I hope you're enjoying the spring season wherever you are. It's a great time to practice taiko! (Okay--anytime is, really.)
Let's get back to rolls and timing--
Focus: Timing, Balance
Watch for:
1. Keep those elbows up and out! Don't let your elbows drop--this will force you to bend your wrists in order to hit the drum and we don't want that. Check out the video from 3 weeks ago for a refresher: Part 30
2. If you've gotten lazy about the metronome, you'll need it for this drill.
Okay, this drill is basic to do, so let's take the opportunity to be picky about a few things. Make sure the sound of the right and left hand are the same. I think I've said this a few times before, but the first step to fix this is to check to make sure your form is the same. If they're not, slow down the drill to focus on this, and do everything twice as long for the "wrong" hand. Keep in mind that sometimes when it sounds like your timing is off, it could be the balance!
I've written out the rhythms below, Red is right and Black is left. Note that Lines 1 and 2 are played twice. Line 3, which is twice as long, is played just once.
| 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & | 5 | & | 6 | & | 7 | & | 8 | & | |
| Line 1 | don | do | ko | don | don | don | do | ko | don | don | ||||||
| (twice) Line 2 (twice) | don | do | ko | don | do | ko | don | do | ko | don | don | ko | ||||
| Line 3 | do | ko | do | ko | do | ko | do | ko | do | ko | do | ko | do | ko | do | ko |
| do | ko | do | ko | do | ko | do | ko | do | ko | do | ko | don | don |
If you know my style, you know why there's a double right at the end--repeat again from the beginning, starting with the LEFT hand!
K, loop it! 10-15 minutes daily, gradually increasing speed but never going faster than is comfortable. Gambatte!
Here's a bit of audio help:
(These clips are to aid in understanding the rhythm and are not representative of what your actual playing should sound like.)
Extension:
I really find that drills that use one hand as a base beat are invaluable to increasing good timing and balance. Once you're comfortable with the drill above, try playing the base beat (right hand) for the same length of 6 lines of 8. The left hand will improvise when to hit on the up beat. Be sure to count so that the final two beats are "don don" with the right hand, freeing up the left to begin from the beginning.
This is a fun way to come up with new rhythms--maybe you'll even get a new song out of it!
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