Miyake Taiko Workshop

There are so many things that happened last weekend at Asano Taiko's 400th Anniversary celebration. I learned so much, met so many new people, thought about a lot of things in a new light. If I tried to sum them up in one post, it would probably be either reeeaaaallllyy long, or too much information at once. Therefore, I will just try to write short reflections on the experiences and what I learned, as I have time and as they come to mind. Hopefully I can get down my most significant experiences before they slip my mind.

Today's topic: The Miyake Taiko Workshop with Mr. Tsumura and his three sons.


The above is a picture of me (the tall, white guy in the middle) along with the Tsumura family and on the left is Odaiko player, Yamabe Taishi, from Kurashiki　Tenryo Taiko in Okayama ken.　For some reason, all the women taiko players that I know get all dreamy-eyed and giggly when they are around these guys. From what I hear, they find them rather attractive.

Sunday was my second time to take this workshop from the Tsumuras. I also took it last year during Golden Week (first week of May). I wrote about it extensively in that post. Seeing as the content was pretty much the same, I won't spend a lot of time writing about it again. If you're interested, you can read about it in last year's post.

This year there were significantly more people in the workshop. This limited the amount of time we had and everything took a little bit longer. Last year, we had enough time to work on a variation in the ji-uchi (base rhythm) and also work on the "agari" (speeding up) at the end. This year, however, Mr. Tsumura gave a quick introduction on the correct form - leg positioning, movement of arms, proper grip of the sticks, etc. We each took a turn playing the ji-uchi and the melody four times through, stopping between each set to rotate players. After everyone played one set, Mr. Tsumura gave some general advice and suggestions before going on to teach us how to rotate from player to player without stopping. Last year the switching between players was kind of a challenge for me. I could never quite get the ji-uchi right. This year it seemed to be no problem, though.

After we had learned how to switch between players without stopping the music, we played the song continuously for about 45 minutes, rotating around the room. Mr. Tsumura and his three sons were at various spots around the room and would give advice to the workshop participants as they came around. At the end, we did some cool down stretches and that was it.

I think my muscles (legs especially) were a little more sore than last year. Last year I spent more time exercising so that my legs would be strong. Not that I haven't been exercising, but I haven't been spending much time on the muscles needed for Miyake, so the next day, they were a little sore.

With the increased number of workshop participants, Mr. Tsumura's strictness also came through a little bit more. Unfortunately, it had to come out at the expense of a couple of the younger attendees. It wasn't a type of strictness in the sense that he came across as a mean old man, but more that he was strict because he is very serious about learning and teaching taiko.

For the workshop there were four or five taiko set up. Since there were 20 or 30 participants, we had to be split up into groups. At one point, there were three young girls (8 or 10 years old?). Mr. Tsumura said, "One of you go over to this group." The three girls looked at each other and hesitated for a minute. Then they began playing "rock, paper, scissors" to decide which one of them should go (the loser would go). This is actually a common way to make decisions in Japan. In fact, I think they use it in Parliament fairly often, when they can't come to a consensus. Anyway, when they started the "rock, paper, scissors" game, Mr. Tsumura said, "No, no, no, we don't have time for games, just one of you move to the other group. Hurry up and do it, you're wasting time." After another short hesitation, one of the girls moved. Before moving on, Mr. Tsumura told everyone, "If you don't want to do what you're asked, or you don't want to be split up from your friends, it's okay. You don't have to take the workshop. You're welcome to sit and watch because there are a lot of people who wanted to take this workshop and weren't able to. I'm sure they'll gladly take your place. That kind of thing just wastes time and is a nuisance to everyone else."

Although I felt a little sorry for the girls, that they had to be "the example", I completely agree with what Mr. Tsumura said. If the teacher asks you to do something and you don't want to do it, or you make a fuss about doing it, you are just bothering the other people who are there and who are serious about practicing taiko, or basketball or music or whatever you might be learning.

At another point in the workshop, a young boy (4th or 5th grade?) was quietly tapping on the rim of one of the taiko while Mr. Tsumura was talking. He stopped and said, "Who's playing the drum? Who's making that noise? Whoever it is, stop it. These aren't your drums. You are borrowing them. You shouldn't play them until you are told to play them."

Like for the girls, it may have been slightly traumatic for the young boy, but Mr. Tsumura is correct again. I think it is especially important to make a point to young children about when it is appropriate and inappropriate to make noise on the drums. Small children are just naturally attracted to playing the drums. They can hardly resist playing them, but when someone is talking, it is certainly inappropriate. If small children are not taught to keep quiet (don't play) while the teacher is talking, it is nearly impossible for the teacher to teach. Have you ever tried talking over 10 or 20 drums? I've seen teachers try to do that before and it is painful to watch.

Once again, a "short" summary of a workshop is turning into a term paper. I guess I had better stop before things get too out of hand.

Check back soon for more stories from the Asano Taiko 400th Annivesary Celebration.

