start over

Jazzを琴で奏でるという女性の記事です。
趣味程度ではありますが、Jazzやpops、洋楽などをクラシックギターで弾いている私にとってはとても興味深い記事でした。

Woman modifies koto to play jazz, world music

NAGAHAMA, Shiga Prefecture--Masako Naito wanted to connect herself with music around the world using her favorite instrument: the koto.

But the traditional, harp-like instrument was not quite a match for her dream. So the free-spirited thinker made it more shorter, pop-oriented and easier to play. Thus, the "Doremi Pop-Corn" was born.

With this modern version of the koto that can produce music based on the do-re-mi note scale, Naito will visit Brazil next year to collaborate with local musicians.

Born into a merchant family in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture, Naito began learning the koto and traditional Japanese dance as a child. She has always liked the sound of the koto better than the piano, and didn't give up her passion even after she married and devoted herself to being a mother.

Naito encountered jazz in the mid-1990s. Yearning to play improvised music after being fascinated by a live performance she had seen, she started taking lessons from jazz guitarist Takeshi Yamaguchi, who was based in Hikone city in the same prefecture at the time.

But she felt frustrated when she joined jam sessions with her koto while others played Western instruments that follow a different musical scale.

And when she gave a performance in Europe in 2000 to introduce traditional Japanese culture, she had a hard time traveling with the 180-centimeter long instrument.

It was then when it occurred to her to make some alterations.

After considerable trial and error, Naito came up with a koto that was 120 centimeters long and had 17 strings corresponding to the do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do scale.

Even if players don't know how to read the traditional scores, which are written vertically with Chinese numerals, they can play koto music using staves from their elementary school days. Naito also asked a guitar manufacturer to give the instrument a paint job to make it look jazzy.

She wears a colorful dress when she gives live performances to play jazz and world music.

"Rhythms of ethnic music are the pulse in each culture. I want to get right to it with the koto," Naito said.

Making full use of the Internet, Naito is eager to expand exchanges with local musicians outside Japan. Her scheduled visit to Brazil in May 2013 was made possible through social connections made online.

"Jam sessions are so fascinating, and now my hands move before I think," Naito said with a graceful smile. "When I make mistakes, all I have to do is start over."

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/cool_japan/culture/AJ201212150030

startには「〈人が〉[…を]始める」「〈事が〉始まる」「[…から/…へ向かって]出発する」「<機械などが>動き始める」など様々な意味がありますが、start overという成句で「最初からやり直す」「人生をやり直す」の意味を表します。(『ジーニアス英和辞典　第４版』)
簡単な表現ですが、とっさには出てこない表現だったので、しっかりおさえておきたいと思います。（Jakie）