Stephanie Pan
Little Drummer Girl, or, My First Taiko
Computer Aided Breathing
This is a pet project that has been keeping me busy lately. I have long been fascinated by taikos, and after a very fortunate encounter with a mixed-genre taiko collective/ensemble and discovering I could build my own taiko, I became set on finally learning how to play, but not before I built my own drum.
This project is still in its first phase, that is, the construction of the taiko from a 225L oak wine barrel. Among taiko enthusiasts this is fairly standard practice. Traditionally they are made out of a single piece of wood, but that is both costly and a lot to ask of one very old tree if the closest you’ve ever come to playing a drum is pound on an old tire covered in tape (low budget, DIY practice taiko - you can find instructions for that here.)
The method I’ve put together is an amalgamation of sources I’ve found on the Internet (Long live the World Wide Web!) - my sources: Stanford Taiko, Tatsumaki Taiko, and for supplies, Rolling Thunder.
