What is Taiko? The first time I tried taiko, I was intimidated by the large drum. I tapped it lightly with my bachi sticks and a suppressed rumble escaped the seams of the drum head and carried through the room. It’s an amazing practice that involves physical endurance, mental endurance, music, Japanese culture, group activity, and a plethora of other ideas.
“Taiko” in Japanese means drum, but taiko today is more commonly referred to as a Japanese drum ensemble. Perhaps you’ve seen performances of taiko at a festival or on TV or on a TED Talk. As taiko became more and more popular in pop culture, more groups formed and started to let go of the traditional repertoire of music and started to perform new pieces with a modern touch of hip hop or dance.
Apart from all of the musical reasons of why taiko is an enticing practice, taiko requires its players to be physically apt. To become a great taiko player, one needs to have the endurance to stand or sit in a variety of positions for six minutes or longer for multiple performances. Some of the most famous taiko groups require a set routine to help the players be in shape. The taiko ensemble Kodo begins each day at 5:30 a.m. and run six miles. Their daily regimen encompasses 12 hours of physical preparation and rehearsal. Another famous taiko group known for their physical demands is Ondekoza. They are famous for running a 10k in the morning, afternoon, and only eat as necessary to sustain their health. While their endurance seems to defy human nature, their ability to perform with musicality really demonstrates to audiences their deep concentration and the intensity of their practices. A while ago, we shared a blog about mental focus on weight lifting and musical composition, and taiko is certainly no exception to 100% mental focus for both music performance and physical awareness.
What are the demands?
Watching a performance of taiko makes it easy to see some of the physical demands of performing, especially with groups like Kodo. Perhaps their advanced techniques and movements are admirable to see because they memorize everything. Did you notice no one has sheet music to read from? What about how everyone does the same movement at the same time? On top of memorizing the correct movements and memorizing the music, the players need to memorized how to use their energy for endurance to perform, and lastly, make sure they can perform well!
Here are some aspects of performing taiko:
- Matching: One of the most important elements of a successful performance of taiko is the player’s ability to match. While individuality is highly valued (many pieces include solos, both memorized and improvised!), the ability to match the other players shows the wholeness of the group and gives the audience a stunning representation to watch. The video below is a perfect example of how matching can create an incredible visual.
- Stance: Many pieces require a performer to stand in one position for several minutes. One of the best examples of this is from this video (Kodo, from the top). In this particular piece, the players are in a sitting position. Again, because matching is very important to the impact of a performance, the angles of their backs also match. Another great example of a common stance is in the photo below. When I first learned taiko, this was the stance I learned. It seemed easy enough, but depending on the height of the drum (see the woman in the back?) or the arm movements, it was very difficult to find my balance. Not to mention spending a whole hour and a half rehearsal in this position and trying to memorize the music. However, there are plenty of pieces that require constant movement, but that’s a completely different performance technique.
- Arm movement: One of the most expressive aspects of taiko are the arm movements. Arm movements in taiko can vary from being very small and unnoticeable to being elaborate parts of the choreography. While the whole body is essentially responsible for the sound that comes out of the drums, the arms determine the speed at which the stick hits the drum, which can affect the type of sound coming from the drum. One of the easiest and worst habits to do is to tense up the arms. Often times, the arms are extended behind the body or up in the air, which can be incredibly tiring. Practicing in a mirror or with a partner is essential to developing correct arm and muscle movements. What I imagined myself performing wasn’t always how I actually looked when performing. A beautiful example of arm movement choreography is this video of Raging Asian Women (RAW) performing.
- Sticking and Stick Height: Sticking is knowing which hand to use at the right time. Learning sticking can be difficult for everyone, especially with more difficult pieces but there are plenty of resources and ways to practice it. Many taiko groups teach pieces through rote learning. Rote learning is a memorization technique based on repetition. By repeating the movements so much, the player will eventually memorize it. It helps that taiko is a recordable art so others can learn from watching and listening repeatedly.
- Controlling your body: One of the most difficult things to do when performing and rehearsing taiko is to remember to relax and control your own body, which is the most important aspect of any workout or musical instrument. I mentioned earlier that one of the worst habits to form as a taiko performer is tensing up. This does no favors for the muscles and it prohibits movement from being fluid. While our taiko leader never made us run six miles before rehearsal, we often did stretches and other exercises like jumping jacks, push ups, or crunches. These all helped our bodies to get pumping.
Anyone who can hold bachi sticks! You don’t have to be athletic to start, and you don’t have to have any previous musical experience. Either can certainly help, but plenty of people perform taiko successfully without knowing anything about fitness or music. While I had my first experience of taiko at Bowling Green State University, there are many other groups out there. College ensembles, taiko workout groups, leisure groups, professional groups, children groups, and several clubs all provide opportunities to perform taiko or use it for its many benefits. The thing about my taiko class that was so inspiring were the plenty of non-athletic people who perhaps never worked out, never ran, never did anything physical, who pushed their bodies to be apart of the group and performance. At the end of every class, each of us were sweating from hard work and concentration.
The beauty of taiko:
What I find to be the beauty of taiko is that it uses the human body in such an expressive way to create different sounds in a single drum. In the rehearsal, the player’s mind has to think of what movements their body has to do in order to make a certain sound come out of the drum. Like I said in the beginning, the large drum is a little intimidating. However, when players take ownership over the drum, it also means they have full control over their bodies. It’s claiming that right over their own body that makes them look incredibly powerful, confident, and strong.
If you’d like to find out more about taiko, check out some of these links:
- TaikoFit: a fitness workout that blends taiko with aerobics.
- Try a Drum Workout with Taiko: Body+Soul: The use of taiko as a whole body workout
- Taiko Drumming: Healthy Exercise for Music Makers: Lists benefits of Taiko
- Kodo Drummers Hones Bodies as Well as Skills: More information about Kodo’s regimen
- Ondekoza: More information on the taiko ensemble, Ondekoza
- Raging Asian Women: More information on the all women ensemble, RAW
- Kodo: More information on the taiko ensemble, Kodo
- TaikoSource: A large resource for taiko, including a song database, group map, and news
- Taiko Skin: A taiko blog resource
