What is a Kaga Taiko Lesson Like?

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In January Mayumi and I decided to dedicate more time to learning the traditional Kaga style of taiko drumming. We had taken two four-month "Primer" courses through the Ishikawa Taiko Association and desired to learn more. We headed out to the Ichikawa Juku in Komatsu, where Mr. Kazutaka Ichikawa teaches. Almost everyone in the Komatsu area who plays taiko has been taught at some point by Mr. Ichikawa. As we talked with Ichikawa sensei about our plans to return to the US at the end of this year and teach and perform taiko in Michigan, he was pleased, but he also warned us that we would have to work hard if we wanted to do Kaga taiko.

"If you really want to learn Kaga Taiko, I'm not going to go easy on you any more," he said.
"That's alright," I replied, "we don't have much time, so we need to learn quickly."
"You're not going to like it. You won't want to come back next week," he warned.
"Don't worry, I can handle it. I'll be back," I said.
"I'm serious. No more "Mr. Nice Guy," he gave one final warning.
"I promise, I won't give up," I said decisively.
He turned to the person next to him and said, "Man, I hate stubborn people."

Of course it was all in good natured fun, but he was serious when he said that he would teach us more strictly than before. The few times I visited his Juku last year, I was always warmly welcomed and although I was instructed and my technique was often corrected, no matter what I played, I was almost always praised. "Wow, how long have you been learning? That was really good," and other encouragement was often offered.

This time, however, my first lesson after telling Ishikawa sensei about our plans, was a bit different. I played my 2 or 3 minutes and the first thing he said was: "Wow, that really sucked." (more or less). Then he proceeded to break down what I had played, making small corrections here and there. Actually, he wasn't all that harsh in his criticism. Following the "that really sucked" comment, he was actually pretty kind, but perhaps he didn't let me get away with as much as he might of before. There are some other students with whom he is much stricter. Still, he has been holding us to a higher standard than before and we are learning a lot.

As I have mentioned in past posts, Kaga taiko is a very old and traditional form of taiko drumming with a history of over 400 years. In contrast to the more modern styles of taiko, where there are many different styles and a lot of freedom in rhythms and movements, Kaga taiko is filled with all sorts of intricacies and theory. Certain movements are okay, and others are not. Certain rhythms are fine, but there are some rhythms or phrases that should follow other rhythms or phrases. It's all very complicated and every lesson I take, I understand why he calls the modern styles of taiko "Kindergarten" taiko. (Of course, I still love the "Kindergarten" taiko as much as I enjoy Kaga Taiko).

I don't know how proficient we will be able to become at playing Kaga Taiko by the time we return to the US, but it is enjoyable and exciting to be learning a style of taiko drumming that is unique to this area of Japan.

A couple weeks ago, my father accompanied me to the Kaga taiko lessons and recorded the whole thing on video. My mother watched it later and she said that even though she couldn't understand the Japanese, she could tell that Ichikawa sensei was an excellent teacher. In fact, she even said that if Kaga Taiko were an Olympic sport, she imagines that he is what a top coach would teach like.

It was about a 20 minute lesson and I had to split it up into three parts to get it onto YouTube. It is there, though, and hopefully it will give you an idea of what learning and playing Kaga Taiko is like.







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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!)

Kaga Taiko Recital Videos

It's Christmas Eve Day here, in Japan and we are sure busy. You see, Christmas is not a holiday in Japan and most people have to work today and tomorrow and the next day. Thus, for those who wish to celebrate Christmas in a major way, like in Europe or the States, it is a challenge to get everything ready because you are often working right up to, and through the holiday. It's rather depressing, actually. At least working at a school, the winter holidays cover the Christmas holidays so I have never had to work on a Christmas in all my years of working in Japan (well, it's only been four years I guess).

Anyhow, before I spend too much time writing, I just wanted to post videos of our most recent taiko recital. This past Sunday we had our Kaga Taiko recital, which was held at an Onsen (Hotel Suiko) in Katayamazu, near Komatsu Japan. Here is a link to the Hotel Suiko website, in case you want to see pictures.

