nagado bachi (usually larger diameter, harder "kashi" wood)
earplugs
Alex's notes:
N. Fundamentals started with drilling the escalator drill over music (4-8-16-32 and back). Between runs I tried to go over some consistent issues (bringing arms back up straight w/o bending the elbow, keeping the thumb off the top of the stick/keeping the hand in the correct orientation, letting the bachi bounce). We tried doing Yamaoroshi and all-one drum rolls. Afterwards, I taught them about Kuchishoga and Kiai to learn the first lines of Renshu. They were able to learn the first two lines, though we didn't have time to connect the two yet. Some of them struggled with putting spoken rhythms to the drum... having students play it at the same time as saying it seemed to help.
Yamaoroshi: https://youtu.be/UNJPOClFjhw
Renshu: https://youtu.be/G-jJe8-7LWo