When culture gets in the way...

Most taiko in North America is Japanese-American taiko. That boils down to following Japanese-American cultural values merged with the group's philosophy.

One thing I've seen quite a bit in both Japanese and J-A values is suppressing the nail. I'm sure most of you have heard that phrase, that "the nail that sticks out gets the hammer." I'm not going to judge that value; but I am going to look at it in relation to playing taiko.

For most taiko players, it's not easy to exude confidence in a performance. At first, all you're worried about is not screwing up! Down the road it's the little things like staying together as a group. But somewhere, after enough play time, you'll start getting comfortable, start developing your own style/voice within your group. Here's where the trouble starts...

Let me make some assumptions about you, dear reader.

• You're probably trying to get better at soloing.
• You watch other people from other groups play and wish you could be as confident.
• You don't feel like you have enough ability to really "sell" a confident image.

Most groups I see don't really push their members to excel in these areas. I'm not saying "they want you to be mediocre", but it's more likely that they will support your development but at the same time make sure you're not feeling too confident. How counter-productive is that?

Sometimes your group, your greatest source of resources, can also hold you back. It may not be a conscious decision on their part, but often due to cultural values, it happens. You can shoose to fight back, but making waves like that will often lead to a lose-lose situation.

They may not recognize the incongruity, but when it's there, it's up to you to take your progress in your own hands, even if it might risk a little "flak" in return. I'm not saying you should strive to be a "superstar" and alienate fellow members along the way - I'm saying you need to find inspiration and support from *outside* your group at times.


It's a hard line to straddle, that of being confident and strong and dynamic on stage, yet humble off of it. Just remember that they're not mutually exclusive; you can be both!