Taiko in Michigan

The Great Lakes Taiko Center has been up and running now for more than 6 months. We are happy to see the quick growth for taiko in Michigan. Since February we have started four classes and our performing group, Raion Taiko, has had performances every month since January.

Our current classes are as follows:
Mondays 5:00 - 6:00 pm Children's class
Tuesdays 9:45 - 10:45 am Ladies class (taught in Japanese)
Wednesdays 7:00 - 8:30 pm adult class
Saturdays 9:00 - 10:30 am adult class

For September we are enrolling students for two new classes.
Saturdays 10:30 - Noon Adult beginner class (for those with no taiko experience)
Wednesdays 5:00 - 6:00 PM Youth class (5th grade through 9th grade)

One housekeeping issue to take care of, our website address has changed from .com to .net. Please make a note of it

Learn Taiko in Michigan Check out http://www.michigantaiko.net

Neighborhood Taiko Concert

We performed a mini-concert in the backyard of my parents' house last weekend. Please come by our new blog to check out the pictures.

Raion Taiko Neighborhood Taiko Mini-Concert

Thanks to all our "Investors"

That was quick. On Sunday evening I made a quick post inviting any one interested to invest in our project by funding our Lending Club loan of $5000. 92 people stepped forward within 2 1/2 days to fully fund our loan, with an average investment of around $50. Crowd funding is great, isn't it? I don't know if anyone who was a regular reader of this blog contributed, but thanks to all who did. We will be using the money to help off-set the cost of drums for the classes we will offer when we return to Michigan.

Thanks for believing in us. We won't let you down.

Introducing Our Official Logos!

Here they are! After several weeks of brainstorming, meetings, debating over colors, positioning and numerous other finite adjustments, they are ready. We now have our very own official logos. For the time being, we have two. The first is for the "Great Lakes Taiko Center", a learning and resource center for taiko. The second is for Raion Taiko, the name we have chosen for our performing group, currently made up of only two members, myself and my wife. (We hope to increase our numbers after we return to Michigan). The name "Raion" uses the Japanese characters for the words "thunder" and "sound". By chance, it is also the way one would say "Lion" in Japanese. And by chance, we also have an NFL team by that name in Michigan. Although I hope we will find more success than the Detroit Lions.

So here are the logos...(click on the image for a closer view)

Great Lakes Taiko Center Logo:


Raion Taiko Logo:

Two Blogs Taiko Enthusiasts Should Know About

When I began my taiko blogging back in the summer of 2007, I didn't find many other English blogs related purely to learning or playing taiko. As time has passed, however, I have slowly become aware of a few more blogs out there that dedicate most of their posting to posts about learning and performing taiko. Today I will tell you about two blogs I know of which are all taiko, all the time.

All Things Taiko

First, let me tell you about one that I have been following for several weeks now. All Things Taiko is a blog written by Carrie Carter (also a Michigan native). I have actually been in contact with Carrie since almost a year ago, but I only became aware of her blog at the beginning of this year. Carrie was a member of Cleveland's Icho Daiko for a year before becoming a member of Seattle's Kokon Taiko for 3 years. Now she lives in Wakayama prefecture, Japan and is studying with Shippu Uchi Taiko. Carrie updates her blog often with taiko drills, videos, audio and reflections on her experiences learning taiko in Japan.

Odaiko New England Blog

I found the Odaiko New England (ONE) blog last week, but it wasn't live yet. It wouldn't let me see anything without a password, so I moved on. Then, yesterday, when I logged into my twitter account, I found this tweet: "It's official - the Odaiko New England blog is live! http://blog.onetaiko.org/" So I went to check it out immediately. They have interesting postings from various members about different workshops and concerts (given and attended). I don't know much about ONEtaiko, but they seem to be a very active and talented group. I hope that we will have a chance to meet up with them when we return to Michigan. (And what do you know, they have a link to me from their blogroll. Thanks ONE.)