It was much different than last year's Kaga Taiko Recital, and not just because it was in a different location. This year, we had both our children with us and as a result, we were unable to see many of the other performances. A two and half year old can only sit still for so long, even if he does like taiko. Also, last year's recital featured only Kaga and Fukui style taiko (traditional styles, dating back nearly 400 years), but this year there were also groups that would be considered "Sousaku Taiko" (創作太鼓) which is the more modern form of taiko that most of us probably are more familiar with. On personal level, it was also much different because my wife and I felt much more confident in our playing. I don't know that you can see a whole lot of difference between the technical difficulty of what we played this year and what we did last year, but (at least I like to think) our stage presence is slightly more confident than last year.

Anyway, here is where I will post the videos of this year's and last year's recitals, and you can decide for yourselves. (Please feel free to leave your comments, positive or "constructive")

We'll start with me (Brian)
Last year's recital (2007):


This year's recital (2008):


And now Mayumi's...
Last year (2007):


and this year's (2008):


And I'll just say goodbye with a little bonus video. My son, Kenji, seems to really be starting to "feel" taiko and he will pick up bachi (sticks) any chance he gets and start "playing" the couch, cushions, whatever he can find. The interesting thing is that when you watch him, he has a very serious, focused face, and he seems to be doing more than just "hitting". If he is playing a real drum, this is even more apparent. I was telling my mother this the other day, and she said it was the same way with my older brother (who is now a professional musician). He started learning piano at 3 years old, and although he wasn't necessarily playing songs right away, my mum said that what he played, although random notes, it was very musical. Anyway, decide for yourselves. Here is video of my son playing a cushion. You may think that my judgement is clouded by being a parent, but even if that is so, it is still kind of cute to watch...



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
From Raion Taiko

Can Playing Taiko Drums Cure the Common Cold?

I caught a cold earlier this week. It isn’t so bad, but there were a couple days of a sore throat and now it has moved on to my nose. No matter how many times I blow it, there always seems to be ... well, leftovers. So I was looking forward to my Kaga Taiko class yesterday (Thursday). Why is that? Because taiko always seems to help my ailments. Whether it is a small cold, or the flu, if I have enough energy to drive myself to taiko practice, taiko is the most effective medicine I have found. Without fail, playing taiko will clear up my nose, lower my fever, soothe my sore throat, not to mention the inherent health benefits which come from the exercise.

Last Sunday I discovered that I was not the only person to feel this way. I visited Ichikawa Juku, a “school” in Komatsu where you can learn Kaga Taiko. It’s a very interesting place and sometime I will have to write extensively about what it is like to learn there, but not today.

A significant amount of time there is spent not playing taiko, but talking (which is actually part of learning Kaga Taiko). The head teacher asked me what jobs my wife and I did in the States and I was telling him how my wife had studied music therapy and was hoping to do something with music therapy and taiko when we return next year. He was a little skeptical about whether taiko could be therapeutic until I began sharing with him all of the research I've read about how drumming has been shown to increase antibody levels in your immune system, and how drum circles have been shown to be effective in helping people recover from addictions or strokes and so on. (Want to read those articles too? Here are the links: Sound Healing, Drums, not Drugs, Should Drums be Sold in Pharmacies?)

I guess it sort of made a connection in his head somewhere, because he then said, “Come to think of it, playing taiko always seems to cure my colds too. I’m in my 50s now and have been playing Kaga taiko since I was in my early 20s. Whenever I got sick, I hardly ever went to the doctor, except for major ailments. I found that playing the taiko always cured whatever it was that I had.”

Last Thursday was the final class of this year's Kaga Taiko course, and Sunday we will have our recital. This year we will have it at an Onsen (Hot Springs Resort), which is kind of exciting because that is the type of place where this style of taiko playing was traditionally peformed. Besides, we'll get to eat nice food and have a good bath. It will probably be a lot different than last year's recital, which included a lot more guests. Still, we'll try to get some videos, at least of ourselves, and we can post them and we'll see if you think we've improved since last year.

In the meantime, I'm curious about the rest of you taiko players out there. What types of experiences have you had with illness and taiko? Does anyone else find that playing taiko helps your colds get better more quickly? Leave a comment below and share your own stories.

