- Start with your arm extended upwards, let gravity do the work as your arm collapses.
- Start closer to the drum and focus on wrist snap.
Here's my analogy. Learning to strike taiko is like learning how to drive. Option 2 is like getting behind the wheel of a car. You have to deal with the steering wheel, the accelerator, the brakes, the rear and side windows, and on top of that, all the rules of the road. Challenging! However, Option 1 is like getting behind the wheel of a bus. Not only do you have to deal with all of the above, but also the massive length of the bus (the increased distance between where you begin the strike in relation to the drum), as well as the massive weight of the bus (dealing with the force of your arm dropping from a height). The analogy isn't perfect, but the basic point remains intact!
Ultimately, what makes a good sound is a good strike. A good strike is determined by what happens just before the impact. Where the arm goes above that small area is window dressing; it makes taiko look pretty. At best, it adds volume. Whether your arm is up, out, to the side, at an angle, it's really irrelevant if you understand how to strike when the bachi is near the head of the drum. Granted, no one would really want to watch taiko if it wasn't for all that window dressing, let alone play it! I'm no different in that regard.
Maybe we all want to "drive buses", but if the bus is the basic way of raising and dropping the arm to hit a downward-sitting taiko, what about when it's at a slant? Or how about an odaiko? Or one of a dozen other different types of taiko? It's better to learn the foundations that apply no matter what you play than to focus on one particular "angle of attack" and find that it may translate poorly as you move from drum to drum.
I've been thinking about how this relates to how I was taught -- the whole bus -- and came up with this:
ReplyDelete1. My group's view is that looking good is actually a bigger factor than sounding good -- and having seen some videos of groups that sound fine but look clumsy, I have to agree.
Related to what you said about spirit and technique, I think spirit is a requirement for looking good... it all ties together.
2. There's a lot of competition to get into the performing group, so I suspect they have no qualms about frontloading the learning curve. :)
3. If you can learn to drive the bus, switching to a small car should hopefully be pretty easy.
The curve for me as a beginner went like this:
A) doubt and worry over my physical capability, coupled with determination to be as awesome as the performers were.
B) 3 weeks to get stance, grip, motions, dynamics, and arm independence more or less as it should in beta style -- first with gravity, then with added impetus.
C) 2 weeks of confusion, extreme awkwardness, and doubt when learning slant style.
D) "getting" slant style and actually preferring it to beta style; getting hip motion better integrated into the hit, fixing stance issues, and starting to untangle playing on the "left" side.
E) Hachijo and Miyake were actually relatively easy to pick up. Yatai I suspect will always be kind of insane. :)
I haven't played odaiko yet, and I'm uncertain whether the same approach translates to a different vector or if it's a whole new thing. So you may be onto something there.
I suspect being tall may actually be an advantage, for once, when playing odaiko?
Anyway, maybe it makes a difference that we moved from beta to slant within the first month, thus didn't get hopelessly used to the gravity drop?
Dave, to continue the driving analogy, we all eventually want to "drive the bus", aka striking downwards. But then when it comes to driving an 18-wheeler (slant) or motorcycle (slung okedo) or bulldozer (odaiko), how easily do the lessons of one transfer to the other?
ReplyDeleteIf the striking technique is solid, I find that the approach is easier to adjust. However, when striking isn't developed on a fundamental level, every new style of approach (new "vehicle") is like almost starting from scratch.