand, a statement like 1=G changes the base note of the mapping like this:

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    G A B C D E F

Thus, the scale is relative or moveable, as indicated in the piece.

When looking at a note, if it has a dot above, that raises it one octave. A dot below a note drops it one octave.



Jian Pu Musical Symbols

Timing: It's pretty common to see the time signature coupled with the pitch. For example, 1=C 4/4 would mean the key of C major in 4/4 time. 1=D 3/4 means the key of D major in 3/4 time. The time signature will be found at the start of the piece.


Note Length: A plain, unadorned number is a quarter note. This is the basic timing unit.

Each underline beneath a note halves its length. Thus, a note with no underline is a quarter note, a note with a single underline is a eighth note, and one with two underlines is a sixteenth note.

Each dash that follows a note lengthens it by one quarter note.

A dot after a note lengthens it by half, the same as in western notation.

The number "0" represents a musical rest, a silent interval in which you don't play any note. A plain "0" is a quarter note rest. The same rules for lengthening or shortening notes applies to rests. However, it's common to see rests extended merely by repeating "0"s, such as:     0     0    0    0


Sharps and Flats: These are indicated by "#" and "/". For example, an F# would be written as #4. B♭ would typically show as 7/. But it's not uncommon to see the western symbols "#" and "♭" placed before the notes.

(Note that some fingering charts leave out any indication of how to finger sharps or flats, even though the instrument is capable of playing them. You may receive a diatonic chart for a fully chromatic instrument.)



Other Symbols: Beyond this, it's not unusual to see western notation symbols included in the music. Examples include markings for slurs, time signatures, volume indication, and other common expression markings.


Okay. Those are the basic rules.

Here's an example song that includes both jian pu and western musical notations. So you can directly compare them. If you study this score for a few minutes, it will make all this much more clear:


Jian Pu to Western Notation
(Courtesy of Lists.GNU.org)


Looking at this piece, first you note the key and time signature in the upper lefthand corner. 1 = D means the numbering starts at D, so this piece is in D major. (That's confirmed when you look at the two sharps at the beginning of the western staff.)

The piece is in 3/4 time. Both Chinese and western notations are the same for this.

Next, you see the mapping between the western notes on the staff and their Chinese numerical representations (as based in the key of D).

Remember that notes with a dot above them are raised one octave, while those with a dot below them drop one octave.

The dashes after the Chinese numbers tell you how long to hold each note. Each dash extends a note by one beat.

A dot immediately following a note is equivalent to a dotted note in the western system.

Slurs between notes are written the same in both notational systems.

That about sums up this score. Of course, to really read jianpu, you must be able to do it without the equivalent western score, as provided in this piece.

Think you can do it? It's definitely a learnable skill, but it does take some effort to make it feel natural enough to sight read.


Summary

There are Asian musical notations other than those this article covers. But this gives you what you need to know to read common Asian scores like those you'll find for folk flutes on the internet.


For More Information

For more information, here's an excellent Wikipedia article on Chinese numbered representation.


Related Articles

Now that you know how to read Asian music, why not put it to use?

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