Jingju Arias Visualizer

Select one aria, and see in the navigator at the bottom how tempo progresses in relation with each section's shengqiang and banshi, as well as with the content of the sung lyrics. Click the "Melody" button and follow the details of the melodic line regarding pitch and volume. An automatically generated track with sounds of the ban clapper and the danpigu drum, as well as a blinking marker, will help you to follow tempo and meter in each section. Adjust the volume of the voice, instrumental accompaniment, and percussion track according to your needs. And you can also see at any time the original lyrics in Chinese.

For a more detailed description about how to use this visualizer, please read the instructions below.

Instructions

Note: This tool still is work in progress and might experience some malfunctions. For an optimal performance, it is advised to use it in a computer (its use in tablets and cellphones might be too slow and cause synchronization problems) and with the browser Chrome.

1. To start using the jingju arias visualizer, select one aria in the upper left corner. For each option, the English translation of each aria's title is followed by the role type that performs it and the shengqiang and banshi pairs that form the aria, as well as as the total duration of the recording in brackets. When an aria is selected, the recording might take few seconds to load.
2. Once an aria is selected, its title appears in the upper side of the visualizer with yellow letters. Then, the title of the work which the aria belongs to, with name of the character that sings it in brackets, is shown, followed in the next line by the names of the actor or actress that performs it and of the accompanying jinghu player. The white central box in the visualizer shows the English translation of the aria's lyrics in two columns. The left column shows the shengqiang and banshi pairs contained in the aria, and the right column shows the translation of each lyrics line. Each shengqiang and banshi pair is performed in the parallel lyrics line from the right column, and in all the following lines until a new shengaing and banshi pair indication is shown. Lastly, the box at the bottom of the visualizer is a navigator, whose width corresponds with the duration of the aria. In the navigator's upper side, horizontal boxes indicate the section of the aria where each shengqiang and banshi pair is performed. The boxes in a darker gray color that spand the whole height of the navigator correspond to each of the lyrics lines. The white superimposed line is a tempo curve, which indicates the evolution of tempo in those sections of the aria where a metred banshi is performed.
3. Once the recording of the selected aria is completely charged (this can be known when the color of the buttons letters changes from gray to black), it can be played by clicking the "Play" button. To pause the recording playback, the same button can be clicked, which now shows the label "Pause." Clicking at any point on the navigator, the playing jumps to that point of the recording. Clicking on any shengqiang and banshi pair or any line in the central lyrics box, the playback jumps to the beginning of the performance of the corresponding banshi or line.
4. As the playback progresses, a vertical yellow cursor advances on the navigator, indicating the position of the played instant. During the performance of a specific banshi and a specific lyrics line, these are highlighted in yellow both in the central box and in the navigator. Equally, during the performance of metric banshi, a marker shows the tempo value in bpm at that instant.
5. Right to the central box three options appear, "voice", "jinghu", and "bangu," each of them with a selection box to their left and a slider below them. The first two options respectively refer to the vocal track and to the track of the instrumental accompaniment by the jinghu. The third one, "bangu," refers to a track that is automatically generated from beat manual annotations on metrical sections of the aria. This track plays a ban clappers sound for each strong beat and a danpigu drum sound for each soft beat. For each option, the track volume can be adjusted from its corresponding slider, or can be totally deactivated by clicking on the selection box.
6. Strong and soft beats are also indicated with a circle over the left extreme of the navigator. This circle shines in yellow for each strong beat and in orange for each soft beat. It can be deactivated and reactivated by clicking on it.
7. Cliking on the "Melody" button over the central box's upper right corner, lyrics cease to be displayed and instead an automatically generated representation of the melody is shown. A fixed vertical yellow line in the middle of the central box corresponds to the position of the cursor on the navigator. The horizontal lines show the position of each scale degree (so that number 1 corresponds to a movable do, number 2 to the corresponding re, number 3 to mi, etc.). The vocal melodic line goes through the vertical line during its playback. Its vertical position indicates the sung pitch, whose value in the selected scale can be observed thanks to the horizontal lines. The thickness of the melodic line indicates the performed volume. Clicking on the same button at the central box's upper right corner, now called "line," the lyrics line are displayed back.
8. At any time, the button "中" can be clicked to show the information about the aria and the performers, as well as the shengqiang and banshi pairs in their original Chinese. Clicking on the same button, now showing the label "EN," the English translations are disaplyed back.