Family Taiko

Greetings from cold and snowy Kanazawa. We finally got a significant snowfall here and the temperature has been dropping daily. Seeing as how one of the places where we practice is not heated, it makes practice very cold. I can never feel my toes by the end of the session. Still, I always feel better after playing taiko for 90 minutes. Work started back up again last week, and although I prefer time off, it is good to get back into a sort of routine.

Before I share with you the awesome experience of Yamato's New Year Concert, which we attended on Monday (Jan 11), I thought I would share one last little thing from the winter holidays.

Our children are now 2 1/2 and 5 1/2. Our daughter, the older one, has been in the Asano Kids Taiko class since Sept 2007, but our son is still a bit too young to concentrate through an hour class. He does love taiko, though (as you will see). Eventually, we hope that our two children will be able to stand on the stage with us and perform, but it will probably be a couple more years before they are ready for that.

During the holidays we got out our 1.8 shaku (ca. 54 cm/22 in) nagado taiko, which we use mainly for practicing Miyake Taiko. We put it up on the high stand and let the kids play to their heart's content. It's not really big enough to be called an Odaiko, Odaiko start at around 90 cm, or 3 ft diameter, but for a 2 and 5 year old, it is just the right size for an Odaiko.

I thought, if only for the sake of my family and friends, that I would post a few videos of our kids playing around on the taiko. I don't know that it will be enlightening or educational to any of my readers, but little kids playing the drums is always cute. So, please enjoy the improv concert by the children of Raion Taiko...









Hope you enjoyed the show. (Don't forget to rate and comment on the videos.) Next time I will write about our experience at the Yamato concert in Nara.