Has anyone done a Japanese gig? The place where I played an Irish gig last week wants me to play for their Japanese theme event. They say that they will have Greek, Armenian, and etc. I do enjoy learning about other cultures. So this will be a good opportunity to do so. If anyone can share sheet music, song titles, Youtube links, or any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Chris

With a bit of work you can do this one phonetically.

Chris, I'm guessing that they didn't think this out very well. Assuming that they hired you the first time for the type of songs you normally perform, I would think that if you came up with a dozen Japanese songs at most, you would be just fine. Same holds true for any other ethnic type of gig, Saint Patrick's Day, Columbus Day, etc... We all get these kind of jobs, but I can truthfully say I have never been approached to do a Japanese theme in all the years I've been on stage. Once in a while I get requests for some Greek songs, which I, obviously, sing in English. I also sing several songs in Spanish (spanglish) and Italian. While I'm no longer fluent in Spanish, I can still manage to sing those old songs phonetically. Same goes for Italian (Don't speak the language), but I do about a dozen Italian songs, sung phonetically in Italian. I used to do Sukiyaki many years ago, but there no longer seems to be a demand for it, so it went by the wayside, at least for me.



Good luck,

Gary

You could also have the audience participate in some Karaoke, which originated in Japan.

Regards,

Jerryghr

Thank you, Sir. Definetely I will do this song. I agree with you. I don't think the audience will be interested in listening to one of hour of ethnic music be it Japanese or Irish.
Chris

LOL. A fun song, but since Kunfu is Chinese I need a song about Karate. If I do this one, it would be like doing French stuff at a German gig.

I did not think of it. Thanks for the great idea.

Hi.
Also Enka is a popular japaneese music style.
If you do a search at youtube for that type of songs, there are a lot beautiful melodies.
For me it's hard to understand the japaneese language, but there are a lot of pleasant tunes for my ears.

(There was some older styles at Yamaha keyboards that made me look it up some time ago. Not much Enka styles at T4)

Here's a neat, Japanese style file for you to work with. It's a great style for Teriyaki.

All the best,

Gary

Also, I have seen a few styles but don't remember from which Yamaha board, called J-Pop. This is a Japanese music style begun in the '90s. you can search youtube for J-Pop and maybe find something to use. Will take a bit of research.
best wishes.

going out on a limb here, but perhaps on whatever board that has the J-pop styles someone might even find a song or two in their music finder for those styles?