Japanese for Jazz and Live Music Fans: Live House Words and Set Talk

The words of the live house

Live music Japanese is mostly katakana with a few kanji words that run the evening. Raibu is a show, and raibu ni iku, to go to a gig, is the verb phrase. The venue is a raibu hausu or, in musicians' slang, a hako, a box. The two times on every poster are kaijō, when the doors open, and kaien, when the music starts; they are usually thirty to sixty minutes apart. Tickets are maeuri, advance, or tōjitsu, same day. Buppan is the merchandise table, ankōru is the encore and setto risuto is the set list.

The first card is the sentence you will want after the last tune. The next three are the words you meet at the door.

Three rooms, three vocabularies

A jazz fan in Japan moves between three kinds of room, and the manners differ. In a live house you stand or sit, buy a drink with your token and applaud when you like. In a jazz bar the band plays sets while you drink at a table, and there is often a music charge per set. In a jazz kissa you drink coffee, the records are loud and in some old ones talking is discouraged; customs vary by shop and by era, so read the sign at the door. The table keeps the words apart.

Goenryo kudasai, please refrain, is the polite sign language for a rule. In a jazz kissa it can cover talking, phone calls and photographs; a quick look at the other customers tells you how strictly it is meant.

At the door: ticket, drink charge, entry order

The door exchange has a fixed shape. You say whether you have an advance ticket or want a same-day one, give the number of people, pay the drink charge and get a token. Advance tickets carry a seiri bangō, an entry number, and the staff call numbers in order before letting same-day buyers in. None of this needs a full sentence from you; the staff do the talking, and you answer with a number and hai.

Register note: door staff use polite shop forms, and you answer in plain polite forms. Hitori desu and Maeuri de yoyaku shite imasu are enough; a sumimasen to get attention and an onegai shimasu after a request cover everything else.

Reading the schedule

Venue schedules, in print and online, are dense but formulaic. The date is followed by the act, then kaijō and kaien times, then prices labelled maeuri and tōjitsu, then a note about the drink charge. Taiban means several bands share the bill, common in rock live houses and less so in jazz clubs. Shutsuen is an appearance, so shutsuensha are the performers. A jazz bar lists sets as fāsuto setto and sekando setto, with their own start times. Reading one schedule a day is a cheap and very practical reading habit.

Betto, separately, is the written cousin of betsu ni. When you see betto dorinku dai on a schedule, add the drink charge to the ticket price in your head before you decide.

During the set: what you hear and what you do

Jazz etiquette in Japan is close to what you know: applause after a solo is normal in most clubs, though some quieter rooms applaud only at the end of a tune, so watch the regulars for the first number. Between tunes the leader does the MC, pronounced emushī, which is the talk: introducing the band, naming the tune, thanking the room. At the end you may hear Ankōru! from the crowd; in a small club a single enthusiastic Mō ikkyoku, one more, from a regular can be enough.

After the show: talking with the band

The real language practice happens at the merchandise table or the bar, where musicians in small clubs sell CDs and talk to whoever stops. Open with Otsukaresama deshita, which thanks them for the work and is what Japanese fans say first; then say something specific. Keep the questions simple and let them answer; musicians are used to talking about their instruments and their schedule, and most will slow down for a foreign fan.

Nan desu after a noun, as in orijinaru nan desu, adds a note of explanation: it's actually an original. Musicians use it constantly when telling you about a tune, and you can use it back: Jazu ga suki nan desu, the thing is, I love jazz.

Describing a performance

Fans in Japan describe music with a small set of words, and they are worth learning because they are what you will hear at the bar and read in reviews. Ensō is the performance, oto the sound, gurūvu the groove, and nori, from noru, to ride, the feel of a tune that carries the room. Kakkoii, cool, is the most common praise for an instrumentalist; sugoi is the all-purpose one. For the sound of the room, oto ga ii, the sound is good, is a compliment to the venue.

Mistakes and register notes

• Konsāto for a club gig. Konsāto is a hall concert with seats; a club show is a raibu. Raibu ni itta, I went to a gig, is what a fan says.
• Arguing about the drink charge. It is standard and staff cannot waive it; Hai, onegai shimasu and the token is yours.
• Jōzu desu ne to a professional. Jōzu is praise for a learner's skill and can sound patronising to a working musician. Say Kakkoyokatta desu or Ii ensō deshita instead.
• Talking through a quiet tune in a jazz bar. Between tunes is fine; during a ballad, regulars go silent. Follow the room.
• Hako in front of the staff. Hako, box, is musicians' slang for a venue; it is friendly with a band and odd with the ticket desk, where raibu hausu or omise is better.
• Mō ikkyoku shouted alone in a hall. In a small club it is charming; in a seated concert hall, applause does the asking.

Make your gig calendar a study plan

A music fan has something most learners lack: dates. Every show on your calendar is a deadline, and the vocabulary between now and then is small. Read the venue's schedule for the show, rehearse the door exchange, go, and afterwards tell someone in Japanese what you heard.

Mocchi, the study assistant on Unihongo, is a good place for the last step. After the show, type /kaiwa and say you want to talk about a jazz gig you just saw; Mocchi suggests the conversation and sends you to AI Sensei, where you can pick Ibuki-sensei and ask Ibuki-sensei to play a fellow fan at the bar who asks which tune you liked and why. He uses what Mocchi has noted about your level, so the questions stay answerable, and the session report lists the words you reached for and missed. You can start before the next show with a free account at unihongo.com/login, which takes less time than finding the venue.