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Katsugi Oke Taiko Workshop with Hayashida Hiroyuki

Today (Sunday) is the last day of the 400th Anniversary Celebration at Asano Taiko. Today I will take the Miyake Taiko Workshop, and a singing workshop with Yoshikazu Fujimoto, one of Kodo's oldest members. He'll be teaching the song "Kiyari" which is sung along with Miyake Taiko.

Yesterday I had one workshop and my wife had two. My wife took a workshop on Hachijo Jima Taiko and a Chappa (cymbal) workshop from Ryutaro Kaneko (a former Kodo member). My workshop was with Hiroyuki Hayashida, also a former Kodo member.

From the picture, perhaps you can guess that he is known for Katsugi Oke Taiko playing. In fact, he is one of the first people to play Oke Taiko in that style and is credited with developing and refining Katsugi Oke playing. I took the basic/beginner Katsugi Oke Taiko workshop from him, seeing as I have not really played or learned that style before. We actually didn't get to play that much, but I was impressed with his teaching and I could tell that his philosophy about practicing is very similar to mine. For example, some of the advice he gave us: practice a lot of drills like stick control drills, accent drills, paradiddles, and so on. In fact, he said that you should spend most of your practice time on drills, not on practicing songs. (I completely agree) He also scolded taiko players (in a friendly way) who do not use a metronome during practice. He said the metronome is your best friend. Also, in some of the handouts he gave us, it had more good advice, like "practicing 30 minutes a day is better than practicing three hours once a week." Of course, if you grew up taking music lessons all this is common sense. But one of the nice things about taiko is that it tends to attract a lot of people who do not have much of a musical background, so perhaps it is good to remind people of it from time to time.

The workshop was scheduled for 90 min, but it ended up being more than two hours. Hayashida san said usually his Katsugi Oke workshops are seven hours! So he was challenged to try to fit all of that into 90 minutes. We didn't get a lot of playing time, but I still feel as if I learned a lot. Not only about playing Katsugi Oke, but about the care and treatment of the drums as well. What was the biggest thing I learned? That I need to practice a lot more before I will feel comfortable playing Katsugi Oke Taiko.

Today, my wife will also have a Katsugi Oke workshop from Hayashida san, but she is taking the intermediate level. My workshop was for beginners.

Miyake Taiko Workshop

It is the last day of the Golden Week Holidays. Since Sunday, I could finally relax for a couple of days, but there are many people at Asano who had to get up Monday morning and continue working, practicing and performing.

There were so many new experiences this past weekend, I honestly don't know where to start, and I'm afraid I will forget about some of them if I don't write them down. For the time being, I guess I'll just begin chronologically and write about the Miyake taiko workshop.

There were two workshops on Saturday for Miyake Taiko. Both my wife and I took part, but at different times. I attended the first workshop since I had a rehearsal for the next day's concert later that afternoon. There were about 10 participants in the workshop, including Jige san of Hono Taiko. At the start of the workshop, Asano san gave a short greeting to everyone. He told us that he had been wanting to invite Miyake Taiko group for an event at Asano for a long time, but they are very difficult to get. He talked about how the Miyake style/song is very well known, because it is an established part of Kodo's repertoire. Kodo's Miyake, however, is slightly different because they have made some adjustments for stage performance. The Miyake taught by this father and son quartet (Tsumura family) is very traditional.

After Asano san's short introduction, the Tsumura's played a short demonstration of the piece, for those who were unfamiliar with it. They begin with traditional vocals, and after a verse (?) the ji uchi begins (da don, da don, da don, ...) It gave me chills the same way it did at the Earth Celebration last summer.

Following the demonstration, Mr. Tsumura (the father) taught us the melody rhythm in three sections. It is fairly simple, and can be learned fairly quickly. After that, he gave some guidance on how to hold, position and swing the sticks as you play. One of the important aspects of playing Miyake taiko is getting a big sound. This is one thing that I really notice when watching this family play, and comparing them with many other groups that perform this piece.

There are a couple factors that contribute to the loud sound. One is longer sticks. One of the things they told us all at the beginning of the workshop was that all are sticks were too short. I think I heard them say that their sticks are at least 50 cm long. This allows them to get a loud sound, but it also protects your hands. The drums they typically use for Miyake are about 1.8 shaku or 2.0 shaku. Those drums have a diameter around 60 cm, so if your sticks are short, you are likely to hit your hands on the rims of the drums. The way you hold the sticks is also different than regular taiko playing. Normally, you would grip the sticks with your bottom three fingers (pinkie, ring, and middle), leaving the thumb and pointer finger fairly relaxed. For Miyake, it is the opposite. The thumb and pointer finger grip the stick firmly. I don't know how to explain it well, but this allows you to get a wider (?) swing, and more speed, thus, leading to a louder sound.