Asano Taiko Spring Recital 2009

Last Sunday we successfully completed the March 2009 Asano Taiko Spring Recital, 今響きが風になる. Saturday began at 8:30 with loading up drums from the Asano practice space, the rental warehouse and Asano EX and then transporting them all over to the concert venue, the Matto Bunka Kaikan. (The same place we saw Exstasia two years ago.) Then we moved on to rehearsing.

For this recital I was part of the back stage crew. While most recital participants were only busy during their own rehearsal time, the stage hands were tied up all day helping the groups figure out which taiko to use, getting organized back stage so that the drums could be easily and quickly moved on and off and marking the location of the drums for each group.

Each group performing in the show had about a 20 minute time slot to figure out where they would place their drums on the stage, play through their piece once and make any final adjustments. Once the group decides where to place their drums, we marked the spot with little pieces of colored tape. For this recital there were so many groups playing, we ran out of colors and had to get creative with the way we used the tape.

On either side of the stage, the drums were all organized into different sizes and then "taiko corrals" were taped on the floor to make sure they got back into the right spot.


I had three rehearsals to participate in during the afternoon. Other than that, I was backstage trying to help keep everything running smoothly. After the last group finished their rehearsal, the stage hands had one last meeting to make sure that everything was ready for the next day.

The day of the concert, we still had to arrive around 8:30. There were about 3 groups that hadn't rehearsed the day before, so they were schedule to run through their numbers Sunday morning. Finally, the last thing we did before lunch break was to run through all of the transitions between the groups, just moving the drums on and off stage. This helps everyone, stage hands as well as performs, to remember what their responsibilities are during the transitions. It really helps the main event to run smoothly. Then it was time for lunch and to get the hall ready for the guests.

The doors opened at 1:30 and at precisely 2:00 the curtain rose on Hono Taiko and Hikari performing 天地響応 (Tenchi Kyou-ou), formerly known as 聖鼓 (Shoko). This was followed by the "Asano Taiko Kids" groups. First the beginning group (which my daughter played with) followed by the intermediate and advanced groups. My daughter was thrilled at the end of the day after the concert when they announced which students had "graduated" to the next level. From April, she will be allowed to move up to the intermediate class.


My first performance was with JIGEN and wasn't until about halfway through the program. So for the first half, I was busy helping out backstage. But eventually, our turn was approaching and it was time to get changed into our outfits. We came out and gave a good effort, but it was lacking in many areas. As I have mentioned in previous posts, JIGEN was given a rather challenging piece to learn for this recital and we probably could have used at least another month of practice time. Then again, maybe we should have practiced more on our own as well. At any rate, we made it through the song without falling apart.

(My mum took this picture and had the camera set wrong, but I kind of like the way it turned out.)

After JIGEN, I only had enough time to change for the next group, Shin Matto Bayashi Hozonkai. I play Odaiko for this group and was particularly looking forward to performance this time around because we had added Shamisen, which make the song a lot more interesting. After this performance, Jige san, of Hono Taiko, who was Emceeing the event, called me back out on the stage for an interview. After some pleasantries, she announced to the audience our plans to return to Michigan next year and play taiko there. I was a bit surprised by it. There were several people in the audience who didn't know about these plans (co-workers and students) whom I hadn't plan to tell for some time yet. Oh well, it's no big deal. Furthermore, it is encouraging because it is like a indirect "stamp of approval" from Asano Taiko and Hono Taiko on our plans. I mean, if they were embarrassed of us, or didn't want us to proceed, they wouldn't be announcing it at one of their sponsored events, now would they.



After the interview, it was back to the dressing room for one more costume change for my last group, Matto Yume Mitai. For this group I was playing shime taiko again. Although it was my first time to play the shime part for this song, it was our fourth or fifth time to perform it, so we are all pretty comfortable with the music. It was easy for me to submerse myself in the music and just enjoy playing without having to think about what phrase comes next or what to do next. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.



The only thing left was the finale, where we packed the stage with as many taiko as possible and as many people as possible and played Mushi Okuri, a traditional taiko piece from the Kaga area.

