Do ro tsu ku

I am practicing my do ro tsu ku's (that's the taiko way of saying "big-big-small-small"). It's not a hard pattern to play, but I have to learn how to play it fast. Not just fast, but fast-fast! And not just fast-fast, but we're going to be playing along with a jazz bassist, who can play as slow and cool as he wants, as long as we play fast-fast. I am of course a little intimidated by this idea, but that's a good thing, because that makes me obsess, and when I obsess, I practice really really hard. I like to turn on my metronome as well as a stop watch, so I can say, ok, I'm going to play it at 120 bpm for 20 minutes. And then I crank the metronome up a notch and do it again for another 20 minutes, or however long. It's also challenging because playing this pattern for extended periods of time makes me hypnotized, so I have to fight that. Plus we are going to be playing it with mallets, which I've never used before. I have to get used to the different balance and sound. I haven't decided if I like the bigger or smaller ones yet. I've been playing on the practice pad which makes hardly any noise at all, so it's also been difficult to tell if my do ro's are markedly different than my tsu ku's. Everything sounds like sput sput sput sput to me right now. The good side is that I have 4 weeks to perfect this. The bad side is that at this moment I still have no idea what this mystery song is, but tomorrow I will learn more.

Oh and check out the poster behind my practice pad. It's a giant display of gobos, which are surprisingly interesting to space-out to when you're practicing. They're like little amusement parks for the eyes.

All right. I think it's time for TV now. Practicing hard is good, but I've been at RCW every day this week since last Sunday, and tonight is my only night off besides next Saturday so I think I will take the time to veg out. Pass me the remote, yo.