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Tanka Challenge 4/14/09
Apr. 14th, 2009 08:18 pmThe trees hiss as if
In pain, waving fretful arms
In warding gestures.
Shutters rattle warning of
The approach of a spring storm.
It's been that sort of day - bridges across the bay were closed or backed up due to high winds and the temperature has dropped like a rock since the sun went down. Maybe it's a good thing I'm parked on the side of the street without any trees on it....
Taiko went pretty well tonight - though I did have at least one mortifying brain fart when it was my turn to take a solo on "Jishin" - I tried to cover it as best I could and head for the chorus cue as quickly as possible. We started working solos by playing bits of pieces we already know - which is fine, but when four people are playing the same four bars of the same piece, and the other four are playing the same four bars of something else, it's time to improv and i just wasn't in a good improv mode tonight. I think I need to come up with something that is a little more distinctly "mine," drill it at home and memorize it, for those moments when the brain just doesn't want to improvise.
Other than that my form felt pretty good. One of the newer students who moved up from the 7:30 beginner class even asked me to run through the last few bars of the chorus with her because she's still learning it, so maybe that means I looked like I knew what I was doing. We're also working on a new piece called "O-Kaji", which was written to commemorate the Oakland Hills fires of 1991. Deceptively simple - at least the first few lines of it. I'm curious to see what the rest of it looks like.
Bob came to me after class and asked me to bring the camera along next week: his wife Tracy, who usually plays with us, is recovering from foot surgery and he thought it would be cool if we could shoot some video footage of class for her. I haven't really played with the video much yet, so it'll be a good test. (Must remember to throw the tripod in the truck.)
In pain, waving fretful arms
In warding gestures.
Shutters rattle warning of
The approach of a spring storm.
It's been that sort of day - bridges across the bay were closed or backed up due to high winds and the temperature has dropped like a rock since the sun went down. Maybe it's a good thing I'm parked on the side of the street without any trees on it....
Taiko went pretty well tonight - though I did have at least one mortifying brain fart when it was my turn to take a solo on "Jishin" - I tried to cover it as best I could and head for the chorus cue as quickly as possible. We started working solos by playing bits of pieces we already know - which is fine, but when four people are playing the same four bars of the same piece, and the other four are playing the same four bars of something else, it's time to improv and i just wasn't in a good improv mode tonight. I think I need to come up with something that is a little more distinctly "mine," drill it at home and memorize it, for those moments when the brain just doesn't want to improvise.
Other than that my form felt pretty good. One of the newer students who moved up from the 7:30 beginner class even asked me to run through the last few bars of the chorus with her because she's still learning it, so maybe that means I looked like I knew what I was doing. We're also working on a new piece called "O-Kaji", which was written to commemorate the Oakland Hills fires of 1991. Deceptively simple - at least the first few lines of it. I'm curious to see what the rest of it looks like.
Bob came to me after class and asked me to bring the camera along next week: his wife Tracy, who usually plays with us, is recovering from foot surgery and he thought it would be cool if we could shoot some video footage of class for her. I haven't really played with the video much yet, so it'll be a good test. (Must remember to throw the tripod in the truck.)
