The traditional Taiko drum has a long history in Japan. Split into two varieties, the byou-uchi daiko and the tsukeshime-daiko, the taiko drum is an instrument used in traditional and modern Japanese music. The drums have a new renewal of interest in the young generation as the video game, Taiko Drum Master for the Nintendo Wii system has topped the charts in Japan. The game debuted first as an arcade game, where the controller was a mock up of a taiko drum. Players would play the music, trying to match beat with those shown on the screen. The Wii version of the game features a unique, Taiko drum controller which plugs into the Wii controller.
The two variations of taiko drum both feature a single piece wooden body. The tsukeshime-daiko has the drum heads sewn to an iron ring, and attached to the body via taught cords linking the two sides. The tone can be tuned through tightening the cords. Conversely, the byou-uchi daiko has the two head attached via iron nails. Both versions are featured in a number of sizes, producing a large variety of sounds and tones.
The one most defining form of taiko drum is the odaiko. These massive drums are sometimes 7 to 10 feet in hight, and so massive that they are typically not moved, and rather a temple built around the drum. Their bodies are still made up of only a single piece of wood, having been harvested from a similarly large tree, ones over a hundred years old. Just as massive are this drums is the impact that they have over audiences observing their sound.
The first modern taiko drum ensemble is credited as being formed by Daihachi Oguchi in 1951. He started to add a form of jazz flare to his ensemble's drumming, which took very well ad led him to be known for his varied jazz performances. Since his forming of the taiko ensemble, many others were formed, including the world renowned group Kodo. Formed in 1981 by various members of the group Ondekoza. The group now consists of 24 drummers, and has released 22 albums and played in nearly 3000 performances across the globe. Since the 60s, the Taiko drum had been gaining popularity in the US, with a number of groups being formed by post world war immigrants from Japan. In Japan too, many artists of today, including Art Lee and Shidara. The powerful rhythmic elements of the drums lend themselves to many modern treatments and stylings.
Thanks to the advent of Taiko Drum Master for the Wii, one can hope that interest for the instrument has been inspired in the younger generation. The renewed enthusiasm kindled by the overwhelming interest in the game in Japan is hoped to be shared in other countries with the game's future foreign debut. From the cultural history of Japan to the latest in technological playgrounds, the taiko drums heavy impact will hopefully live on for quite a while.
Originally posted 2009-01-13 05:42:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
The Drum Kit The percussionist in any musical group will have to his aide a number of percussive elements. This set of drums will have a variety of instruments including drums, cymbals, and any other instruments that the musical group will need. Different genres will require differing pieces of equipment. So what goes......
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Ancient and Modern Drums Drums can be traced back to 6000 BC and have been used in almost every culture throughout history for a variety of purposes. Is it any wonder that the drums have such an appeal today? They've been used as a form of communication, a call to arms, and as important......
Drumsticks and Drums Drumsticks are specially designed sticks that are intended to strike the heads of percussion instruments like drums. Drumsticks are especially useful for hitting specific types of drums, especially during orchestral work, jazz music, rock band music and even marching band music. The most common drumsticks are made from oak, hickory,......
Drums can be traced back to 6000 BC and have been used in almost every culture throughout history for a variety of purposes. Is it any wonder that the drums have such an appeal today? They've been used as a form of communication, a call to arms, and as important part in some of humanity's most sacred, religious and important rituals.
In Africa, hourglass shaped pressure drums, also called talking drums, were used by natives to communicate to a group, usually as part of a ceremony. Far from making a similar noise each time the tightly-stretched hide was struck, leather cords stretched the length of the drum allowed the person beating the drum to change the pitch by squeezing or releasing the cords. These drums are popular in West African music today.
Message drums, also called slit gongs, were made from a single log, with sounds that could carry 5 miles to another tribe or village. The logs could be elaborately carved or plain, but the emphasis was on the sound. The log was hollowed and slit cut in it, its length determining the pitch of the drum. Native American Indians regularly used slit gongs to communicate, too. Hollowed out logs are among some of the earliest discoveries of a type of drum used in ancient times.
Drums were used as communication devices during the Revolutionary War by troops, as well. Each camp had a drummer who played something designed to communicate their status to the other camps. Drums were used to motivate soldiers to move, they were used when commencing battle, and they were used as the beat for the death march of the condemned.
Medicine men used drums to perform their sacred healing rituals, and most ancient cultures used them in almost every ritual from birth to marriage to burial. The beat of drums is part of our humanity and our heritage, even though it seems that today drums are only used to keep time for rock bands and heavy metal guitar solos.
A truly skillful drum solo may touch that tribal ancestry within all of us and connect with us in ways we can't even begin to understand. Listening to tribal drums may forge such a connection but even listening to modern era drummers and percussionists like the late Buddy Rich can demonstrate the true skill required to play a musical instrument, even one considered as basic as the drums.
Drum sets are a relatively new development, with the first drum set appearing in the 1800s. They let one person play the snare drum, cymbals and bass drum (thanks to the foot pedal) where it always took 3 separate people before. This gave way to drums being used in jazz and swing, and then in the 50s, drum sets being used with rock music.
But the tribal beat that our species played thousands of years ago still appeals. Browse your music score today and you'll find heavy metal music with pounding drums sold alongside entire albums filled with tribal drum solos.
Are Drums a Good Match for You? Some people know when they're still kids that they want to learn to play the drums. Others seem to end up playing drums in the school band because they're just not interested in any of the other instruments. Some of them look so difficult with all those shiny keys and......
