Taiko Tuesday

I was pretty pleased with practice tonight. I spent an hour correcting and drilling a song with the new kids and by the end they had really improved. It was great--I basically told them the what, why, and how of the parts they needed to fix, and then they fixed them, usually after the first try! That's kind of a big deal--not that they're the only ones in the group like that, but there are definitely a few old members that are particularly hard to teach or correct.

The new class is naturally pretty good, but I like to think the new teaching format has something to do with their progress, too. Learning songs too quickly and then repeating them over and over again with only occasional, vague corrections mostly just cements bad habits. It really is important to have someone watching and correcting specific details and then drilling them until they are right. Precision is all about disciplined details, after all. Splitting members into two groups is also helpful. I have been suggesting those techniques for a few months, at least, but I didn't have enough of an opportunity to really demonstrate them until now. Now that I'm occasionally "in charge," though, that is my focus. I have been slowly transitioning to something like this for a while, so I'm not sure that most people even really notice.

Breaking down dances into fragments and perfecting them worked well on dance team, so it should work well in taiko (sometimes dance teams are known as "drill teams," actually). The lack of mirrors at taiko shouldn't be a good excuse for sloppy choreography anymore, either, because I am now that mirror. In high school, the dance team didn't have mirrors and I essentially did the same thing there. We had them in college, but we started to rely on them too much. Besides, it's hard to play a drum and watch yourself at the same time--you naturally want to look at the drum and that's probably where you should be looking. With enough practice and bodily awareness, you can actually train yourself to feel when a movement is right or wrong, even if it's a new move, usually. I don't know how else to explain it. I like being a mirror for those that can't do that, though, especially when those people get better because of it.

As a side note, I was just wondering why some old members didn't originally think of me as one of the main teachers for tonight, but I also just realized that I have been making these suggestions and helping to plan practices almost solely with the leader and a couple other people only. As usual, it's been a behind-the-scenes deal and people assume other people are more heavily involved than I am. You know, it reminds me of this Lao Tzu quote: "A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him. But of a good leader who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: 'We did it ourselves.'" Hey, cool.

I don't really care about getting credit, anyway, but it does bother me if someone else takes undue credit in my place (which they haven't, I'm not saying that). Actually, I don't know how to take due credit for much of anything, even if I wanted it. I mean, I'm fine with demonstrating ideas, but I would never publicly announce something like, "This was my idea. Look at me!" Is that what other people do? Oh yeah, I guess so. Okay, that "look at me" part is usually implied, but even that first part seems a little too showy for me. Oh...I think this is what the psychologist was talking about. I'm just glad that my techniques seem to work, though. I love coming up with new, improved ways of doing things, and I think this is a good start. It has given me a new sense of purpose in taiko, too, which is something I really needed. Maybe it's not so bad that the leader is on hiatus for a while.