Japanese Ammo with Misa discusses pitch accent in many of her videos and has a couple which specifically cover the topic.
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I’ve turned the OP into a wiki now 
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Nooo we lost chris p bacon…
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Wow, it’s so nice and colourful!
I figured I’d just post the link to the website for that textbook in case anyone wants to see what Tobira has put online for beginners:
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@seanblue I’m guessing you know about dogen so I won’t bother to link his stuff (also looks like its in the main post)
But the other free online resources (I like free things) has been
This for general stuff
This for patterns
Theres also this anki deck (2 parts)
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1442436955
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Thanks! That github page sure is something!
Right now I don’t have a reason to improve my accent, so I mostly study pitch accent passively. That is, I look things up when something catches my interest and try to pay attention when listening, but I don’t actively pracitce it. So I’m not planning to go through the whole document right now, but I bookmarked it for later. (I did just review the loanword section though because that was bugging me a few months ago and I couldn’t find consistent and good explanations. This one was much more useful.)
By the way, I’m sure you’ve seen/used OJAD before, but if you haven’t see this page I’d recommend checking it out: http://www.gavo.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ojad/kouzokugo/index. You can use it to double check the pitch accent of virtually every possible conjugation for any verb.
Thanks! Yeah I use this every now and then, but my yomichan has a pitch accent graph so usually I just type out the word and yomichan it if im on my computer lol.
If you are studying passively, I think the first one is actually a really good resource. I feel like it gives a solid overview of general patterns and things you can expect to see whereas the github one is more like specific stuff to just memorize. It is in japanese, but I don’t think its necessarily a challenging read. If you ever don’t understand something in it though, feel free to ask.
Including for the various conjugations? Or you just memorized the conjugation patterns well enough at this point that if you know the base pitch accent you can figure out the rest?
Thanks. I have read overviews before, so there’s a good chance I know many of the patterns it will mention, but it never hurts to read through these kinds of things again. At worst it’ll help reinforce what I already know, but I’m sure there’s stuff in there I don’t know too.
I’ll just have to review a few pitch accent terms first to make sure I can follow along!
For conjugations I just rely on patterns yeah. Its either a heiban or [-2] nakadaka anyways, so I feel like the patterns aren’t as bad for verbs as they might appear at first glance. I feel like its really usually a matter of it coming down to a few groups, so I just group them by fall position unlike the github one for some reason. For example, for heiban I would just think of it as
平板型
[High all the way through]
◎◎〜ウ ＬＨ〜Ｈ
⇨ ◎◎〜て・で ＬＨ〜Ｈ
⇨ ◎◎〜ない ＬＨ〜ＨＨ
⇨ ◎◎〜アれる ＬＨ〜ＨＨＨ
⇨ ◎◎〜アせる ＬＨ〜ＨＨＨ
⇨ ◎◎〜◎ますＬＨ〜Ｈ（Ｈ）
⇨ ◎◎〜◎ますもの ＬＨ〜ＨＨＨ（Ｈ）
⇨ ◎◎〜◎ますたい ＯＲ ◎◎〜◎ますた＼い
[Drop second from last mora]
⇨ ◎◎〜ま＼す ＬＨ〜ＨＬ
⇨ ◎◎〜ませ＼ん ＬＨ〜ＨＨＨＬ
⇨ ◎◎〜オ＼う ＬＨ〜ＨＬ
⇨ ◎◎〜エ＼ば ＬＨ〜ＨＬ
⇨ ◎◎〜た＼り ＬＨ〜ＨＬ
⇨ ◎◎〜た＼ら ＬＨ〜ＨＬ
Other things to remember
⇨ ◎◎〜な＼かった ＬＨ〜ＨＬＬＬ
⇨ ◎◎〜て・でお＼いて ＬＨ〜ＨＨＬＬ
So then its really just two categories and two special cases for 99% of what you’re gonna see.
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This might be useful to someone, idk.
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@seanblue to answer your question, yes to both. There were, and certainly still are issues in my pronunciation. At the same time, they were definitely fewer than my pitch accent mistakes. I also sometimes would forget to devoice when I should be, and devoicing naturally kinda shifts accent if the fall is on the devoiced part, so in some ways my pronunciation was messing up my pitch accent too I guess you could say.
Id say if you ever get really into it, youll probably be better than I was though. While I had also lightly studied pitch accent beforehand and been well aware of it, you probably have had a lot more listening practice than me. One thing Ive noticed is that up until recently Ive been able to understand audio content alright, but it took a lot of effort and focus. Like I had no room left to focus on how they were saying stuff rather than just what they were saying. So if you have gotten plenty of listening practice and have had more time to focus on how people say it too, you very well not have like any of the issues I had, or even if you did maybe youll improve faster.
