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6.30.08
Shastayama and new website
Kris' 30 days to better shime ends today! Thank you to everyone who participated in the 30 days to Better Shime program. We'll keep the information up on our site so don't worry if you missed it or would like to do it again.
I apologize for the lack of recent updates but Kris and I are working hard on a new Wordpress powered OnEnsemble.org website. We are super excited about it. It looks great will have lots of great content and all four of us will start updating and blogging instead of just me. The new site will also support visitor comments which we are also quite excited about.
I'm leaving for Hawaii for a week to visit with family on Kuaui (I know life is tough). We're going to try to launch the new site soon after I return to LA and we'll be giving our on-announce list members a sneak peek before the official launch.
Our next big performance is Shastayama! We're looking forward to heading back to our Mt. Shasta roots and performing with Russel and Jeanne and all of Shasta Taiko again. If you've never been to Shastayama you are totally missing out. It's the best annual taiko festival in the US in my humble opinion. It's outdoors completely beautiful, there great music, great people and it's just what music should be about. They've had more than a thousand people come out to Shastayama for the past couple of years which is amazing for a town of 3,600 people. I really can't say enough good things about Shastayama and it not just because we are playing there this year... The work that Jeanne and Russel have done in the Mt. Shasta community is just amazing and this festival is an inspiration.
peace,
Taiko players: Sign up now for "30 Days to Better Shime"
Join On Ensemble and over 330 other taiko players for 30 days of small drum practice! Sign up at http://onensemble.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/30days and you'll receive a daily email every day in June with 15-20 minutes of exercises, drills, and listening tests.
The program is free! And if you've missed the a few days, no problem... drop me an email and I'll help you get caught up! (kris at OnEnsemble dot org)
6.7.08
Personal practice studioKris' 30 days to better shime program is off to a tremendous start. There are over 330 taiko players participating so if you are a taiko player interested in improving shime technique and haven't signed up yet do so now!
I've been having a lot of fun doing the program. I usually have two personal practice sessions a day. One in the morning, as the first thing I do when I get up. Before I brush my teeth even before I put pants on I sit down at the practice pad for a bit to start the day. Then at the end of the day I practice again usually pretty late at night. Since moving to my new apartment the downstairs neighbors have complained about the constant tapping sounds so I've set up a practice pad on a snare stand in my car behind the passenger side seat. I've been surprised how well it works! In most cars if you slide the passenger side seat all the way forward there will be enough space for a snare stand. DW stands work great because of their off center design and that way they can adjust to any angle in order to make your pad flat. So I print out the day's lesson keep it in place by sliding the top of the lesson under the head rest and tap away till my heart's content.
Cars are naturally pretty sound proof so you can practice fue or throat singing or almost anything into the wee hours of the day. My Subaru Legacy makes a pretty decent personal practice studio!
peace,
6.1.08
June is Shime Month!Kris has put together a 30 day program to improve shime playing that he presented at the collegiate taiko invitational and it starts today! It's free and open to all! He's also written a nice little essay on his philosophy of practice called "Thoughts on Practice" that you can download here.
We also have a new website coming soon! Kris and I are working out our exact launch date but were are hoping to have it up by the end of this month. We're moving to a Wordpress powered site that will offer a lot more functionality and be much easier to manage.
peace,
5.28.08
Back in LA
On the way from the Collegiate Taiko Invitational, Maz and Kris stopped at Stockton for a workshop with Stockton Taiko. I stayed in the Bay Area an extra day to visit with my grandmother and now we are finally back in LA.
Feels good to be back in the land of smog and traffic. I have to say LA has really grown on me since moving here six years ago. We've even gotten used to the air... When Maz and I travel through the Northwest during this time of year we get pretty bad hay fever. It seems like we prefer the LA air quite strange for a couple of guys who grew up in the sticks...
peace,
5.25.08
14th Annual Collegiate Taiko Invitational
Just finished an action packed weekend at the Collegiate Taiko Invitational. This year the Invitational was hosted by Stanford Taiko who did an amazing job. There were a lot of great changes made to the format of the Invitational including splitting the concert into two informal concerts, a lecture on the history of North American Taiko, longer workshops, smaller workshop sizes and a new master class format.
We had a great time and it's always amazing to see how the collegiate taiko scene continues to grow. Kris and Kelvin taught a workshop on 30 days to better shime while Maz and I taught naname basics. The four of us held a master class with UCSD Asayake Taiko. Asayake has really improved in the past couple of years and they had a great attitude in the master class. I also moderated a composition panel with Roy Hirabayashi of San Jose Taiko and taiko legend Kenny Endo.
A good part of the fun at these taiko conferences is getting a chance to hang out with the other workshop leaders. Everybody is so busy trying to make a living in the arts that it is pretty hard to get everybody together in one place. A huge thank you goes out to Kiyoshi, Colin and all of Stanford Taiko for their work in hosting a great invitational.
peace,
5.23.08
Triple Door Concert
We had a great concert at the Triple Door last night! The music felt really good and the energy from the audience was great. A huge thank you goes out to Nathan, Craig, Paul, Scott and all the Triple Door staff for bringing us to their great venue and making our performance a success. We'll be posting MP3s of our Triple Door set soon so keep checking back.
Another huge thank you goes out to Byron for all of his work in making our stay in Seattle so productive and fruitful. We had a lecture demo at an University of Washington ethnomusicology class on Asian American music, a CD release party at Kobo and workshops for the Seattle area taiko groups. Another huge thank you goes out to Tiffany for all of her work to Nana for her hospitality and to Debbie and Mark for help getting the word out and for the great homemade food! Finally thank you to the Seattle taiko community and all of our friends, fans and family for coming out to a weekday night show. We feel very taken care of in Seattle!
Today we're in the van driving down to Stanford to lead workshops, discussions and master classes at the Collegiate Taiko Invitational.
peace,
