AKB48 : 桜の栞 (Sakura no Shiori) - 弦楽四重奏のアレンジ (string quartet cover)

AKB48 : 桜の栞 (Sakura no Shiori)　- 弦楽四重奏のアレンジ (string quartet cover)

皆さん、メリークリスマス。よろしくお願いします。　
(Minnasan, merii Kurisumasu. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.)

J-Pop again! This time I cover AKB48's very special song, "Sakura no Shiori". AKB48 is an all female pop idol group, with at least 61 members, they are current holders of the record for worlds largest pop music group according to the Guiness Book of World Records. They are very popular in Japan, and always on the Oricon (similar to Billboard) charts, they are on TV every day in several of thier own weekly shows and as guests on other shows. The title of the song, "Sakura no Shiori" is roughly translated, "The Cherry Blossom Bookmark". The song crosses genres in that it is first and formost a pop song sung by a pop group, but the group sings it as a choir accompanied by piano and strings. The music itself it has the richer harmonies, intricacies, and sensitivity more often associated with classical music. Trivia: The song was used as ending credit music for the drama series, マジスカ学園 (Majisuka Gakuen) for every episode in its first season and as a theme of the show throughout.

This is the 21st video in my continuing series of classicalized popular music (5th of the its '3rd season'). One of my goals in doing these popular music video projects is to help keep string instruments relevant. My intent is to introduce the violin to new listeners who perhaps had no idea that a violin can play all their favorite popular songs too, as well as help keep current and future string students interested in their instruments.

My approach in arranging and performing is simple: Copy the whole song verbatim, but on violins. My arrangement attempts to respect the integrity of the original song in as many details as reasonably possible. I do make some alterations as necessary, usually only slight enhancements that suit the nature of the instruments better. The operating philosphy: less change is better, that is to say a large change is almost always destructive while only rarely being constructive. One interesting thing about this approach is the way you can see the music itself better without all the distractions such as lyrics, electronic sounds, exaggerated beat machinery, etc. that have very little to do with pure music. Pure music is traditially described as melody, harmony, and rhythm. All 21 of my covers are full length, and are in both the exact same key and tempo as the originals.

To do this video, I listened to the original song and by ear wrote out a sheet music score, arranged it as a quartet for 3 violins and viola, and then performed it. I recorded myself playing each part separately. I synced up and mixed the audio streams from the 4 videos with Audacity (free sound wave editor software). To do the split screen plus other editing and effects, I used AviSynth (a free scripting based video editing and effects utility) in combination with VirtualDubMod (a free video editing utility) to sync up and render the 4 videos into this one.

For those that do not know what a viola is, its basically like the violin but bigger and lower sounding. It plays 5 notes or about half an octave lower than a violin, on the notes it shares with violin the viola sounds deeper, and it reads a different clef (alto) for its sheet music. Description of a viola for violinists: "A big honkin violin, missing the E string at the top of the range and gaining a C string at the bottom of the range and reads a funny looking clef". Also, in a survival situation, the viola would be preferred, as it burns longer. The viola is just a Knilling student model, 17 inch.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• AKB48
• Sakura
• Violin
• pop music
• Classical
• Cover
• String Quartet
• sakura no shiori
• 桜の栞
• 弦楽四重奏
• Acoustic

[flashlightoe301]

@drbilderburger thank you so much! and i think your video will gain more views as it gets older, like your lady gaga covers, that are still gaining comments and veiws. many people are into international music these days, so it should be coming along soon. also, i think its nice that you went ahead and did this cover, even if you did have doubts about it. i truely do love it :)

[drbilderburger]

@flashlightoe301 --I hope so, I hope I'm totally wrong. Although realistically I see it doing 15K at best in a 12 month period (and only if it gets picked up and shared, outside links, etc), but probably much less than that, I think I'll be lucky to see it get 8K. But you're right in that international is getting bigger, and it should.

Aw, never mind the silly views estimate, I like this one too. If I could only do one video, this would be the song. Thanks again for watching :)

[DreamMurksCoKg]

Amazing transcription and very nice playing! ;-)

Have you ever thought about doing a transcription of "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Goyte? :)

I'm curious about how you would split up the song to the different parts for the violin and viola! :)

[drbilderburger]

@DreamMurksCoKg -- ありがとうございます!　Thank you. I hadn't thought of that song, but I could look at it I suppose and see.

[flashlightoe301]

omg! i love this song! do you think your could play a vocaloid song? its j-pop too.

[drbilderburger]

@flashlightoe301 -- Ok, I'll look into it when I get a chance.

And me too, this here is my favorite song from everything I have done here or am likely to do in the future. Ironically even before I did this one, I predicted it would get the least views of any of my cover videos. So far, its on track for that, oh well. I did it anyways since it needed to be done. This song is too good, I love the way AKB48 sings it, its just heavenly. Please make more like this one 秋元さん、お願いします。

[sirvelocity]

it's so cool dude... i love the way you played your violin, and wish that i can do it too !

[inkyblck]

... perfect

[shouzouky]

Professional

[archie28otaku]

Incredible . . .

[temporal0044]

Super.

[sumeragichan]

Just beautiful as always. Could I request maybe this song in the future? Diamond Crevasse by May'n.

[squirrelsinmykoolaid]

Yaaaaay you made more videos! One day I shall be as good on viola as you!

[acemace3618]

@drbilderburger HAHA! I just got a new video card today, the 560ti Good performance for the price, but maybe by the time you get a new system the new 600 series gpu's would be released, also nice playing.