If you ever do wanna take the dive though, mics with direct feedback have been a nice tool ime. I got one a couple months back and it allows you to hear yourself without needing to record and playback. As with reading, I still suggest setting like no expectations of course, but you very well might not have the same wake up call I did.
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Ah, yeah. I’ve noticed stuff like that before. It’s really interesting how all the pieces impact each other. If you record yourself enough (and actually save the recordings) maybe you could release a video at some point explaining your mistakes and showing your improvement over time.
I guess that depends on what counts as listening practice! I’ve watched a couple hundred anime since I started learning Japanese, but up until last year that was always with English subtitles. I’d say it has definitely helped train my ear, but much of my mental focus went to reading the English subtitles, so it’s hard to say how much of that can really count as good listening practice. Last year I started watching about half my anime with Japanese subtitles instead, which is definitely better since at least I’m in Japanese mode the whole time (I’ve watched about 20 seasons of anime this way so far). But I need to be careful to only rely on the subtitles when I actually get stuck since it’s easy to just look at the subtitles by default. The brain sure does like to take the path of least resistance!
Mind sharing specifically what you got? When I googled “direct feedback microphone” I mostly found websites explaining how to eliminate feedback. Not terribly useful.
It’s really hard to figure out when to jump into this kind of thing. I still need to reinforce my N2 grammar (and to a much lesser extent N3 grammar), learn several thousand more words at a minimum (which will take me way too long at my current pace), and generally improve my reading speed (hopefully aided by the prior two things). Not to mention continue my listening practice with anime and potentially move onto not using any subtitles at some point. I really would like to practice speaking and work on improving my accent, but since I have no plans to live or work in Japan it’s a little hard to justify spending time on it right now given how much else still needs work. (I’ll get to it eventually though…)
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You want something like the Microphones | Logitech G
It’s got a jack on the bottom where you can listen to yourself in realtime.
It’s usually called a monitor jack: microphone with monitor - Google Search
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Yeah I might do something after I feel like Ive started to taper off. My first video was actually something I recorded after meeting my coworkers for the first time and I was talking about that and my impressions of them so Im not sure if I would make that public, but some of the other early ones for sure.
I got this. Lot cheaper than the blue yeti and works great.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/SAMSON-マイク-ポータブル-USB-コンデンサ/dp/B001R76D42
Yeah low key had I not moved to japan I probably never would have bothered learning how to speak properly, let alone pitch accent. I think for you though, it sounds like just listening to yourself is a great choice. You already have a certain level of knowledge of what the language should sound like, so its just a matter of self correcting till you get to that point. Dont gotta dedicate time to learning anything new really, just listening and seeing if youre using what you already know, yfeel. Maybe youre already almost there though, who knows.
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For anyone who is serious about learning pitch accent and plans on memorizing the pitch accent of common words, figured I’d make this post. Keep in mind that unlike reading, I am still a beginner in pitch accent and my opinion for what’s a good approach doesn’t really have any value, but maybe it can help a few people.
I first went through and got the basic patterns that exist in pitch accent. Things like the very basic 4 mora 2 kanji compound = probably heiban is of course included in that, but more things like:
- devoicing/long vowel accent shifting
- loan words pattern based off of length and ン、ー、ッ placement
3.やか nouns - All verb conjugations
- combining nouns.
- adjective conjuations
- の、って、そうだ、みたい。。。(+20 or so others) after verbs and adjectives
- etc.
And then the plan was to just start going through and learning the individual words and applying the relevant patterns when I used them. I ran into an unexpected issue though when learning words. 尾高 and 平板 is quite hard to distinguish. Its very easy to hear the difference when theres a particle apart from の, but the word itself sounds the same so I found it very hard to build that intuition that I was after for “what sounds right”. Its really easy to remember its こめ rather than こ↓め, but it was harder to develop a level for こめが sounding more wrong than こめ↓が for whatever.
So my solution, which I am here to share, was actually to go ahead and learn most of the 尾高 words I will need to use/have been using. Then, any word that wasn’t in that list I will assume to be 平板 if it doesn’t have a drop within the word which should be accurate 99% of the time. Then, memorizing exceptions should be notably easier. My reason for this was simply because the amount of 尾高 words I plan on using is a pretty easily surmountable quantity when I looked into it. Remembering a list of words is not the easiest memory wise though, so I decided to make a story. I’ll share my story for my 2 mora 尾高 list since 2 mora 尾高 is the biggest subcategory of 尾高 by a good margin if I remember correctly. If you don’t actually know the words in the first place, its probably too early for you to be rote memorizing a list of 尾高 words anyways, but for those who have no issue with it hopefully someone gets some use of it. Its meant to be read in japanese when you come across a japanese word and they are all read as 尾高型. There are a couple 3 moras in there as well and they are also all 尾高型. The point is to read through the story a few times with the correct pronunciation, and then go through the list with just the words and try to recall the story as you go. Hopefully it helps someone else. It sped up the memorization for me, but maybe thats partially because I made the story myself.
