Day 29

Date: June 13, 2011
Time: 1:05am
Playing on iTunes: "Pinzin Kinzin" by Avishai Cohen Trio








Location: Mt. Pleasant, PA
Recent Trip 350 miles

Welcome to Mt. Pleasant Junior Senior High School. This is definitely the nicest high school we've been to so far as far as showers, atmosphere, and overall cleanliness of the school/stadium.

 Today was a big day because we got to work with a man named Richard who has played with Blue Man Group, is an accomplished actor, and has been a Cadet. Actually funny enough, he told us that he is going to be acting on the show Burn Notice as  a security guard or cop type role. Pretty cool! So the reason he cam is because there is a japanese drumming part in the show this year, and the pit needed a little lesson on how to perform the taiko (japanese drums) part.

 This was really cool because if you have ever seen Blue Man Group, they're playing with their sticks high in the air, extremely visually, but not actually loud. The same applies with Taiako Watch this video of a japanese group performing Taiko.
Taiko
As you can see the key to the drumming is to play with your sticks moving a lot. Reason being, if you played loud with the height you were supposed to play at, you'd probably break the drum head. The sticks we use if you can see in the picture above are extremely thick. Probably about 1in in thickness. And those aren't even authentic taiko sticks!!
Once we get all of our taikos in, I will do a blog explaining all the different drums we use, but if you come to see the show, you will see the integral part this drum section plays and why we needed a professional to come in and show us how to drum on taikos.

Richard with the CPit

I am finally starting to get used to the tour lifestyle. Quick showers, living out of a suitcase, sleeping on a bus, etc. It's becoming very easy for me to go throughout the day now. The first couple days were hard because I hadn't lived out of a suitcase in a while and I'm always someone to be afraid that I've forgotten something, but since I've gone 29 days and been fine I'm confident that I can survive the summer. And I absolutely love the scenery in the sky out here. It's so much more interesting than New England. No offense to New England, its got the best foliage! I'm just extremely anxious to get on the road and finally drive out to Louisville, Kentucky tomorrow. We're rehearsing in Papa John's Cardinals Stadium. It's going to be awesome! Our first REAL stadium. See you there!




Though of the Day: "Always act professional, you never know who's watching."