Grave doubts, indeed. I can't recall seeing any of Kaai's published music with that indication. However, coming from the glee club tradition popular in Hawaii ca. 1900, Kaai did include fully written out harmonies for the chorus, or B section. The tenor took the lead, and the other voices soprano, alto and bass (SAB) were indicated by name in the score. But I've never seen it written that way. Are there any Kaai publications from Japan? I'd be glad to hear of them. John King

I gotta say, even though my grasp of Japanese etymology is virtually nil, the "wasabi" think instantly set off my bullshit alert.

Thing, even.

But how did the guitar change Japanese song?

In modern pop usage, sabi is only "chorus." Verse is A-mero (A melody), the "pre-chorus" is B-mero (B-melody). Sabi is the chorus.

Kohrasu (chorus) means "harmony vocals."

Interesting topic. "Sabi" will more often than not mean the refrain, but I've seen Japanese argue with each other over what is the "sabi" of a tune (it's become amusing enough that whenever someone hollers out to take it from the "sabi", I'll ask where that is, just to see if I can start an argument.)

Not that we play it, but tunes like "Rock The Boat" by Hues Corporation will cause this argument to occur.

P.S.

I've heard the term "hirauta" for pre-chorus (or build-up) a lot, but that term too has led to some disputes...

I'm more familiar with 32-bar AABA (and more in theory than practice), where it's all much easier. What do Japanese rock/pop artists call an actual bridge these days?

LH: Yeah, I knew if I didn't disown that think I'd have another thing coming.

John: How did you find me so fast?! Soprano/Alto/Bass sounds more likely than a misspelling of "sub", but alas, if he didn't actually write it that way... I'm not aware of any Japanese writings by Kaai, but he did record a bit here. Drop me an e-mail if you're interested in more info (sounds like you might already be on top of that area, though).

P.S. Anonymous: I'm up to about 1950, and the answer, frankly, is hardly at all. So far it's mostly just been riding the coattails of Hawaiian music and to a lesser extent jazz rather than doing any changing of its own.

I know a Japanese guy who plays bluegrass, and there, where the form is fairly cookie cutter, the parlance is well understood. Somebody starts in ("maku" is the verb used, I think) and there is an agreed ending ("musubu"), and everything else is almost understood.

To answer your question, though, the groups I've played with have always used "burijji" for the bridge of a tune.