Kaga Taiko - Ichikawa Juku School Visit

We haven't really played or practiced Kaga style taiko since our recital on December 9th. Since the course we took only ran from August to December, and won't run again until August, we don't have many opportunities to play in this style. We did always want to visit the Ichikawa Juku School, though, which I mentioned in a post last fall.

Today (10.Feb) we finally were able to observe a practice there. Our intent was to observe, but we were immediately invited to participate in the practice. After all, they knew that we were not totally inexperienced, since nearly all of them took part in the December recital as well, and Ichikawa sensei also visited our Thursday night class on several occasions. We weren't sure how well we would be able to participate because we had both of our children with us, but the practice was fairly family freindly, allowing us to participate, and watch our kids at the same time.

When I wrote about the recital, I compared the atmosphere to a jazz club. The practice also seemed to have the same, laid back type of feeling. Soon after we arrived, they began warming up, which consisted of playing the mitsu uchi base rhythm (don doko don doko ...), followed by incorporating only a few Kaga taiko patterns. This probably didn't last any longer than 30 minutes. Then everyone had a break, drank some tea, smoked a cigarette, ate snacks, talked for a bit. Our kids found some sticks and played on the drums a little bit. During the break, Ichikawa sensei talked and played with our children. He told us that he has a grandchild the same age as our daughter (4.5 years).

Following the break, students came up one at a time, played a bit, and received guidance and commentary from Ichikawa sensei. It was rather like a 15 or 20 minute private lesson for each person, except that the rest of the class is watching you receive instruction. I can see that watching others play and listening to the critiques and suggestions from the teacher is an essential part of learning this particular style of taiko.

The warm up was pretty relaxed, and as I mentioned, Ichikawa sensei took on a kind and grandfatherly tone during the break as he played with our children. I was, therefore very surprised to hear his comments for the first student who played after the break. After she finished her piece, he basically said, "Well, if I were to tell you where you made mistakes, I would say everywhere. I would give you some positive feedback, but there was absolutely nothing postive about your playing." ... I thought "Wow," as I reached down to pick up my jaw off the floor. He then proceeded to work with her on various aspects of her playing, giving her advice and demonstrating at times, but his comments for most of the lesson with her were not very forgiving. Still, I noticed a significant improvement in her playing by the time she was finished.

Imagine my surpise (and horror) when he then said, "So, who's next? How about you, Brian san?" Seeing how he tore apart the previous student, who was much better than me, I could only imagine what he might say about my playing. Somewhat reluctantly, but trusting that he would be fairly kind to me, as it was my first visit to his class, I got up and played what I had played for the December recital, as best as I could remember. Being two months from that performance, of course, I made plenty of mistakes, but luckily, he was kind as I had hoped. His comments to me were basically, "You've made a good start, and if you practice, I'm sure you will become a good player." Next was my wife, and his comments to here were pretty much the same, except that he added, "I think you're just a tiny bit better than your husband." Well, I had thought that since we started practicing, so it wasn't a total surprise to to hear that.

The strictness and directness of the lesson suprised me mainly because the beginning of the class had been so laid back. I actually understood that this was just his teaching method, and not meant to be mean, but rather to motivate. The first student had been practicing Kaga taiko for some time and was fairly advanced. I'm sure he was simply trying to get her to play at a higher level, since she was probably capable of it. Although he mentioned several times, "Maybe you aren't as good as I thought you were, maybe I'm pushing you too fast." I think that anyone who has worked at something, be it an art or a sport, probably has noticed that the better you get, the more your teacher's seem to criticize you. As you improve, their expectations rise, and a good teacher will hold you to those.

If you are over-sensitive, or need positive comments along with the negative, you probably wouldn't last long in this class, but if you understand the purpose of the comments, and are able to not take them personally, you'll probably be fine. I think we are fine with that, and hope that we will be able to visit the school on a regular basis to continue learning Kaga style taiko during the "off season".

Kaga Recital Videos

If you prefer to watch taiko videos, rather than read my taiko journals, then this entry is for you. I think I have about 10 new videos to introduce to you today. They are all from the Kaga Taiko recital a few weeks ago (December 9). You may want to read that entry first, before watching the videos. Also, if any of our personal friends have been waiting to actually see Mayumi and I play taiko, instead of watching other groups, here is your chance. Of course, as I mentioned in most of my posts about Kaga taiko, it is not an easy style to learn, and it is largely improvisation, which is something kind of new for me.