When the concert ended, the clean up began almost immediately. Pull up the tape from the floor, put the taiko back in their cases, disassemble the stands that can be disassembled, begin loading the drums back into the trucks and vans. There is a huge amount of work that needs to be completed, but with all the people we have helping, the concert venue is cleaned up and all the drums are back in their proper places at Asano taiko within about two hours! It always amazes me how smoothly and quickly this whole process is carried out.

I have more to say, but this is getting long and I seem to be running out of time, so I will save it for another time.

Is Your Face Alright?

In Japan, where the school year begins in April, March is graduation season. The school where I work is having its graduation ceremony on Monday. On Friday the choir was practicing singing Bach's "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" to sing at the event. The music teacher was not happy with the students' expression while singing the song. At one point he told them: 顔を見るだけで聴きたくないんだ。 For those who don't read Japanese, what he said is: "Just looking at your faces I don't want to listen to your singing."

This made me think of my post the other day about developing that special something in your group. What I mean is that your facial expression is just as important as playing the right notes and dynamics and is another thing that can give your performance that little boost, setting it apart from the mediocre. If your face looks bored, your audience will probably be bored. On the other hand, if your face reflects the feelings of the music, whether it's happy, sad, intense, then you will captivate your audience and they will feel the music with you and have a much more enjoyable experience.

So if you have started video taping your practices, like I mentioned in this post, then another good thing to pay attention to would be the expression on your face.

2 Suggestions to Help Your Taiko Group Develop That "Je ne sais quoi"

Saturday I practiced mainly shime taiko from 1 to 5:30 PM. That's a lot of strain on one's wrist and it is slightly painful now. I need to take it easy. I don't want to damage it permanently.

Anyhow, At Saturday's practice for one of the groups I am in, Jigen, two pieces of advice given to us by Yamada sensei stuck in my mind. One wasn't actually advice, but it still stuck with me. Both had to do with stage presence.

Now, you can see a lot of taiko in Japan. Some of it is good, and some of it is really good. What is it that makes the difference between a good group and a really good group?　　The groups that are really impressive, there is something different about them, something, ... you can't always put your finger on it exactly... something...that je ne sais quoi.

I might be able take a very simple phrase and play it perfectly: rhythm, dynamics, etc, just as it is written on the page, and it would probably sound fine. But give the exact same music to a member of a group like Yamato, for example, and have them play it and it will probably sound like a completely different song and be much more impressive. I hope you know what I'm talking about.

So how do you get to that point where you have that certain something than makes you a cut above the rest? Practice, of course, but there are other little things that can make a big difference. Here is one:

1. Act like you're cool (even if you think you're not).
We were watching a video of another Asano group, Sasuke, play the same song we are working on. Sasuke is made up of high school students and they took home top honors in a national youth taiko contest last summer in Tokyo. As we were watching them, admiring their movement in unison and so on, Yamada sensei said, "They think they're so cool". She was kind of teasing them, but I thought that unless you think you are cool, you probably won't look cool on stage. This isn't about being cool or not being cool, it's about thinking you're cool (not cocky cool, though). If you can tell yourself that you are cool for the 30 min or hour, or whatever that you are on stage, I think it makes a big difference. After all, you are cool. Drummers are cool and taiko drummers are not only cool, they're still somewhat unique (yes, even in Japan, it is unique to a certain degree). I don't know if I'm very good at explaining this "acting cool" thing, but I hope that you can follow my point.

And now for the other suggestion:
2. Play taiko with your whole body.
In Western drumming, I would say that one is probably trained to use mostly hands and wrists when playing the drums. If I asked what the difference between Western and Taiko drumming is, probably many people would say that for taiko, you need to use your whole arms. I say, you need to use every last part of your body, from the hair on your head, to your toe nails.

I think developing this partly just takes time and practice until you are comfortable enough with the correct stances, rhythms, and so on. You also have to be aware, though, that putting your whole body into your playing is just as important as playing the right notes. Yamada sensei had us work on this for one particular phrase in the song. When we eventually "got it" she said it looked 10 times better and asked us to do the same thing for the rest of the song.

