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Opening question: Do you have any secret talents? Everyone has a little thing they have discovered they are good at. One of our members was extremely talented at fixing zippers, we called her the “zipper savant.” It turns out that Ellen can wiggle her ears, Marlene is especially talented at making frozen yogurt and Cathy can untangle jewelry. Franco accidentally discovered he was good at making fake gift certificates, but of course he wouldn’t try to fool someone intentionally!
We had a guest in the class today, Sam Leung. He is a student at Rhode Island School of Design, and plays taiko with Gendo Taiko, the collegiate group out there. He is very interested in the applications of taiko for Parkinson’s. Moving forward, we may have other guests as San Jose Taiko is becoming known in the global taiko community for our Parkinson’s programming. Our intention is to be able to share our work with others so that this type of class may be available around the world. We hope that this is not an inconvenience to you and want to be respectful of our wonderful space here. Please feel free to let us know if you have questions.
After warm-ups, Yurika led us through a coordination activity. Since we had been working on arm circles during last month and getting your arms to do slightly different things. Here is a video below going over the activity.
Today’s Sharp versus Smooth Drill followed up from last week. We added on some “parameters” or ways of mixing up the free movement. We did some reps with the parameter of looking at one of your hands during the movement. We also did some where you could get out of your taiko stance and start to move around the drum. The pattern stayed the same:
Don Don Don Don - SHARP - SHARP -
Don Don DoRo Don - SMOOTH (4 counts)
Number Drill con’t…
We also did some more of last week’s number drill, this time adding on more numbers and also adding a background “ji” or “basebeat” made with the virtual drum machine at dokodon.com. If you want to practice to the one Yurika made, it’s a horsebeat and you can click here to access it.
Franco challenged us to add Kiai also. For one click, you can say “hup” or “ha” and for two clicks, “so-re". And if you want a further challenge, you can add movement while you are clicking your bachi. It was interesting to observe how things influenced each other, for example Lane said that he became aware that sometime he would click with one hand under or over. Renira mentioned that she found doing the even numbers harder than odd numbers.
Here is a video of the last round when all the numbers were in.
Have fun practicing and I hope everyone isn’t too affected by the smoke.
Make Your Own Bucket-Taiko!
Yurika ran an informal session on how to make a practice taiko with a 5-gallon bucket (or a box) and some tape. It’s kind of long, but here is a recording of the session if you would like to make one yourself.
It doesn’t have to be this fancy, but here is one that a student made in another class. Feel free to make it your own!
ANNOUNCEMENTS and REMINDERS:
Payment for classes should be made here: https://www.paypal.me/sanjosetaiko OR by check made out to San Jose Taiko, 565 N. 5th Street, San Jose CA 95112 (please mark the check PRC). The fee is $10 drop-in or $36/month. (The fee for September is $45/month since there are 5 Tuesdays.)
Bachi can be purchased to be mailed for $10 a pair.
Our friends in southern California are also running a taiko class for Parkinson’s called “Rhythmic Flow Taiko” on Sundays. Please check their website for more info.
At any time, feel free to email yurika@taiko.org for questions!