Yamato Drummers

Taiko. It's Japanese for big drum. It's a recent thing, started post WW2. Lots of drums, different shapes, a troupe of drummers. Body posture and group coordination play a big part, holding your back straight, raising your arms in unison and letting gravity's force help you hit the skins with the sticks.

Yamato are terrific, fabulous rhythm, powerful sound, great costumes, lots of flailing arms hitting the skins, a joy to watch and to listen to.

I have done a few basic lessons myself. It all seems to have an eight bar structure, think 12 bar blues less four, and then four main beats to each bar. These can be split into minims, semiquaver, syncopation with the main force on the offbeat etc and different sections of the group will play different patterns. More advanced groups will introduce solos and the the rest of the group will feed into the piece bit by bit.

It's fun, it's easy to pick up basic skills, it brings people together in a good way. Go on, if you have not yet been bit by the Taiko bug find a class near you and give it a try. Whack 'em!