Naname Movement Essentials: Technique and Emotion

Naname (slant-style taiko) continues to inspire me!  There are so many ways to make beautiful things... we can play with power or grace, we can feature fun sounds, fast rhythm, or choreography.  In the last five years or so, I've come to think of these varied themes as "neighborhoods", where I can play various rhythms in one technique, like "right arm swings", until I wander into a new one, like "X-pattern", and play there for a while.  I've realized that the rhythms are flexible... almost anything works within a neighborhood.  I spend my practice time "truffle hunting" within neighborhoods, looking to smooth out the specific rhythms and movements that vex me, and also trying to make my playing more expressive and varied.

These workshops present nine phrases from four such neighborhoods (three for each workshop group).

Neighborhoods

• R arm circles
• X pattern, switching stance
• "power mute"
• "whisper mute"
• "flow": following one hand through an adventure, knocking