Ei Ja Nai Ka? "Isn't it Good?"

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Opening question: What was your favourite toy or game growing up?

Rebecca: Yellow plastic lamb
 / Nancy: Swings
 / Cathy: Monopoly
 / Ellen: Stuffed animals
 that would join her and her brother while watching Saturday morning cartoons / Franco: Apple II+
 / Lane: Anything outside
, also hotwheels which ended up getting destroyed by younger brother / 
Theresa: Drums! Playing in parades in Sacramento with sister / Sonya: stuffed animals, horses, plastic dinosaurs
 / Yurika: digging holes in the backyard with sister and brother, looking for treasure

“Ei Ja Nai Ka?” Call and Response

Today we learned the kakegoe (掛け声) for a song that is played by San Jose Taiko and many other taiko groups around the world called “Ei Ja Nai Ka.” Kakegoe are usually words of encouragement for the musicians, singers, or dancers performing with music.  Usually they are phased a longer than kiai and might fit in musically, but always shouted with energy and intention.

Ei Ja Nai Ka? hai! ASORE! ASORE!

Ei Ja Nai Ka? hai! ASORE SORE YOI SHO!

Ei Ja Nai Ka? hai! ASORE! ASORE!

Ei Ja Nai Ka? hai! ASORE SORE YOI SHO!

Ei EI Ja JA Nai NAI Ka KA

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - HAI!

Yurika had recorded this for our summer obon performance at home:

Here are a couple of videos of Ei Ja Nai Ka? being performed at home during COVID and also at the San Jose Obon Festival. You can see how Ei Ja Nai Ka? has spread all over the world here.

Putting Things Together

Franco went over a review of the RumbaKo “sweeps” that we worked on last week (see videos below). The sweeps are great to practice as they challenge our right and left sides to do something very different - while one side is playing the taiko with rhythmic strikes, the other hand is trying to make a smooth movement. Franco suggested that if that is difficult at first, it’s ok to move the “smooth” hand more like a ticking clock.

We also did a bit more practice on the Horsebeat from last week and added an element, alternating 4 horsebeats with 4 counts of movement. The movements can be smooth movements or they can be sharp movements.

After practicing this for a while, we also reviewed the song that we made up using numbers. Then putting it all together:

5 . 5 . 4 . . 4 . . / 5 . 5 . 1 . 1 . 2 . (“Ho!”)

Horsebeat x 4 / Movement x 4 counts

Repeat the whole thing!

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.

• We will be running classes through December. We’re not sure when we’ll be back at the studio, so it will be Zoom for the time being. If we do end up going back to the studio, we are planning to also have either a separate Zoom class or a hybrid Zoom/studio class if you can’t come all the way to SJ.

• At any time, feel free to email yurika@taiko.org for questions!

Number Game

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Opening question: What is your nickname? What nicknames have you had in the past?

Lane wins for number of nicknames!

Kiai + Movement

Franco is back this week. After he led us through warm-ups, we did some kiai review and then split the group into two teams so we could hear ourselves better. We added movement to the kiai.

The word Kiai comes from two kanji characters - “ki” meaning “energy” and “ai” meaning “meeting.” For us in taiko, expressing through kiai is integral to the artform. As KI is one of the four principles in San Jose Taiko, where our energy flows and what we do with it is important. Kiai is one way that energy is expressed. Our body is part of the instrument and as such, energy can flow through movement and breath and voice. It connects us. It impacts those watching us. One of our vocal coaches once said, it is an amazing gift that we can create this vibration in our bodies that can move other people.

Here is a video of the kiai and movement warm-up activity.

Movement Game

We did a review of the 4 movements that were covered last week (see post and videos below). Yurika turned it into a game where flashcards indicated which movement was to be played next. It seemed that the windmills got easier when it was faster.

Number Game

Another game that Franco led us through was a number game. Basically you have to play the number of hits that are called out. It started out with just one number at a time, but moved up levels so that we were playing 3 numbers in a row. It’s interesting how when there were more numbers it became a bit more intuitive as it started to sound more like music. Music is stored and processed in a different part of the brain, which takes less processing.

It was nice to have a bit of time at the end for reflections. We’re grateful to have this time together!

We are working on a taiko “kit” that can be mailed out!

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.

• Bachi can be purchased to be mailed for $10 a pair.

• At any time, feel free to email yurika@taiko.org for questions!