Anyhow, I will start with videos of our performances, please do not view them too critically. We only started learning this about 7 months ago. Without further ado, here is my Kaga Taiko recital performance, December 9, 2007:


And next, Mayumi's. Personally, I think she did a better performance than I did, of course, she says the opposite.


As I mentioned, after the recital portion, there were many other much more advanced Kaga Taiko/Mitsu uchi drummers there, so they took turns performing. Here are some of them. The first one is a lady who is a student at the Ichikawa Juku Kaga Taiko school:


This next man was the most impressive, in my opinion, and I don't just say that because of his tight pants. My daughter, however, seemed to notice them. When she watched the video, she kept saying, "look at his bottom". Anyway, don't let his toit rump distract from his drumming:


The next performer was also pretty enjoyable to watch. She is actually doing a different style than Kaga Style, but closely related and based on the same base, mitsu uchi rhythm. She was from Fukui, the prefecture next to Ishikawa. From what I understand, this is Fukui style mitsu uchi drumming:


Now we have a sort of cross over performer. He was from Fukui, but performs Kaga style instead of Fukui style. Enjoy:


Here is another pair from Fukui. This time, it is a grandfather, performing with his grandson:


This boy is pretty young. I think they said he was in 2nd grade. He looks just terrified to be on the stage. In the end, though, his nerves do not get the better of him and he delivers quite an impressive performance:


This next performer was special because he had recently received a designation as a meijin. I am not completely sure of the meaning of this term, but he had received a special plaque and certificate from the government recognizing his talent/ability as a performer of Kaga Style drumming. From what I can understand, I think it means that he is probably one of the top players:


And finally, our instructor, Matsuya sensei. He was not the last performer, but soon after this, our camera battery ran out, so we could not record any more anyhow. I really enjoy his style of playing, it seems to be very powerful:


I hope you enjoyed the recital.

Taiko Jazz - Kaga Taiko Recital

For my birthday this year, my brother, Andrew, took me to the Green Mill Jazz club in Chicago for a jam session. As I am used a father's and a high school teacher's schedule (waking up around 5 AM) the 1 AM start time was a bit rough, but I managed to make it there, and once the music started, I got a second wind and was able to stay awake through the whole session. It was an enjoyable, relaxed evening (morning). After a few songs, the regulars called several musicians up from the audience (including my brother) to sit in for a few tunes. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly. The audience was enjoying their drinks, or talking with friends, or listening to the music. I think I would describe the feeling at our Kaga Taiko recital in exactly the same way. Not only because it was held at a restaurant, but the way the music was peformed also reminded me of a jazz club atmosphere.

As our teacher reminded the audience before we began, mitsu uchi style drumming (on which Kaga taiko is based) is several hundred years old and many of the traditional drumming in the Hokkuriku area (Fukui, Ishikawa, Toyama) has developed out of this style. Having been around for so long, many different styles have emerged and each person even seems to have their own signature style when they play. This actually adds a certain degree of difficulty to learning the style. We talked to one of our class members who has been studying for three years, and attends the Kaga taiko school in Komatsu. He said sometimes you are instructed in a certain way by one of the senior members, and then later, a more senior member comes along and gives you instruction that contradicts what you were just told, and later, yet again, another, even more senior member will come along and give you more instruction that contradicts both. So it is very difficult to know what is "correct". But my guess is that none of the instruction he received is wrong, but more because of the individual drummers different personal styles. Eventually, after enough contradictory instruction, you can develop your own personal style.

More recently, perhaps in the last 50 years or so, the mitsu uchi style became popular and was performed not only at festivals and community events, but in restaurants also. In fact, I heard that there was a player who even opened a taiko restaurant. Sort of like a dinner theater, but dinner taiko. As I mentioned, yesterday's recital was at a small cafe style restaurant. The setting was even dramatic. It was right on the Sea of Japan, on a day when the weather was changing every 15 minutes or so. It was quite windy, so the waves were crashing into the rocks, throwing spray up into the air. The clouds were moving quickly across the sky, sometimes letting rays of sun through, and other times blocking it out completely. At times there was rain, and other times hail, and at one point, to my daughters delight, there was a bright and clear rainbow out over the ocean.

