Taiko amidst the snow storms – 4 hours with Kris and Maz
Thursday started off early as Maryll and I headed up to our practice space around 11:00 am to make sure everything was in order for our workshop and also to get our wrists nice and warmed up. While I warmed up with some of the drills I learned from 30 Days to Better Shime I couldn’t help but get more and more excited with each passing minute.
“I can’t believe Kris and Maz are going to be here soon!”
We got a phone call from Maz shortly before noon saying they were about 40 minutes out. If I was excited before that, it was nothing compared to how I felt after the phone call. The workshop I had been looking forward to for months was finally happening.
Kris and Maz finally arrived shortly after 12:30 and they brought the sunny California weather with them! As Kris and Maz quickly gathered their bachi bags, lunch, and sprout boxes, we hurried inside to escape the bitter snow storm. After Maryll and I were regaled with harrowing tales of the Denver roads, Kris and Maz finished up their lunch and we started our workshop.
The workshop started off with a whirlwind exercise in soloing on slant-stand form as well as a three drum set. Little did we know that we were going to do the exact same exercise at the very end of our four hours and compare the two recordings to see how our playing changed.
After the first run through we learned some great drills for strengthening improvisation confidence. The Shasta drill started things off. We took turns doing free-form improv in groups of two with everyone getting a chance to play with everyone else. We ended the drill with a hilarious performance by Kris and Maz that consisted of lots of yelling and chasing each other around the drums. Now that our sides were aching from laughter it seemed like a good time to move on to the next exercise.
I’m a little bit blurry on the exact order of things from here on out as I’m still a little shell shocked from all the material but I’m pretty sure we worked on a drill where we began with a set of 8 beats and the first person had to play on just one of those beats. The next person would then add on with the next iteration playing on a different beat. This ended up getting out of control really quickly. I think this was definitely one of the harder drills we practiced but it was loads of fun! My brain felt like mush afterwards and I loved it!
Next on the schedule was incorporating a new sound into our drum set soloing via Kris’s 1234 drill. I don’t think we ever settled on an “official” name for our technique but it kind of resembled a one handed drum roll to act as a stall that would build tension within a solo. After going through the 1234 drill a few times we tried to incorporate the new technique with another improv exercise that had a little bit more structure. We weren’t going to play a standard passing line to pass the solo along. Instead, we incorporated an AAAB set of patterns to signify the passing line. This was a LOT of fun since every solo ended with a different queue and we had to pay very close attention to everyone to make sure we didn’t miss the end of solos.
We practiced a few more soloing exercises where we had to immediately come in after the previous person ended a music phrase (even if it meant cutting them off because they hadn’t realized they finished their phrase!). Oh, and how could I forget… we did this same drill a second time, only we were all facing away from each other. :)
Thankfully at this point we took a break to give our brains a few minutes to recuperate from the sensory overload we just experienced. After the break we dove into the intensive on Bon Taiko. We worked on a very helpful exercise where we named our own specific Bon Taiko solo patterns. This allowed us create a “card catalogue” of solo patterns (as Kris so cleverly named it) that we could pick and choose from to create a fully fleshed-out Bon Taiko solo. Next we each taught each other one of our solo patterns. From Maz we learned a pattern he called Super Klock Don. Kris taught us one of his “easier” patterns, Tribeca. After Maryll and I had some new patterns to work with we took some individual practice time to arrange a set of patterns to use as our Bon Taiko solo. We played these solos when we returned to the exercise that we started with at the very beginning of the workshop.
Watching the before and after recordings was an extremely helpful exercise. It was really fun to see the differences in our playing and how much we had improved!
But no, the excited wasn’t even close to over yet! Thursday was Maz’s birthday so of course we all went out to dinner and were joined by some old friends from a previous workshop they had given in the Cleveland area. We all had a great time eating, laughing, exchanging stories about life, and of course eating delicious vegan cake in the shape of a taiko. Is it bad that Maryll and I were extremely impressed by the “tacking” job on the cake? It was so straight and orderly. I think that might mean we are currently suffering from taiko overload. No, I don’t that’s actually possible…
Following dinner we had to brave to elements once again. The unrelenting snow storm certainly slowed our trip home but taking things slow (about 25 mph the entire way) got us home safe and sound. After arriving home and getting their gear unpacked from the trailer, we all headed up to my apartment for more laughs and stories. We ended up staying up until around midnight talking with Kris about Engine Room. If there was ever a reason to start practicing your Doubles technique, this is the piece for it!
Hosting these two amazing taiko players was a priceless opportunity and we all had a great time. It was incredibly inspiring to be around such great talent for an entire day. I feel like I’ve made two great new friends and can’t wait to see them again! To both of you, thank you so much!
Thank you so much for all the fun, Dan! Looking forward to playing again soon. Keep up the great work and let me know if you have any insights on Engine Room, bon taiko, or whatever. Happy practicing!