Horsebeat (DON DOKO = R RL = 1 1-2)

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Opening question: Do you speak another language besides English? Or can you teach us a word/phrase from another language?

A variety of languages popped up in the class - French, Spanish, Italian, Armenian, Japanese, ASL. Franco and Yurika had taken an ASL course for taiko instructors and thought perhaps this might come in handy for teaching Zoom classes long-term. Since everyone is muted a lot of the time. Stay tuned for some new taiko zoom hand signals.

RumbaKo Sweeps

Building off of exercises on sharp vs. smooth movements, Franco ran us through an exercise based on an SJT song called RumbaKo, which was inspired by rhythms from Cuba. There is a section of the song called Sweeps, and this is what we were working on. Here is a practice video. (*Tip: You can make the video go faster or slower by clicking on the little wheel/flower at the bottom right of the video and choosing the speed you want.)

You can see the entire performance of RumbaKo below. The sweeps section starts around 1 minute 30. (It is slightly different than our practice exercise.)

Horsebeat + Number Song

We also continued on with the number theme. Yurika made a up a song based on numbers that fit nicely into counts of 8, which should feel more natural to us than the random number activity from last week. In contrast to other world music that might be written in complex meters of 5 or 11 or 13, Japanese music and western music both are mostly written in counts of 8.

The pattern is:

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

This does break our previous rule of having 2 clicks after even numbers. But to mix things up, we changed the last click after the 2 into a Kiai and movement.

The entire song pattern is preceded by a Horsebeat. This is a base beat or “ji” that is very common in taiko music. When played quickly, it evokes the image of pounding hooves. There are various ways you can think about it:

Don DoKo (or Don DoRo)

Right Right-Left

1 - 1-2

In this exercise, play the horsebeat 8 times before and after the song (set of numbers).

Happy practicing!

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!

Sharp versus Smooth - Part 2

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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!

Sharp versus Smooth

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Opening question: How has life changed since you were 8 years old? Before class started, those of us logged on early were reflecting on how kids’ lives today are so different from when were kids. So we continued to check in on that topic. Especially when it comes to technology and safety.

Franco led us through some exercises of 3 different sharp taiko movements, similar to last week’s posing movements. We also talked about “GaZuut writing” and did some flowing movements, that might be compared to Tai Chi movements. Both of these types of movements are prevalent in San Jose Taiko’s style. We ended up putting them together in a Sharp versus Smooth Drill. The movement are free movements, you can come up with your own.

Don Don Don Don - SHARP - SHARP -

Don Don DoRo Don - SMOOTH (4 counts)

Number Drill

We also went back to a familiar activity involving numbers. Yurika led a drill that was based on a fun game taught to San Jose Taiko by a Kodo member, Eiichi Saito many years ago. We loved learning from Eiichi as he showed us how to make up taiko patterns based on numbers and also words. For example, he made up a part of a song based on his favourite foods.

Number activity rules: After an even number of Dons, click your bachi twice. After an odd number of Dons, click your bachi once.

Here is a video of the end of the drill when everyone had given a number.

A FEW OTHER THINGS…

SJT is starting up a senior class which is a mix of students from a few different classes who have been playing awhile, plus some new students. It will run on Wednesdays from 1-2PM on Zoom, starting September 9th and is taught by Yurika. If you are interested in joining, you can register here.

Also, Yurika is running a Make-Your-Own Taiko “craft afternoon” if you would like to learn how to make a taiko out of a 5 gallon bucket or box. It will be on Wednesday, September 2nd from 1-2PM. You will need a 5 gallon bucket (OR a medium sized box AND 4 pairs of disposable chopsticks, preferably new and not ripped apart, a box cutter) and a roll of heavy duty clear packing tape and scissors.

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.

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

Zoom Mirroring and Numbers as Music

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Opening question: What occupation do you find interesting/fascinating even if you wouldn’t really like to do it? Marlene’s was a recipe tester for Sunset Magazine and she did do it!

Coordination Activities

We finished off warm-ups this morning with a hand coordination activity. There are several similar ones on youtube, like this one.

Mirror Movement

Back in the studio, we used to sometimes do mirror movement. It’s interesting to explore how it feels to be a leader versus being a follower. We started out with a warm-up following Franco. And then split up into pairs and tried to follow along through Zoom.

Movement Drill Level Up

We touched on the movement drill from last week, adding on just a little bit more to the drumming part. Start out playing 4 Don’s. Then each movement has a different pattern before it. I found a fun online taiko drum machine to make a background beat. It’s really easy to use!

In the video I’m playing through each pattern 4 times before moving on to the next one. Remember to say SoRe nice and loud as part of the activity.

Numbers as Music

Franco led us through another number activity where you add an accent or louder hit on certain numbers. It’s interesting that over time, the counting makes way to sounding like music, and it becomes much easier. The number groove we played was 1-2-5-8.

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!

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!