You make a 賭け you can place your 足, 腕 and 顎 on the 裏 of your 家 which is made of 石 while you make the 音 of an 馬, then it’ll be your 勝ち and your 親 will reward your with a 鍵 to a secret 部屋. There, in an 穴, you will find 靴 made of 髪 and 紙 that allow you to cross the 川 without incurring a 怪我 even if there are 波s. It will take 手間 to cross, but it’s worth it. In the middle of the 川 there is 一 島 filled with 花 and a 熊 who will provide you with one 年s worth of 肉 and 寿司. But asking him where he got it from is ダメ. The 肉 is from his 舌,尻、and 耳 and the 寿司 is made from 米 of course. It tastes like ゴミ with 塩 on top, but he did it for your 為 so it would go against 礼儀 to not accept it into your 腹. Don’t feed it to your 犬 because it provides many nutrients that will be helpful on your 次 旅, and will help prevent you from getting a 熱 during 冬 when the 雪 is falling. This will be helpful because your next 旅 is on top of a 山 where it 雪s even during 昼 in 夏。It’s so cold 六 指s fall off and your 皮 is frostbitten despite your thick 革 服, but thanks to the 熊s 飯 you’re ok even if you’re frozen to the 骨。Even with the 雪 as your 相手 you don’t fall into the 闇 and push on because you’re an 男 with the 心 of an 鬼. Finally you reach your destination, 八 派手 風呂s under the 月 at the peak of the 山. As you enter in and the water goes up to your 脇, you feel 楽 at last as it washes away your 痛み…But it was all a 夢 of all 事s。You wake up under the 晴れ sky and and remember you are a humble 豆 farmer who will never go on adventures. The 痛み in your 胸 causes you to let out a 叫び that rings out through the 町 .
(Notable exceptions: 時, 好き)
賭け
足
腕
顎
裏
家
石
音
馬
勝ち
親
鍵
部屋
穴
靴
紙
髪
川
怪我
波
手間
一
島
花
熊
年
肉
寿司
駄目
舌
尻
耳
米
ゴミ
塩
為
礼儀
腹
犬
次
旅
熱
冬
雪
山
昼
夏
六
指
革
皮
服
飯
骨
相手
闇
男
心
鬼
八
派手
風呂
月
脇
楽
痛み
夢
事
晴れ
豆
胸
叫び
町
And since the point is trying to be able to remember what words appeared in the story here’s a little quiz you can take after going through it a few times whenever you want. You can wait a couple days to test your memory, or do it a couple hours later. These will all be non-atamadaka, so you just have to guess if they are odaka or heiban (aka did they appear in the story or not)
Quiz
鍵ーー o
皿ーー h
首ーー h
音ーー o
国ーー h
豆ーー o
米ーー o
酒ーー h
爪ーー h
鳥ーー h
西ーー h
耳ーー o
庭ーー h
次ーー o
指ーー o
心ーー o
場所ーー h
山ーー o
年ーー o
人ーー h
豚ーー h
怪我ーー o
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Oh how odd. I just started pitch accent today.
Wish me luck
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I thought nouns like 賭け・勝ち・痛み・晴れ・叫び that are derived from the 連用形 of verbs were mostly 平板 with these 尾高 ones being rare exceptions. But I just looked up a bunch, and there are more 尾高 ones than I thought, which complicates things… Also, while doing that search I surprisingly found that 騒ぎ is 頭高!
One of these days (or months, or years…) I really need to run lists of words through an algorithm looking for patterns. Just like how you can know that any word ending in 的 is 平板, there are surely other patterns that are 95+% accurate. For example, there seems to be no rhyme or reason behind why some verbs are 平板 and others are 中高 with the fall after the second to last mora, but maybe a deeper analysis would reveal some patterns. But to even start an analysis I’d have to convert dictionary data (from the JSON files Yomichan uses) into a more consumable form, combining the words themselves, their parts of speech, their pitch accents, and how common they are (since more common words tend to have more exceptions). Doing all that prep work sounds tedious, so I’ve been putting it off…
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The other suffix patterns are on that git post. As far as I’m aware, all the useful patterns are contained in those two links.
Yeah, part of me just likes the idea of discovering them. 
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