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Primer for Bass Drums The essential driving force behind a completed drum set is the bass drums. These are the heart of the drum set because all of the additional equipment is attached to them. The bass also provides what is essentially the underlying beat to your drumming rhythm. Your drum set needs to......
Types of Drums Drums are percussive instruments that are most commonly constructed by stretching one of a couple of different types of membranes over the opening in a vessel. The most common property of the various different types of drums is the pitch that each drum offers. Drums are by far one of......
Drumsticks and Drums Drumsticks are specially designed sticks that are intended to strike the heads of percussion instruments like drums. Drumsticks are especially useful for hitting specific types of drums, especially during orchestral work, jazz music, rock band music and even marching band music. The most common drumsticks are made from oak, hickory,......
Drums are percussive instruments that are most commonly constructed by stretching one of a couple of different types of membranes over the opening in a vessel. The most common property of the various different types of drums is the pitch that each drum offers. Drums are by far one of the oldest and one of the widest reaching musical instruments, because there are so many different types of drums out there.
The sound in a drum always originates from the same place, the vibration that is caused when the membrane is struck with another object like a hand or a drumstick, regardless of what type of drum you are dealing with or what it is constructed from. Drumheads can be made from a variety of different membrane materials, including the skin from goats, cows, sheep and antelopes, and synthetic materials as well. The types of drums that exist can vary significantly as they originate from a variety of places and are used for communication, for ritual and for entertainment all over the entire world.
The most common way to classify drums is to classify them by their shape. Most drums fall into one of the following categories: cylindrical drums, barrel drums, conga drums, waisted drums, goblet drums and bowl drums.
Frame drums have squat hoops and long drums are thin and tall, but both are cylindrical drum varieties. Barrels like Tabla drums, goblets like the Djembe drum and bowl drums like the Nakari are all named based on their shapes, allowing them to be easily recognized. The conga is a drum that tapers at the bottom, the waisted drum is one that tapers in the middle. The Changko has a cinched waist, making it a waisted variety.
Another way to classify drums based on type is to classify drums based on which side of the drum has the head. A drum can have a head either at both ends of the body or on only one end of the body. Conga drums and bowl drums for example only have a single head, but frame drums have a head on both sides. Some drums can be carried while you are dancing, walking or otherwise moving around, and other drums are intended to be stationary, such as the Djembe drum for example, which hails from Mali.
In addition to categorizing drums into different groups, you should also be aware of the fact that not all drums are tuned in a specific way. Many drums develop their tone based on their head size or the shape of their body. If you pull a cord or shift a peg, stretching the drum's head over its body, the pitch of the drum is adjusted.
Rock music in the western world involves drums that are non-pitched, like the snare drum or the bass drum in a drum set. These drums can also be used in combination with any key or harmony. Different drums in a single drum kit are also all capable of being categorized as different drums, as different drums and cymbals are combined in order to create a single drum set. Different music styles incorporate and implement different types of drums in different ways depending on what kind of sound you want to create.
Ancient and Modern Drums Drums can be traced back to 6000 BC and have been used in almost every culture throughout history for a variety of purposes. Is it any wonder that the drums have such an appeal today? They've been used as a form of communication, a call to arms, and as important......
Primer for Bass Drums The essential driving force behind a completed drum set is the bass drums. These are the heart of the drum set because all of the additional equipment is attached to them. The bass also provides what is essentially the underlying beat to your drumming rhythm. Your drum set needs to......
Taiko Drums Top the Video Game Charts The traditional Taiko drum has a long history in Japan. Split into two varieties, the byou-uchi daiko and the tsukeshime-daiko, the taiko drum is an instrument used in traditional and modern Japanese music. The drums have a new renewal of interest in the young generation as the video game, Taiko......
Musical Instruments: Drums for Sale The unique thing about drums when it comes to making music is that there are so many different elements that change the sound you create when you play them. The size, shape and composition of the drum will all alter the sound that it creates. Whether you beat on the......
Drummer Live 2008 London Drummer Live 2008 was a part of the London International Music Show, and it was a very well attended event. The main showroom was full of drumming musicians, filling the entire building with the energetic drumming. Missing from the event were drummers Ronn Dunnett, and Nicko McBrain. MC this year......
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The Drum Kit The percussionist in any musical group will have to his aide a number of percussive elements. This set of drums will have a variety of instruments including drums, cymbals, and any other instruments that the musical group will need. Different genres will require differing pieces of equipment. So what goes...... 
Are Drums a Good Match for You? Some people know when they're still kids that they want to learn to play the drums. Others seem to end up playing drums in the school band because they're just not interested in any of the other instruments. Some of them look so difficult with all those shiny keys and...... 
Drummer Live 2008 London Drummer Live 2008 was a part of the London International Music Show, and it was a very well attended event. The main showroom was full of drumming musicians, filling the entire building with the energetic drumming. Missing from the event were drummers Ronn Dunnett, and Nicko McBrain. MC this year...... 
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Drums can be traced back to 6000 BC and have been used in almost every culture throughout history for a variety of purposes. Is it any wonder that the drums have such an appeal today? They've been used as a form of communication, a call to arms, and as important part in some of humanity's most sacred, religious and important rituals. 
Drums are percussive instruments that are most commonly constructed by stretching one of a couple of different types of membranes over the opening in a vessel. The most common property of the various different types of drums is the pitch that each drum offers. Drums are by far one of the oldest and one of the widest reaching musical instruments, because there are so many different types of drums out there.