She helped us to understand what she meant by using a sports analogy. She said using only your arms and/or upper body to play taiko is like a soccer player who only uses his leg and foot to kick the ball, or a baseball player who leaves his feet planted to throw a pitch. Picture those images in your head. Doesn't it look silly? If you think of a soccer player kicking a goal, or a pitcher throwing a pitch, their whole body is involved in the process. It should be the same with taiko. Although, your hands and arms are the main parts that are moving, your whole body should be involved in playing taiko.

I don't know if either of these suggestions are helpful to anyone out there. And I admit, they may not apply to all the styles of taiko that is being played out there. I also admit, that I probably haven't done a great job of explaining them clearly. It is kind of difficult to explain them without being able to show them. Then again, you never know what some people will find helpful, so I hope this will prove to be helpful to some of you.

Kaga Taiko Lesson

Did I say the last entry would be "short"? I guess I did. Oh well. I've got to work on being less verbose.

As promised, I will write more about Kaga Taiko today. I'll try not to make it too long. There is a lot I could say (and probably will, eventually) about Kaga Taiko, but this time, I will just try to describe what Kaga Taiko practice is like.

The practice begins at 1:00 on Sunday afternoons, but people kind of show up when they are able to. Some are there right at 1:00, others show up as late at 3:00. If you are there on time, Ichikawa sensei will begin by warming everyone up together. Everyone plays on a nagado taiko, if there are not enough, some people will double up. Ichikawa sensei will play a rhythm used in Kaga Taiko, and then we all imitate it until he says stop. Then he will introduce another, slightly more complicated rhythm and we imitate again until he says stop. Usually, by the end of the warm up he has given us about 5, increaslingly complicated patterns, and then the warming up is finished. It probably took about 15 minutes.

After a short break, he begins teaching. Sometimes he will demonstrate a technique, rhythm or movement used in Kaga Taiko, and then we will each take turns trying it out while he makes corrections. Usually, however, the teaching takes the for of mini private lessons of around 15 to 20 minutes.

You see, when playing Kaga Taiko, there are usually only three people playing at a time. One is playing flute, the other is playing ji-uchi (doko don, doko don...), or "kobachi", as it is called in Kaga Taiko, and the third is playing the solo. Therefore, you cannot have all 10 people or so playing at once, you have to give individual instruction. At Ichikawa Juku the teaching is mainly handled by Ichikawa sensei, and sometimes by the assistant instructor, Chiaki sensei.

After the warm-ups, Ichikawa sensei will choose a student and say, okay, play something. If it is your turn, you come up to the front, play the best Kaga Taiko you can. When you finish your little 2 or 3 minute solo, Ichikawa sensei will instruct you and help you fix some of your mistakes. The better you are, it seems that the stricter he is with his guidance. Since my wife and I are fairly new at this, he is still pretty nice to us, but he warned us that he is going to be stricter if we continue.

Anyway, to give you a feel for the lessons, here is a short video from my wife's lesson last Sunday. The man is Ichikawa sensei and the woman is Chiaki sensei.



The drums are covered to mute the sound a little so as not to disturb the neighbors too much.

Well, again, this is becoming longer than I intended and there is still a lot more to say about Kaga Taiko. So, I'll just have to save it for next time. Until then, enjoy the video, don't forget to give it a rating, leave comments, share it with your friends, etc. and come back soon...

Do You Videotape Your Taiko Practices?

Today, a short entry with a suggestion for any of the readers who are in taiko groups of their own. I was recently reminded of how helpful and enlightening it can be to tape (video, that is) yourself, or your group during practice, and then watching it afterwards and critiquing the performance together.

With taiko, I think that the way the performers look and move together on stage is just as important as playing the correct rhythms and playing a song musically. But knowing how you look while playing, trying to see whether everyone's movements are in unison and checking to see if you, or anyone else has any type of strange movement tendencies going on is pretty tough to accomplish while you are trying to play the song yourself. Even if one member is to step back and watch, that person cannot see everything, and sometimes, it is more effective to see what is wrong with your playing on your own, instead of having someone else tell you.

