News

My goals this year are to continue to explore melodic composition and to find more and more ways to inspire people to have fun in practice while also developing and strengthening taiko and musical fundamentals (since I know it's hard for everyone to be as jazzed about basic technique as I am ^^v).

Here's a quick sample of me and my friends Maz, Doug, and Jenny practicing a piece I'm developing -- with inspiration from my friend Emily! -- for double (diatonic) marimba and shinobue.

Check out our students creative solutions for practicing at home! The first image is Andres' fan drum, built from a white-duct-tape-wrapped iron ring mounted to a fan stand. Recycled adjustability! The second image is of Brian's tire and bucket drums. Note the use of dowels at the top and bottom of the tire drum for proper rim tones. Delightful!

Here's to more great practice in 2014!

Thank you to everyone who made ATUS/LATI's first bounenkai a grand event! The food was fantastic, the students' performances were great, and the mochi-pounding was awesome. Here are videos of three pieces from the recital.

Omiyage: http://youtu.be/DHtn9RrpoiA?t=2m55s
Dokokara: http://youtu.be/EY4oM2C9w5Y?t=1m56s
Jack Bazaar: http://youtu.be/1iSvYhnoDUw?t=1m45s

Today was my last "Two Person Slant-Drum Moves" class of my current instruction period. In seven short weeks, Christine, Doreen, and Janelle learned four extremely challenging two-person slant-drum moves, "ITC", "Threes Compnay", "Tar Pits", and "Sugagagi". They'll now have four weeks with a coach to drill and practice the moves before I return and we put it all together in week 12.

I've posted videos of me and Yuta demonstrating the moves. Enjoy!