Following his guidance on stance, holding, and swinging the sticks, we practiced playing the melody a bit more. We then went on to the ji-uchi, or base rhythm. It is also a simple rhythm, almost like swing eighth notes, but not so smooooth. Instead of duu ba duu ba duu ba duu, it's more of a da don da don da don da don. The key points Mr. Tsumura mentioned for ji-uchi was to swing the sticks parallel to the ground, instead of diagonally, and to swing the sticks with a big motion, making sure that the left hand especially swings all the way back. One reason for this big motion is because the person doing ji-uchi has their back to the audience (not the case with Kodo) and this large motion makes it more interesting for the audience to watch.

After we had practiced the melody and the base rhythm, we were taught how to smoothly transition between players, without a break in the song. As we watched the group, along with all their regular students, play last summer at the Earth celebration, they continuously switched players, without a break for nearly a half hour. They each played the melody rhythm about 5 times, and then another member would step in to take their place. When you watch them do it, it appears quite simple, but it is a little more difficult when you actually try it. The ji-uchi player switches out first. The new player backs in and takes over the rhyth, as the first player moves out of the way. The melody player is a little trickier. S/he pulls in the right foot towards the end of the phrase, kneeling down on the right knee. The last two notes before getting out of the way, the left foot is moved back, making an opening for the new player to step in. Most workshop attendees never quite got the hang of it, including myself.

Now we had learned the melody, the base rhythm, and how to transition between players, so we spent some time rotating around the room between two taikos so that Mr. Tsumura had a chance to watch each of us and give us a little bit of individual commentary.

The next thing to learn was speeding up. After playing the melody for awhile, someone usually decides to pick up the tempo, until it gets ever so fast, and finally the vocals come in again, and it slows back down. This is not so technically difficult, it simply involves listening to the base rhythm, and following that as it speeds up. The physical aspect is another story, though. The squating position of Miyake style and the moving back and forth is already strenuous, and when it speeds up it becomes even harder to do. With practice, though, I'm sure that those muscles build up and it gets a little easier. The musical point Mr. Tsumura made here was that the tempo should not start slow and gradually speed up, but rather, it starts slow, and stays slow until a certain person decides to go into the accelerando. Still, you don't play faster and faster as you play the melody, but rather you up the tempo each time you start the melody anew. Even then, it followed some sort of pattern like this: 1st time speed up, second time, speed up again, third time maintain tempo, fourth time, speed up, fifth time, speed up. Mr. Tsumura said that these sudden jumps in tempo, as opposed to gradual ones, make it clearer that you are not just getting faster and faster because you cannot keep a tempo, but rather because it is part of the music. Personally, I like the effect of the tempo jumps better as well.

Finally, we got a bit of a special treat because we had a small class (and perhaps we were faster learners than usual?) Anyway, Mr. Tsumura said that usually he didn't teach this aspect because there was not enough time. What he taught us was where to accent the ji-uchi as you accompany the melody. The accents pretty much fall in line with what the melody is playing. We practiced this as well, but not having built up the Miyake Muscles, our accents were a bit weak. The next day, at the concert performance, there was a point were all the Miyake players dropped out just one of them played jiuchi with these accents. The accents were so effective, though, that it still sounded like two people were actually playing.

At this point, there was only about 20 minutes left, and from then until the ending time, we just practiced what we had learned, rotating around the room between the two drums.

I was tired afterwards, but not so much as I imagined that I would be. I was mostly worried about having sore muscles, which I didn't really feel that much that afternoon, nor the next day (Monday was a different story, but I don't think that was from the Miyake workshop).

An interesting note Mr. Tsumura mentioned during the workshop. As most people know, Miyake Taiko is one of the standby numbers of Kodo. As I pointed out after seeing the performance at Earth Celebration, there are some differences between the Hozonkai style and Kodo's style. One of those differences was that during the ji-uchi (base) the Kodo players kneel on one leg, while the hozonkai remain in the squatting position (much more strenous). Mr. Tsumura shared with us the reason for this during the workshop. It seems that the only instruction Kodo received on Miyake style was also a two hour workshop (probably similar to what we had) from Mr. Tsumura and his sons. Mr. Tsumura said that when they first teach ji-uchi to students, they always do it from this kneeling position because it is usually too difficult for new learners to maintain for long periods of time. They also taught it to Kodo in this way, and since they only had the one workshop, they only showed them in the kneeling position. Some time later, when they asked Kodo why they played the ji-uchi from a kneeling position, there answer was, "because that's the way you taught it to us." Anyway, at least that is what I understood. I could have misheard some details, since I am not a native Japanese speaker, but my wife (who is) seems to have heard the same story. (I know I have an occasional Kodo apprentice reader out there, so if you know there are any flaws in this account, please let me know.)

So that is pretty much my experience with the Miyake Taiko workshop. Now that we have received some proper instruction on the style, I hope we can continue to practice it and improve. If you've read all the way to the end of this, thank you very much. You must be a big taiko fan or a relative. Next time, I will write about the concert on Sunday.