taikonaut
i think it's funny that the english media term for a chinese professional space traveler uses the same word as the japanese word for drum. they're not related, but they're spelled the same.
springtime always makes me think of taiko. when i was in graduate school, i spent three of my least productive aeronautics and astronautics phd years performing with stanford taiko. this was a serious undertaking (~30-50 hrs/week), as this was a serious group of seriously committed people with seriously sick amounts of energy. if anyone went to school at a college where a capella groups were the rage, this was in a similar category of performing groups. a few slots opened up each year and 50-60 people would audition in a tense multi-phased competitive selection process. once in, practices and performances started immediately. there was intense peer pressure never to miss or be late to a practice, which occurred three or sometimes four times a week. we made our own drums (and went to workshops on how to make the drums), sanding wine barrels and stretching the hides ourselves. we designed and sewed our own costumes.
my last year in the group, we took things to a new level of insanity: we decided we would write and perform all original pieces at our spring concert. since we did all our lighting and stage design and set changes ourselves, this not only required writing/designing/choreographing/teaching/practicing the songs, but also working out complicated transitions moving drums and changing costumes.
my song employed all 18 group members and twenty copper pipe fittings i carefully selected from bins in palo alto and mountain view hardware stores. if i had not just given away my only vhs video player, i would volunteer to upload the video of this song, which also involved passing the cups in a rhythmic way based on a drinking game i had seen at a party the previous quarter. here are some crappy photos of the copper pipe fittings (almost nicely filling out a c-ish minor scale)
after passing the cups to the center, where they were placed in a certain order on a table, two people sat across from each other and played a repeated melody by mirroring a series of different loops around the layout of the cups. it's hard to describe without a video, but if anyone wants to come visit me, i will happily demonstrate.
anyway, i think of that year as a legendary one in stanford taiko history, but it could be that they've continued this tradition of composing all original pieces ever since. it doesn't appear that anyone has uploaded the (televised) video of our spring concert to youtube, but there are some cool videos of a few songs from a more recent concert in 2005.
many members of our group went on to great successes. in a freakish small-world connection, one of our other NAP posters knows chris tin, who is scoring films now. shoji and chris started their own taiko performance group, the on ensemble. if anyone is in LA and has a chance to see these guys, they are amazing.
i'd recommend checking out any taiko group that might come your way, especially if you've never experienced it.
springtime always makes me think of taiko. when i was in graduate school, i spent three of my least productive aeronautics and astronautics phd years performing with stanford taiko. this was a serious undertaking (~30-50 hrs/week), as this was a serious group of seriously committed people with seriously sick amounts of energy. if anyone went to school at a college where a capella groups were the rage, this was in a similar category of performing groups. a few slots opened up each year and 50-60 people would audition in a tense multi-phased competitive selection process. once in, practices and performances started immediately. there was intense peer pressure never to miss or be late to a practice, which occurred three or sometimes four times a week. we made our own drums (and went to workshops on how to make the drums), sanding wine barrels and stretching the hides ourselves. we designed and sewed our own costumes.
my last year in the group, we took things to a new level of insanity: we decided we would write and perform all original pieces at our spring concert. since we did all our lighting and stage design and set changes ourselves, this not only required writing/designing/choreographing/teaching/practicing the songs, but also working out complicated transitions moving drums and changing costumes.
my song employed all 18 group members and twenty copper pipe fittings i carefully selected from bins in palo alto and mountain view hardware stores. if i had not just given away my only vhs video player, i would volunteer to upload the video of this song, which also involved passing the cups in a rhythmic way based on a drinking game i had seen at a party the previous quarter. here are some crappy photos of the copper pipe fittings (almost nicely filling out a c-ish minor scale)
after passing the cups to the center, where they were placed in a certain order on a table, two people sat across from each other and played a repeated melody by mirroring a series of different loops around the layout of the cups. it's hard to describe without a video, but if anyone wants to come visit me, i will happily demonstrate.
anyway, i think of that year as a legendary one in stanford taiko history, but it could be that they've continued this tradition of composing all original pieces ever since. it doesn't appear that anyone has uploaded the (televised) video of our spring concert to youtube, but there are some cool videos of a few songs from a more recent concert in 2005.
many members of our group went on to great successes. in a freakish small-world connection, one of our other NAP posters knows chris tin, who is scoring films now. shoji and chris started their own taiko performance group, the on ensemble. if anyone is in LA and has a chance to see these guys, they are amazing.
i'd recommend checking out any taiko group that might come your way, especially if you've never experienced it.
4 Comments:
Okay, the Tatsumaki video was fantastic. Loved the moves. Fancy stuff indeed. Very cool.
"Taikonaut" sounds like a Japanese taiko band that does only early Monster Magnet covers.
I've always dreamed of being in a taiko group. I saw one in Portland once that was astonishing. It was also all Japanese, so it never occurred to me that I could join as well.
I think there's one in Auckland. Perhaps after my next jaunt abroad I'll look into it.
go for it, dd!
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