During the afternoon, after our morning flower arranging class, we had a Japanese drumming class which was a lot of fun and also very handy for taking out frustrations and stress.  We were each assigned a drum, given mallets and then taken to a soundproof room with mirrors on all sides.  Our instructor for the class was a professional drummer who had been performing Japanese percussion his whole life.


We started out with the basics: how to stand, how to hold the mallets and the different ways to hit the drum to achieve the desired sound.  Then we copied his movements and rhythms as a group while he critiqued our style and sound.  Drumming was a full-body effort as many strokes the mallets had to be raised high above one's head and then struck down with significant force.  Midway through the class most of us were sweating and breathing hard.  Our instructor informed us that he worked out regularly at the gym in order to be able to get through his percussion performances.


We worked our way through a short and simple traditional rhythm which we videotaped.  The class finished with an exhibition performance by our teacher which was quite dramatic and impressive.  The whole experience took me back to my marching band days in high school where I spent most of my time banging away on some kind of drum.  Never did I imagine that one day I'd be able to watch and learn from a Japanese drum master.  If Mr. Bullard could see me now.

0 comments