Sunday, November 8, 2009- (Taiko Update W/ VIDEO!!)

I just got back from my first real 太鼓 Taiko Drumming practice. The past week they were performing and the week before that I came back late from Utsunomiya. This was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had yet. The atmosphere was welcoming, encouraging, and yet professional and competitive. My Taiko Sensei’s name is Hoshi-San (it means Star) and his daughter Haru (Spring- so her full name me Spring Star! Haha cool eh?) is 22 years old and was a blast. After setting up they had me introduce myself to the dozen or so people there which ranged from a 13-year-old girl who kicked my butt at drumming to a man in his mid-60’s who played the giant drum in the back like it was nothing! They then handed me the sticks and said Gambatte Kudasai, which basically means, “Okay Sam, we’re throwing right into it, do your best!” Haha They whipped through a Taiko 101 for me and then we started practicing their next piece. It was exhilarating, far more challenging than I expected, and far more of a work out as well. I doubt I’ll make it to their level of performance anytime soon but in the meantime they’ve invited me back every week.

I recorded a video that is absolutely unreal. It is of five of the drummers, one on lead (the tiny drum), three on the middle drums, and one on the big ones in back. It’s 4 minutes long and the blog website basically crashed when I tried to load it. I'm going to try putting it on its own later today, hopefully that will work. Sorry = \