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

Invest in Our Dreams!

A long time ago... well, about a year and a half... I naively asked for donations to help fund our project of bringing taiko drumming to the people of Michigan. There was not a signal donation. I don't mean to sound ungrateful. We have received tremendous amount of help from family and friends with unbelievable amounts of moral and financial support, but soliciting donations from online "strangers" just didn't work out. I understand. I, too, would be awfully hesitant to donate money to someone I didn't personally know.

I guess 18 months later I am a bit wiser to the ways of the world, but that hasn't changed the fact that we still need to raise some money in order to make all this happen. So here I am, back again with my hat in my hand, trying to raise $5000 before the end of June. But this time, should you choose to offer us some financial assistance in making our dreams a reality, I can offer you something in return.

If anyone is interested in investing in our dream of "the Great Lakes Taiko Center " (that's us) we have been approved for a loan through lendingclub.com. Lending club is a "crowd funding" site, which lets investors fund loan requests of individuals who have a high credit rating. You can read more details about it here: Lending Club FAQ
In a nutshell, you would loan us money, and within three years, you'd get whatever you loaned back, plus interest.

The loan just went "live" less than 12 hours ago and from the way things are going, I don't think we will need to recruit any extra help to get the loan funded. But I thought that there might just possibly be a few people out there who have an interest in our project and just might want to help out.

If you're interested, you would need to sign up to be a lender (I think you'd have to be a US resident as well). I am told that if you sign up through this link, you will get a $25 credit to get started.

Anyway, sorry to ask for money. I know people don't have much of it these days (especially folks in Michigan), but I thought there just might, possibly be the small chance that there are a few people who would like to support us in this way. Thanks for considering.

Oops, I forgot to post the link to our own loan request yesterday. Here it is, if you're interested:
Loan to Purchase Japanese Taiko Drums

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:

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.

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...

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!)

Wadaiko Yamato - New Year Concert 2009 - Part 2

Before I get into the Yamato concert, I'd just like to announce that we have totally re-worked our website and the new Great Lakes Taiko Center Website is up and running. Don't get too excited, my web design skills are pretty limited, but it is certainly an improvement over what was up before. Please stop by and visit: http://www.michigantaiko.com

Now back to Yamato. I have now been studying taiko at Asano for 1 year and about 5 months. After nearly a year and a half of high quality instruction from Ms. Yamada, I am certain that I understand a great deal more about taiko, on a much deeper level than I did back in the summer of 2007. As they say, however, "Ignorance is Bliss" and my increased knowledge of taiko has the side effect of an awareness that some of the taiko groups I used to be impressed with are not quite as impressive as I once thought. I'm not going to put down any names here, but I will say that, after watching some old videos, I would include myself in that statement.

Anyway, Yamato is definitely not on that list. In fact, my deeper understanding of taiko has only made me more impressed with what Yamato does. For example, since October, I have been dedicating a lot of time to practicing shime taiko, since I will be playing it for two pieces in March. I have written in the past about how difficult it is to play these small, high-pitched drums, and how any little mistake you make on them is magnified. (I also posted an exercise to help improve shime taiko playing and will post another one soon.) So, shime taiko is not easy to play, but Yamato performs their highly technical shime piece, "Kizashi" flawlessly, in perfect unison. My own knowledge and experience of practicing and playing shime taiko makes me all the more impressed with the way Yamato can play this piece.

Performing in unison is another aspect of Yamato's program which impressed me on a new level this year. One of the groups I play in (Yume Mitai) has between 16 and 20 members. Last year we had the honor of playing at a fairly major concert and worked very hard to really polish up our performance. At that time, I began to realize how hard it can be to get 16 people to all play, and move in perfect unison. Again, at the Yamato concert, for two or three songs, Yamato will put 15 or 20 people on the stage and their playing, their movement, the music, everything is so precise and tight. Being able to perform in such a precise manner with that many people is very impressive.

Oops, I've run out of time for today, but I still have more to say about the Yamato concert. I'll write more soon.