Renshu Makes Perfect

Learned a new piece yesterday. Basically it's a version of Renshu, but we were playing around with different arrangements and phasing and it sounds pretty cool. Renshu was the first song I ever learned at Emeryville Taiko, and we played it over and over and over till we went blind. I didn't think I could be excited about Renshu again. We play this version on slants and the energy is completely different--not so tense and robotic. But I realize that even after playing taiko for 6+ years, I still have a hard time with my doro suku's. My "homework" for this week is to learn how to play it really fast, and by really fast, I mean like so fast you can't even see your bachi fast. Yeah, we like things fast.

As if that wasn't enough new information to cram into my head, I also went to a samba batucuda class later that afternoon. I'd taken a workshop at Drum Camp this past summer and had a lot of fun with it so I decided to attend this class. Right before we started drumming they were like ok, time to put your ear plugs in! and boy they weren't kidding. Unfortunately my ear plugs were in the chekere bag at home. Anyhow, I played a tamborim, which is a teeny tiny drum you hold in your hand. It kind of looks like a tamborine, but no bells, and you hit it with a kind of floppy, doubled-up stick. I liked the way the class was taught. The teacher would introduce a pattern to people playing one type of drum and get you on that groove, then he'd go to another set of players and teach them something else, and he just kept layering on the players and then after a while he'd come back around and change your pattern so it was always interesting. And I've said it before, and I'll say it again, stepping on those downbeats really helps you learn.

Oh and I just got these pics a few minutes ago. They're from that circus benefit we did a month ago. I tried to iron my tabi for this, and when I told my fellow players this, they laughed at me.

I got one word for you: HEEEEEYYY!: