The latest in Kristin’s Fast & Furious series is a fun one! Like all drills in this series, it builds the skill of staying relaxed while playing at speed. FF4 also helps you practice precision timing and finding the pocket. Thanks to our friends Vicky and Ian from Unit Souzou, Taiko SOBA, and Jun Daiko for helping us out with this video demonstration!
In the video, Ian demonstrates the drill at 120 bpm and Vicky does it at 240 bpm, and they show how to loop the drill so you’re practicing both hands equally. They’re doing it on a shime, but it translates to other types of drums and practice surfaces. The drill is written out in kuchishoka and western notation here.
Challenge yourself in FF4 by gradually increasing tempo while staying relaxed. Pay attention to your hands, arms, body - even your face! - while you speed up. As soon as you feel yourself tensing up, stop, shake it out, and start again at a tempo where you know you can stay relaxed. There are several metronome apps that will speed up for you automatically. Erin Kelly from Pittsburgh Taiko introduced me to Sound Corset, which is the one I use. Raising the hand that’s playing the “additional” beats will also increase the challenge level.
When you get back to your group practices or your classes, add a straight teke teke jiuchi to FF4 and use that to drive the speed up. (That's a great time for your shime player to practice gradual tempo changes.) The shime player can also be the one who watches people for tension and stops the group when they see it. Let us know if you try this drill!
Content note on the final paragraph of this post: reference to ongoing anti-AAPI violence in the US.
Finally, we want to recognize that the escalating racism and violence directed towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) is making difficult time even harder. As practitioners of an art form rooted in the Japanese-American and Asian-American experience, it is especially important for white members of the taiko community to pause and think about last month’s shootings in Atlanta and the latest wave of anti-AAPI hate crimes in the US. For AAPI folks, thinking about these things probably hasn't been optional lately; white peers, we can't let it be optional for us. We all have a role to play in sending a strong collective message that we will not accept racism, discrimination, hate, and violence in our city, state, and country. We urge everyone in the taiko community to stand up and support Asian American communities. Click here and scroll to the bottom of the linked page for resources to help you educate yourself on speaking up, talking to children, and fighting anti-Asian racism and white supremacy.