As I’ve alluded to previously, lately my musical exploits have been much more of the analogue variety rather than digital. As the end of the year approaches, the annual concert for my taiko school, Wadaiko Rindo draws near and the focus of each lesson shifts from learning a piece to perfecting it for the concert. What this translates to in practical terms is that instead of everyone learning all the different parts, everyone in the class gets assigned a specific part to play and that is that. In some classes its absolutely necessary, especially at the beginners end of the scale, where people have not yet mastered the ability to memorise an entire piece in multiple parts. Some people need to be able to focus on learning one part without having to worry about exactly how everyone else’s bit goes.
In the more advanced classes however, this should be less of a problem, at least in theory. The truth of it is that at the upper end of the scale you have a much wider mixture of skill levels, from people who have just become good enough to advance from the intermediate classes, to people who have been playing for 10 years+. Practice doesn’t always make perfect though, as with anything there are those who naturally possess the skills and talents required to be truly good at it, and those that do not. With taiko, as you can imagine, a strong sense of rhythm and timing is vital, as well as the ability to memorise the order of a piece, or continuity as i like to frame it – being able to string it all together. On the physical side you need good coordination, the ability to keep a steady beat, good left-right separation, and fast hands. Of all these skills fast hands is the area where I struggle most, while rhythm, timing and memory are the areas I am strongest. I’m also a pretty fast learner.
So, I was pretty disappointed last week when, after training for 6 months at the direction of our sensei to learn the (difficult) lead part for our piece, that part was given to the older, more experienced player who had learnt it before. That might seem fair enough, and perhaps my problem is I am just not Japanese enough to accept that that’s the way things go, but age and experience don’t necessarily translate into the best person for the job. In this case, the older more experienced player is in his 60s at least, and despite his experience lacks the sense of rhythm, timing and continuity to lead the piece well. In the last practice he stumbled over every transition, and the one before that our sensei actually said to him “you can’t count” when he was soloing. On top of that, due to most of the class not being regular turning up to practice, the whole piece lacks cohesion and it needs a strong lead to hold it together. When we played it last week I could tell quite clearly the pieces suffered from a lack of one.
Perhaps I shouldn’t take it personally, but its hard not to when your hard work and natural strengths are over looked in a situation where those qualities are absolutely necessary, in favour of someone who lacks all of them, based purely on an antiquated ideal or cultural bias. It’s even harder when the part I did get given is basically the worst part in the piece, I come on for a about a minute in the middle then I go off again. It almost feels as if I am being punished for something. Perhaps I am that proud student from the old martial arts parable that must be humbled by his master. I guess if I am, then just like in the parable all it did was make me more angry.
Maybe I should try learn something from that.