You can solve some of these problems by putting up mirrors in your practice area. It can be helpful to a certain extent, but it is still difficult to concentrate on noticing every thing that needs to be fixed, while at the same time trying to perform the song. If you set up a camera, though, you can focus on playing/performing and then watch it afterwards as many times as you want, so that you are sure to catch all of the little things. It is amazing, sometimes, what you can notice when you step back like that to watch yourself play.

This probably isn't a groundbreaking suggestion for most of you. Many of you are probably saying, "Yeah, we already do that. Thanks anyway." We have actually been doing that for awhile as well. It isn't really a new idea for us either. It's just that this past Saturday, we did it for the first time in quite a while and I was so impressed by how effective it was in letting us know where we stood and what needed to be fixed.

It was a song that we have all memorized and have been practicing since last October (2008). It is quite a difficult song and a pretty long song as well, but we felt like we had made pretty good progress and were nearing an acceptable level of performance (which was good, because our performance is only about 2 or 3 weeks away). So our teacher, Yamada sensei, said, "I'm going to tape you guys and then I want you to watch it." So we taped it and sat down to watch it. We finished, it was quiet, Yamada sensei said, "You guys thought you were further along than this, didn't you. You're going to have to work really hard these next few weeks to get this ready."

She was right. Stepping back and watching it on video was very enlightening. I didn't realize how much I was actually looking down, instead of looking forward, out into the audience. Our dynamics, which we thought were really good, were hardly noticeable. Our accents were barely stronger than the unaccented notes. At some points, the height and movement of our bachi (sticks) was all over the place.

Although there are a lot of places to fix up, most of them are pretty easy to repair. Had we not watched ourselves on video, however, we wouldn't have noticed them... Until it was TOO LATE! AHHHHHHHH! Sorry, just kidding. Anyway, we decided to tape ourselves again next practice.

So, if you don't already tape yourselves at practice, I highly suggest that you give it a try. You may be surprised at what you notice.

Learning Kaga Taiko at Ichikawa Juku

The exit off of the highway is barely noticeable. There is no sign, and hardly any deceleration ramp, just a narrow street that quickly disappears underneath a bridge as soon as it leaves the highway. You follow that street through a small group of houses clustered together, then you come out into an open space with mostly rice fields on either side of the road. On the left is a slightly run-down textile factory, which also happens to be our destination.


We park in front of the building and enter through the side door. It leads into a large room with about 6 desks pushed together in the middle of the room covered in papers, coffee cans filled with pens, ash trays and so on. The walls are decorated with several posters of swimsuit campaign models from the mid-90s for tool companies and beer.


The room behind the door in the back of the office has only a table pushed into a corner, and a few chairs lining the wall. The windows have been covered with thick polystyrene and then covered again with sheets. In the center of the room is one large naga-oke taiko and about 6 nagado taiko.

This is Ichikawa Juku in Komatsu, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan. It is one of the few places where you can learn Kaga Style Taiko, the 400 year old traditional style of taiko drumming unique to this area. We decided to attend this school as often as we could, following our December Kaga Taiko recital.

The Kaga Taiko courses we had taken only lasted from September to December. After the classes finish in December, we didn't have any opportunity to practice this style of drumming. In comparison to modern, sousaku taiko (what most of us probably are playing) Kaga Taiko is much more difficult to play and master. Therefore, if we want to continue it after we return to Michigan, we figured we needed to learn as much as we could.

Ichikawa Juku holds classes on Sunday afternoons, starting at 1 PM and lasting until...well, until the last person leaves, I suppose. It's a tough schedule for us. It probably takes 40 or 45 minutes to drive there and Sunday afternoons, there tends to be a lot of events that come up. In spite of this, we decided to attend as much as we could, at least until November or December, when we are hoping to return to Michigan.

The style of drumming and the style of teaching is much different than what we have been mostly doing/learning here. It is very complicated, challenging and interesting. And unfortunately, today, I don't have time to get into it all, so I must save it for next time. Come back soon to check for the update (with video!)

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.