Terminology

How important is it for you to know the right name for the right equipment?

Some of you will read that and think, "well of course I need to know what things are called!" But I don't mean what you call them, I mean the "correct" name for it.

On TaikoForum.com and the North American Taiko Community page on Facebook, there are threads about what certain drums are called, according to whom, and/or when they were adopted. Before that, there were (and still are) webpages that list what a particular group calls their equipment.

But you know what's funny? I think it's really a large waste of time. :)

- Take something like the Japanese word josuke. We use that term for our lead drums, regardless of the maker, although we have three sub-categories if we need to specify which jozuke we want. But outside of SJT, the word is rarely heard, let alone used. There's still a lot of confusion even about where it came from, but we still use it. Outside of SJT, most people use chudaiko (middle drum), or nagado (long body) for their lead drum. So why do we still use josuke if no one else does? Beats me. And since we already have those sub-categories, we could never use the term josuke again and still figure out what drums we were talking about: "two smaller Pearls and the three matsuri."

- Some call the drumsticks bachi. Or is it batchi? I see it spelled both ways. Same with betta, the down-stand, spelled beta by some. Some people say "horsebeat", some say "don doko". Some say the quiet notes are "tsu", some say "su".

- What about odaiko? "Big drum", okay. But group A's odaiko might be group B's chudaiko, if group B has another drum that's enormous.

So we have terms that are group-specific, terms that are spelled differently, and terms that are subjective from one group to another. So who's going to be correct?

Terminology should be functional. Can I quickly understand what you're referring to? Then we're good. Will someone from another group understand you? Maybe not, but as long as it doesn't take more than a minute to straighten things out, you're good to go.

Are you the type that hears someone use a term differently from how you use it, and your first instinct is to correct them? How do you know you're right? Do you think it's going to change the entire group to say it the way you like it? Really? You need a better hobby, something like...playing taiko!

Seriously, just be aware there are a lot of different ways to say the same thing. If you can communicate amongst other people what you're talking about, that's what matters. If you're so worried about what's "right" and "wrong" in terminology, you're looking at a never-ending quest that will only really matter to you and maybe a few others (who could easily disagree with the terms you chose.)

Now I'm off to grab my beaters and play some "taiko drums"!