To the Beat of a Different Drum
Students who frequent the Fine Arts building may have noticed a deep, loud rumbling emanating from the Kent Concert Hall on certain nights of the week. Taiko, a form of Japanese drumming, isn’t nicknamed “rolling thunder” for nothing. The literal translation is “big drum.”
“I like to think of it as a Japanese version of head-banging,” said Anson Everett, a member of the Utah State University Japanese club.
In the United States, including Utah State University’s campus, Taiko is making an appearance both in musical performances and in music therapy, said Annette Kearl, a USU music therapy professor.
“You can take out a lot of frustration by hitting a drum,” Everett said.
Taiko drums are no ordinary drums, either. The Taiko are 55-gallon drums, and the drumsticks are an inch thick, Everett said.
“You can feel [the drums] vibrating,” Everett said.
Also, drummers “jump around and yell,” she said.
“The drumsticks are more like small poles than sticks, and you hit the drums full-strength,” said John Heflin, Japanese club president.
It takes a skilled Japanese craftsman three to 10 years to make a Taiko drum, Everett said. The completed drums cost from $20 to $100,000.
Kearl has learned to make her own drums, and has taught some of her students, including Everett.
“We make them out of wine barrels and cowhide for about $300,” Everett said.
A Taiko ensemble is different from most western percussion ensembles largely because Taiko incorporates choreographed movements and dance, Kearl said. Also, one drummer may play more than one drum, or two drummers may play on the same large drum, Kearl said.
“When I first saw it I was captured by the energy felt in both the music and the movement,” Kearl said.
“Taiko involves your whole body, as well as dance and creative movements,” Everett said.
The history of Taiko is mostly speculation, Kearl said. It was used in India to signal troop movements during wars, Everett said. Taiko was adopted and adapted by Buddhist priests, and as Buddhism spread, so did Taiko, Kearl said.
Much of Kearl’s incorporation of Taiko into music therapy follows the metaphors Buddhists applied to Taiko drums. For example, the drummer represents man in the world – what he perceives as reality, Kearl said. The drum allows him to experience a temporary catharsis, Kearl said.
“The Taiko drummer learns as he/she plays. She learns about ego-tripping, about adjusting to the other players, about the need for concentration and discipline,” Kearl said in a course syllabus for her music therapy students.
Kearl has used Taiko to help middle school children cope with stress in an after-school club.
“I asked them to think about a problem you’d like to resolve and work it out on the drum,” Kearl said.
Students at USU will have an opportunity to hear Taiko drumming in April when a group of music therapy students trained by Kearl will perform with other percussion ensembles.