The Los Angeles Taiko Institute (LATI) is a dedicated taiko (Japanese drumming) school in Torrance, CA offering 12-week courses, drop-in classes, multi-day intensives, and one-time workshops on a variety of taiko topics.
The "Learn-Taiko!" link above provides the full list of classes at the Institute!
LATI is housed at Asano Taiko U.S. a full-service taiko maker offering exquisite Japanese drums and accessories, as well as on-site taiko repair and reskinning.
Los Angeles Taiko Institute/Asano Taiko U.S. location:
20909 S. Western Ave.
Torrance, CA 90501
310-974-4490
taiko@asano.us
We're very excited to have more than three dozen participants for this Saturday's March Madness Matsuri Crashers Battle! Come watch and college players face off in head-to-head taiko competition. $10 ($5 students) at the door and all proceeds go to support the 2014 Collegiate Taiko Invitationals.
After much anticipation, we finally arrived today! Yuta and Kris started the morning with a quick tour of Asano Taiko US as well as recording some diagnostic videos of both naname technique and small drum rhythmic dexterity. We then spent several hours isolating fundamentals, with Kris choosing one individual to be the "keeper" of a particular point. That is, one person will become the master of the ideal grip, another focuses primarily on the angle of the elbow approaching the drum, and so on.
Stanford Taiko is Here!
Throughout the week LATI Instructors Kris and Yuta will be teaching Stanford Taiko through their 1-week LATI and LA Taiko Tour!
Thank you Stanford Taiko for coming all the way from Northern California, we look forward to how the week unfolds.
Yuta
For the past few weeks, Jen Baik, LATI Coach and Professional Taiko player, has been guiding the class through Omiyage while providing exercises to help us memorize the piece and improve as taiko players. She has been doing a great job preparing us for the LATI Dama Evaluation during PEAC Week, or the last week of class. Each student has the option to complete a small evaluation that tests how well we know the piece and ability to play sections. Although it sounds intimidating, I’m finding it to be a great opportunity push myself and learn Omiyage.
Hi everyone! My name is Sarah Yamamoto, and as Kris mentioned in his last post, I will be blogging during Stanford Taiko’s intensive at LATI next week. We are just wrapping up final exams right now, and everyone is very excited to spend spring break focused solely on taiko. We’re very grateful for the opportunity to learn about both playing and making taiko from such accomplished players and teachers. Kris already mentioned the fact that he began studying taiko at Stanford, and it is certainly inspiring for the current members to see how far he has taken his passion.
Beginning Monday, Mar 24, Stanford Taiko will be at LATI for a week-long intensive! Yuta and I will be teaching naname, hachijo, odaiko, small drum, improvisation, timing, and selections from Eau de Squarepusher. The group has also reserved studio time at the facility for members' practice and for an intercollegiate taiko get-together. Mr Kato will give a presentation on drum making and Katsuji will lecture about Asano and Asano Taiko US. It's going to be an amazing week!
Hello friends of LATI and the Taiko Community,
I am here in Spain touring with the legendary Chieko Kojima of Kodo, assisting her as a taiko musician and translator. The first 2-weeks have been spent in Barcelona where Chieko collaborated with a local contemporary dancer, and the next two in Madrid where we will be performing alongside a local group called Seiwa Taiko.
PHOTOS of my trip in Spain.
I've posted a video from Yuta and my performance of our new work-in-progress piece, Sugamen, along with some thoughts about the sugagaki technique.
http://onensemble.org/2014/03/sugamen-work-in-progress/
Last month, our brave Valentines' Intensive participants became the first LATI students to learn the sugagaki technique and did wonderfully!
Omiyage class week 7 reviewed and tested our knowledge of the known parts. We began with reviewing different sections we had questions about or requested to review. Then Yuta tested our knowledge by saying different sections and having us play them immediately after. It was difficult but we were able to use the cheat sheet for help. However, after a few run throughs he took away the sheet and we had to go through them by memory, which was much more difficult.
Oh me oh my....