Where Have I Been? Practicing Taiko, for Another

I would like to post one more excuse for my lack of blogging efforts in August. If you are a regular reader, then you know that designing t-shirts was my first excuse. If you don't know what t-shirts I am talking about, read the t-shirt excuse blog. Or just have look directly at the t-shirt store where you can order them.

Anyhow, the other thing that kept me away from my taiko blog for most of August was practicing taiko for a performance at the wedding of my closest friend. (Thanks again, Jim and Elaine, for letting us play.) The song was Raijin, which I wrote close to a year ago. In spite of that, we hadn't had an excuse or an opportunity to practice the song until this summer.

So, when we went back to Michigan this summer, and we found out that we would be able to play the song at the wedding reception, we had to learn it and get it up to a somewhat satisfactory performance level. We only had about two weeks to do this, with small children, and practicing outside in a neighborhood, while trying not to practice so much that we anger the neighbors.

Based on the reaction at the reception, it seemed that everyone was very happy with our performance, even though we thought it could still use a significant amount of work. Some mistakes were not noticeable, but others were (like when I dropped my stick.)

Even though our performance level is not quite at the level that we would like, I will share the video of the performance with you. The lighting was quite low, so it is hard to see, but at least the camera was not on me when my stick flew across the room.

(Don't forget to leave comments and rate!)
We'll have another chance to perform this in Japan at the end of October. Hopefully we will have ironed out some of the wrinkles by then.

Now I think I am out of excuses for my August absences. I will try to be more ...uh...regular from now on.