Today on our second day in Tokyo, we got the opportunity to experience something we had heard a lot about coming into the trip, but few if any of us had actually been a part of: taiko drumming. Taiko drumming is a traditional percussion style of the Japanese. The wind ensemble broke into two classes in order to properly become taiko masters.

We descended into the basement building where the taiko class was located and removed our shoes. My taiko classroom was filled with about twenty large taiko drums. The drums we played on weren’t as large as some taiko drums can be, but were still about waist high and produced a deep, rich sound that reverberated off the walls and mirror of the small classroom.

Our taiko instructor wasted no time, providing our class of twenty with two bachi sticks each. The bachi seemed quite large as far as drumsticks go, about a foot long and thick to properly produce the rich taiko sound when the drum was struck. Our instructor and class spent the next hour familiarizing ourselves with the techniques and trades of a taiko drum master. First, our stances had to be wide, quite a bit so as taiko drumming takes a lot of power and energy and uses the entire body. Having a wide stance makes that easier. Next, our arms needed to hit the taiko hard to make the correct sounds, so we couldn’t drum like normal percussionists. Our arms were held high and usually extended far above our head. Striking the drum then allowed gravity to do the work as we brought our bachi down from high above our heads to hit the drum, making the booming noise.

Our taiko lesson lasted only an hour, but felt both so much longer and so much shorter. Time flew, blisters grew, sweat shined, and bachi were broken. After our hour of learning, my class had a mini concert where groups performed the piece we’d spent time learning for each other.

After we were done, we were treated to a performance from our instructor, who’d been playing taiko for over twenty-five years. Too soon, we left the room, put our shoes back on, and were done with taiko drumming and on to our next activity in the day. It was an exhausting exercise but worth it for what we learned about this style of music and piece of Japanese culture.