O Shime

I SOOOOOOO want a shime. I'd be such a good mom to it and I'd take really good care of it. I'm even going to a shime-parenting class called TIASOU Method. It's one of the workshops I got into for the taiko conference. It's taught by Kris Bergstrom from On Ensemble, who are, by the way, fast becoming one of my favorite taiko groups (I don't know if anyone can surpass San Jose Taiko as my all-time favorite group. Not yet anyway). But as I was saying, I'm taking the TIASOU class because I've been wanting to get a shime for some time, but I absolutely forbade myself from having my own shime until I knew how to take care of it, which really means, until I knew how to lace and tighten one myself. Shime have a high-pitched sound that rises above the boominess of josuke (the barrel-sized drums), and the shime gets that high pitch from the skins being pulled tight over the body of the drum. Now, I know there are drums that can be tensioned using a bolt system, but personally, I think the bolts are ugly and they make the drum really heavy. There is nothing more beautiful than the rope wrapped around the drum, and it just seems strange that the earthiness of leather and wood should be forced together using something so unfairly strong as metal bolts. I think since I'm the one making the drum speak, then I should be the one to put that tension on the drum, using my own sweat and my own muscles. I think there is a relationship between player and drum whether you're aware of it or not. The TIASOU Method class is going to show us how one person, using more brains than brawn, can tighten a shime on their own. Once I know how to tie my own drum, then I can get my own, and I plan on doing that at the Taiko Conference. There will be a ton of vendors there and I've got a shime burning a hole in my pocket.