The atmosphere was very relaxed. I think most of the people in attendance were also drummers of the mitsu uchi style. There was friendly banter between the MCs and the audience, and unexpected "challenges", like dropping a stick in the middle of a performance, or a performer being in the bathroom or something at the time he was supposed to perform, were easily laughed off and remedied.

Our recital was the first part of the afternoon. Our instructor, Matsuya sensei, began by giving a little background about the class. (He actually seemed to be a little more nervous than some of us) This is the third year the Ishikawa Taiko Association has offered this course. They hold it each year from August to December. There were nine of us in the class. Two had take the class all three years, four were in their second time, and for three of us, it was the first time. He shared that several years ago, at an event featuring Kaga Taiko, he noticed the average age of the performers was rather old. Worried that this style of drumming in danger of slowly dying out, they started the class, in hopes of sparking some new interest. It's certainly worth saving, and we hope to be able to study it enough to bring it back with us and incorporate it into our own program.

We each received a short intro from Matsuya sensei, and then performed our own Kaga taiko improvisations one at a time. It is actually two people, but the other person is really only an accompanist. So it is like you are playing a solo. I suppose it could have been quite intimidating (which maybe it was for some) to play an improvised solo, in difficult style of drumming, in front of a lot of people who are all fairly advanced players, after only studying for about 4 months. For me, though, it wasn't so bad. I had just that slight bit of nervousness that actually makes you play better, but not so much that you cannot concentrate. I think the relaxed atmosphere played a large role in it. You could tell that the audience was not watching with critical eyes, even though there were many very high level players there. They all seemed to be happy to see new people with a growing interest in Kaga taiko, and they wanted us to do well. Besides that, my daughter sat right down in front and smiled at us the whole time we played.

We all made it through our "solos" without any major mistakes, and then we could sit down and enjoy the rest of the afternoon, featuring players from Kaga and Fukui (the next prefecture just south west of Ishikawa. As I said, it was a fun and relaxed program. It didn't seem to have a set order. Most of the performers did not have any type of costume. There was an MC and he would announce, or ask someone to play next. Sometimes they came right up, other times they resisted at first, but were eventually persuaded to play, and other times they were in the bathroom. We really got a good feel for some of the different styles of drumming within Kaga taiko, and between Fukui and Ishikawa.

We did take video of our own performances, as well as about 5 or 6 of the other, more professional players before our battery ran out. I wanted to post them along with this entry, but my fear is that it will take me some time to do the editing and get them uploaded, so before I forget the details of the recital, I wanted to get them written down. As soon as I have a chance, I will put them up, with short explanations when I can. In the meantime, here is a picture of me, our instructor, Matsuya sensei, and another class member, Jingu san. If you're wondering what is sticking out of the back of his neck, well, he nearly died in a bizarre gardening accident last year... just kidding. It is his flute. You'll notice when the videos are posted, that nearly all the performances are accompanied by flute. I guess that's just where he wanted to carry it.

Toranosuke - Don Don Matsuri Festival

Greetings. I just returned from four days in Tokyo. It was not necessarily taiko related, but I did have some experiences that I feel that I'll just have to share with my dear readers. One in particular was the scene outside of the Takarazuka theater. But this is not the time I will share it. Right now, I am just taking care of posting some videos which have been waiting for nearly a month to be seen. As I mentioned in the last post, I've been rather busy, though, and this is the first chance I've had to introduce them.

There are three videos here, all from the same performance. This performance was in Komatsu, Ishikawa, Japan. At the Don Don Matsuri (festival) at the end of last month (October). The group is called Toranosuke. They are a group mostly composed of children, but as you'll see, there are also adults in the group. They are from the Noto peninsula of Ishikawa prefecture. I also just learned this week, that just last weekend they participated in a taiko competition near here and may have won the top prize. At least they won something, I am sure. Please enjoy the videos. I think much of their style is very typical of the taiko in this area of Japan.