I'm a Force to Be Reackoned With!!!

Last night I had taiko practice. The man we refer to as "The Godfather" was there to teach us a new song, which was great because he only comes once a month and the last few times he's been there it seemed like he had forgotten the new song he started to teach before. So anyway, he came with the music written down and we each got a copy. When I first started playing back in October, we were given the music for the songs we were playing and I remember looking at the paper like..."This may as well be ancient Japanese, because it makes no sense!!!" Well, in the middle of the song last night it clicked...just like that...and I could play the entire song by looking at the paper. It never ceases to amaze the that my brain works that way.

After practice, one of the men was like, "Wow, you remembered it so quickly!" So I said, "No, I didn't remember it. I just read it off the paper." So everyone started to ask me if I've ever studied music...No, I don't think middle school chorus or a near futile attempt to teach myself the guitar count. So they were like, "So what did you do?" Um...I wanted to say nothing, but that would have led to a whole 'nuther conversation about how amazing it is. No, I'm not tooting my own horn. It's happened several times since I've been here. Whenever I do something new effortlessly, everyone loses it and goes on and on about how great it all is. Flattering...yes. Annoying over time...YES!...because it's really not that serious. Anyhow, when they asked what I did back in the States, I just said "dance." They were all like, "Oh, yes. Dance takes a lot of rhythm...." And I made an exit so as to not have to discuss it any further.

I reached another milestone at practice last night. My sticks were already begining to splinter so "The Godfather" told me to tape it up. "Granddaddy" brought over some tape and scissors and I took care of it. Two seconds into the song, "CRACK!" I split the stick!!! Yay, I'm a taiko beast!