Hear what you've been hearing all along — court music, shamisen, taiko, and the scales underneath.

Japanese traditional sound is everywhere in modern media, and once you can name the instruments and scales, nothing you hear again will sound anonymous.

By the end

You will be able to identify the major traditional Japanese instruments and genres by ear, explain how a shamisen is tuned and a taiko is hit, and follow a Japanese scale well enough to hear where a melody is going.

Who this is for

Adult listeners who love Japanese music, film, anime, or games and want to know what they are actually hearing, whether or not they ever board a plane.