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2004-02-20 - 7:24 p.m. I am a Taiko Drummer... Nee-ner, nee-ner, nee-ner! Today, because of some strange stringing of fate that decreed it was supposed to happen today, was the 'farewell events' for the seniors at the high school. They got a concert, with their classmates and teachers and a few psuedo-celebreties providing the entertainment. There was even a slideshow. So why do I care? Well, as you can probably figure out, or maybe not, I participated in the damn thing. Last time I did one of these things was for the school's 'Popular Festival'... er, the culture festival. I was a swan for a quick Swan Lake, with the added bonus of Morning Musume. (All I know about this band is that it's made up of about 50 girls, all of who have some sort of a varying shade of cute to their name, which has spinned out about five hundred different mini-groups, like, say, Mini-Morning...) That time, I had a good time, despite how utterly goofy it was supposed to be.. and it did live up to that, by the way. Nothing can top grown men in tutus with fethers in the hair and swans coming out of their crotch. This time, thank god?, it wasn't that, er, nuts. It was taiko drumming, singing, and bell-playing, thankfully not at the same time. Same teachers at before, pretty much, but there you go. We practiced with the drums at least three times, and man, nothing's more fun, and more painful. Sort of. The first practice, we were taught the basics by a nice taiko woman whose name I can't remember: how to hold the sticks and how to hit the drum properly. Let me be the first to tell you that my arms hurted like hell for days afterwards. We were only doing at it for a half-hour when some of the skin on my thumb was rubbed off by the stick. I wasn't the only one this happened to, thank god; other teachers got wounds just like mine on their hands because of them. I got to wearing a bandage over the wound, even when it healed up, every practice afterwards. Near the end of that first practice, while doing the three-people-sharing-a-drum-hitting-a-specific-rhythm-once-before-bouncing-out-and-spinning-away-into-position-to-the-right-while-the-other-person-hits-the-rhythm-once-and-does-the-same-thing.. er, thing (it part of the end of the program... mroe on that later?), I twisted my ankle. I twisted my ankle while playing drums. Does anything else sound as silly? So, at the end of that first practice, I had a semi-wounded thumb, a twisted-up right ankle, and tired arms that will be very sour the next morning. Thank God that the second practice was 5 recovery days later. It was a group of teachers and students, six guys from the baseball club, er, team. They were good, those kids. They had one less day of practice, but they were able to pull it off. The whole thing was about 7 and a half minutes. First, is that cool drum thing of a slow drum roll that speeds up while getting softer before getting louder and slower again. You hear it in... Japan, I guess. Each drum had either three of four people (more teachers than the limit is the reason, but there ain't no harm in that.). The students in the center 2, the teachers on the two one the side, plus the smaller, 'beat' ones on the edges of the stage. Everyone was going to take a turn at the main part before the twirl-a-drummer at the end. Did I mention I twisted my right ankle a second time at the second practice? Each turn at the main part ('layered like a sandwich,' said the taiko lady), gets faster and faster. I don't know how it happened(I blame the fact that the other two teachers at the drum I was at conspired against me, but I got the last, fastest part.) Is this entry too long yet? And the main part is rather layered. With 3 'sutTON sutTON do-DON Don Don', 4 'do-DON Don Don', 4 'SAN do ko do Koi do Koi do Koi', 4 'SAN do ko do Koi', 16 1-2 beats in crescendo, 4 'do-DON Don Don', and finally 3 more 'sutTON's. It's quite a bit. Then the twirl a drummer. All 'sutTON's, three at a time once, two at a time twice, one at a time three times, all in a rather speedy beat, no wonder I twisted the damn thing. My mom always made me high-tops when I was little for a reason. I never mastered the twirling away into position, but I did manage the banging, and moving away properly. Just no spin. There's a spin. Not while my ankle is still in wraps, sorry. But, according to everyone who saw me either in practice, or today in a happi coat (Let me just say Ilooked so cute/cool in that outfit. I wanna do it again), I played very well. I can only assume that the phrase 'for a foreigner' was left out of the statement everything, but that's alright. After that first night, I actually wondered if I should have gone into drumming back in high school. But then I think about how braindead those weed-puffers were in my high school, so forget that. And everyone said I did very well. I really hope I can do it again one day. Congradulations if you read this far. I know I didn't! The Past - Guestbook - The Future, Too |