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I have good memories of Taiko. I liked playing the
drums. The drums where really big and small. They
were all pretty heavy. We each had our favorite
drum. I also remember about making the masks. It
was fun painting the masks. The masks were hard to
pull off your head. They didn't smell to good
either.
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You had to have good concentration to play the
drums. The rules were, you had to keep your knees
bent. If you held the Bachi wrong you'd probably
break your thumb. Playing music was fun. And you
had to keep your hands in a certain
position.
I don't know about
everyone else but I learned self-discipline. You
have to keep in position for a long time. You also
have to stay in control. You need to keep tempo,
and most of all need team work.
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In Taiko we learned words and numbers in Japanese.
We learned to count one through ten. We also
learned how to say hello, good bye, begin again and
good luck.
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It was real fun doing the performances. In the
performances five kids got to move through the
drums. I was one of the five. I liked playing the
songs. They were Bicentennial Bayashi and Silk
Daiko. Silk Daiko is the song where five kids move
through the drums.
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I will always remember Esther, our teacher. She was
real nice. She was also real funny.
Those are my memories of
Taiko. Now I will tell you about what I felt, knew
and didn't know in the beginning. When I first got
to Taiko I felt anxious. I was unsure of the rules.
At first it was kind of weird playing the drums. It
was also confusing to try and remember all the
tunes.
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When we first started we did not know the rules. We
had to bend our knees. We had to make sure our
thumbs where in the right position. We had to play
certain tunes. We knew very little about Taiko.
Near the end we did performances. It was kind of
fun to play in front of people. Everyone had
different drums. But everybody had their favorite
drum. It was real exciting.
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I was just telling you about my beginnings in
Taiko. Now I will tell you what I was learning. I
learned that there was more to Taiko. Taiko was
sometimes embarrassing. I also learned about
responsibility and teamwork. It kept getting more
fun. Sometimes we made mistakes.
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It was real important to exercise before you play.
You have to be responsible to do your exercises.
You do exercises so you don't get hurt.
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Nobody was the boss except for Esther. Some people
would rush and be competitive. Someone would always
say who it was.
We got better. We started
to learn more and had a lot of fun.
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Now I will tell you how I feel now that it's over.
I feel sad and wish there was more. I will always
remember Taiko.
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I had fun playing and moving through the drums.
It's cool knowing how to play. I also know I can do
it.
At the end of Taiko I
learned there is no I in team. We really needed
teamwork. Without everyone there would be no team.
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Now I will tell you what I will remember about
Taiko. I will always remember Taiko and moving
through the drums at the performance. I will
remember how to play and I will always remember the
songs.
I remember how to count
in Japanese. One is Ichi, two is Ni, three is san,
four is shi, five is go, six is Roku, seven in
Shichi, eight is Hachi, nine, Kyu and ten is Juu.
It was cool how our names were on our headbands
written in Japanese.
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