<P> Umui, religious songs, shima uta, dance songs, and, especially kachāshī, lively celebratory music, were all popular . </P> <P> Okinawan folk music varies from mainland Japanese folk music in several ways . </P> <P> First, Okinawan folk music is often accompanied by the sanshin whereas in mainland Japan, the shamisen accompanies instead . Other Okinawan instruments include the sanba (which produce a clicking sound similar to that of castanets), taiko and a sharp finger whistling called yubi - bue (指 笛). </P> <P> Second, tonality . A pentatonic scale, which coincides with the major pentatonic scale of Western musical disciplines, is often heard in min'yō from the main islands of Japan, see minyō scale . In this pentatonic scale the subdominant and leading tone (scale degrees 4 and 7 of the Western major scale) are omitted, resulting in a musical scale with no half steps between each note . (Do, Re, Mi, So, La in solfeggio, or scale degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6) Okinawan min'yō, however, is characterized by scales that include the half - steps omitted in the aforementioned pentatonic scale, when analyzed in the Western discipline of music . In fact, the most common scale used in Okinawan min'yō includes scale degrees 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 . </P>

Why is vocal music considered the heart of japanese music