Fort Wayne Taiko members have been hard at work preparing for Knock on Wood IV.  New material, costuming, themes, and set ideas are under way as well as a new venue in the Downtown Library Auditorium.  In February, we were lucky enough to have John Yost, of Kaiju Daiko, back in the Fort for a 5-hour workshop and another new and exciting piece of music to explore.  This one is an original composition by John that his group performed at our 2008 concert.  So the metronomes have come out again and members are being frustrated (and humbled) by that tiny piece of equipment.  But its all worth it as we prepare for all the summer festivals and culminate with Knock on Wood IV on Nov 20, 2010.

Our Knock on Wood 3 performance was soooooooo much fun! We were all psyched and poised to give the best show possible.

Our audience was hugely receptive and appreciative of our performance. We experienced (some might say “endured”)  weeks of learning new pieces or new parts of pieces, extra rehearsals, planning and organizing, etc.

All our hard work was more than worth the effort as we enjoyed our audience’s appreciation and the great fun of drumming with such a wonderful group of performers.

Special note of appreciation to our families and friends who are so helpful and supportive!

As we prepared for the 2009 concert, there were many questions, doubts and insecurities.  This happens with any kind of performance.  Will we be ready, will people like what we are doing, can we even do this???   According to many audience members, it was very successful!  I had a person comment to me that she thought we had improved so much from last year.  She had attended last years concert as well and really liked it.  I was encouraged and grateful for all the work and dedication each drummer had to make this performance what it was.

What really made it special for me was that my whole family helped in setting up drums, the stage, coming to rehearsals and other odds and ends, when they would’ve probably wanted to be doing something else. 

It was such a joy to drum with this group of people and it was alot of fun!!!!!!

Last night a drummer told me in the midst of the performance she could feel the vibration of the drums so strongly in her heart center it brought her to tears even while she was playing. This is what keeps taiko drummers humble and coming back for more in spite of the endless practice, hours of repetitive drills, sore muscles, dirty sweat, exhaustion and mental gymnastics. This is why the back of FW Taiko members’ shirts say, “Big Drums, Big Sound, Big Life.” The heart of taiko is the art of taiko!

Performing at West Central Neighborhood on 9/12 was such a blast! The weather was beautiful, the drummers were focused, calm and ready (!) and the crowd was great. It takes an amazing amount of effort sustained over a long period of time to present that level of performance-the energy flying around on 9/12 makes it all worth it! One of my greatest joys is drumming with my taiko friends-we have developed such a cohesive sense of each other and have learned to anchor each other in the moment. Yahoo! I was all revved up for hours after last night’s show–in spite of my hunger and exhaustion and the sore finger I smashed while playing (ouch!). In fact, I drummed all night in my dreams and was still revved when I woke up. I am so grateful to West Central, FWDC and drummers for making last night’s performance possible! And I am so excited about the work we are putting together for our studio performance KNOCK ON WOOD to be presented 11/8, 2 p.m. at FWDC.

(Editor’s Note: I took a mobile video of part of the performance — see the YouTube video attached. —AW)

We had a POWERFUL performance last night at the West Central Neighborhood Association Arts Fest. Everyone was stoked and focused! The crowd was delightful and encouraged us with voice and leaping to their feet. Great fun!