Today I will talk about my experience playing with Korabo Taiko. When I was in Vegas celebrating my cousin’s first birthday, me and my mom heard about this Taiko Group close by to my aunts house. Knowing the Taiko enthusiast I am, I wanted to visit and play with them.
The interesting thing about where they practice is that they share a space with a Samoan and Hawaiian group and is next door to a shooting range. When I first went there, I visited on a Thursday and they weren’t open, so we asked someone else and they said there was a Samoan drumming place.
Everyone there was very nice. I don’t want to give names for privacy reasons. I noticed that their style is more Western as they use American drum drills (such as paradiddles) and a metronome. They also focused on many things in one practice such as Katsugi Okedo and Odaiko. They also showed me a lot of drills and their Narimono (instruments.) I even learned some more Flute patterns!
Today I will talk about Taiko Bachi or sticks. When using Bachi, there are four types of wood to use. I am referencing Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten and Asano Taiko.
Kashi (Oak): The hardest and heaviest type of wood. You should not hit the sides hard as the wood could break. This Bachi is recommended for Nagado Daiko.
Kaede (Maple): A little softer and lighter than oak. This wood is recommended for smaller or weaker people or beginners.
Ho (Magnolia): Ho is soft and light material. For taiko with soft and thin drum head such as katsugi oke daiko, soft bachi like ho is recommended. Please note that ho is easily dented hitting taiko’s tacks (byou) and edge.
Hinoki (Cypress): The softest wood recommended. It is so soft, even a slight hit could dent it. Despite its delicateness, it makes the purest sound from Taiko and is recommended for Shime Daiko and Odaito.
I will now tell you which Bachi to use on certain Taiko drums.
Nagado/ Chu Daiko: Like I said earlier, it depends on your preferences, which you can use Maple or Oak.
For Yatai Bayashi, players use a taper Bachi which resembles a club. The origins come from the small Mikoshis. Little space, but a lot of power. They use Hinoki to make these special Bachi.
Shime Daiko/ Hira Daiko/ Okedo/ Katsugi OkedoTaiko Set: For Shime Daiko, you can use either smaller Bachi or tapered Bachi. If you are only playing Shime Daiko, I recommend using smaller Hinoki Bachi since you won’t hit the edges. You could also use the tapered Bachi if you want a good grip, If you are playing a taiko set, then I recommend Ho or Kaede Tapered Bachi.
Odaiko: Part of what makes Odaiko the most tiring ways of playing is the giant sticks the players wield around. It is made of Hinoki so it is hard to play on the rim without denting it.
Miyake Daiko: Another energy exerting style is Miyake. Performers would play this song for hours. It is made of the same material as Odaiko Bachi.
Today I will talk about my three day experiment learning Korean. In Language Arts, our teacher wanted us to do a mini project and I chose to begin learning Korean. I feel like it was a good idea to because of my heritage. Although I am mainly Japanese, I am also a quarter Chinese and Korean, so I thought it would be more ambitious.
In my three day study, I wanted to mainly focus on learning Hangul, the Korean Alphabet, and learning simple phrases. I used two apps, Duolingo and Mesmerize. Here are my reviews of them
Duolingo: Althoughthe app is still under repair, it was a great app to use, especially for beginners. As many others already experienced, because of the limited amount of answers, I had to repeat several questions again and again. While it’ll be great once that’s fixed, for now, I view it as a chance to help me cement the words in my memory.
Mezmerize: Another Language app, it strongly reinforced the basic as well as more sophisticated techniques. Like Duolingo, if you don’t show proficient progress in a lesson, they redo it. They use mnemonics that really help me learn both Hangul and phrases.
Even though it is essential to learn the alphabet before you can write words, there was only a three day experiment, so I learned simple phrases with Hangul I already learned up until I could read and understand all the characters. I learned there are three types of Korean writing like Japanese, but with only that one alphabet.
Words that are ‘pure’ Korean; Words that are based on English
Words that are based on Chinese characters.
Going back to Chinese character references, there is a character that has Korean, volcano and iceberg is 화산 (fire-mountain) and 빙산 (ice-mountain)English based words are like tomato, which the Korean romaji is Tomato. It is a attempt to mimic the English pronunciation.
in conclusion, I feel like this experience has opened my eyes to learning other languages and up to today, I am continuing to use the apps.
