Bachi in the Dark

I have wonderful students. They were totally game when I proposed a bachi-making workshop. When you pound away week in and week out, the bachi get splintered and beat up. The purpose of my workshop wasn't to get free labor to make more bachi for the community bucket, but to try to show them that the things we play, be it the taiko or the bachi we play them with, come from somewhere. That work and love go into those things. Yes you can buy bachi, but wouldn't it mean so much more if you made them yourself? Does the pounding you do on a drum every week mean something more when what you pound it with something you made youself?

I went to 4 different stores to find the dowels for the bachi but dowels were cleaned out every where I went. I probably shouldn't have proposed a bachi making workshop without securing the dowels first, but I managed to find enough, and phew.

I've been meaning to do this for a while, and the one tactical error I made was that it gets dark early these days. I was blessed by a warm night without fog, and again, by great students who didn't mind sawing and sanding in the dark. They seemed to have enjoyed the process, so I am glad. Now they all have their own bachi to love and take care of (and practice on their own with!).

They made me proud!