2009 North American Taiko Conference

Last week TAIKOPROJECT took part in the 2009 North American Taiko Conference! The conference returned to LA this year and was hosted by the JACCC (www.jaccc.org). This was my first time attending conference so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was pretty much an amazing few days of everything and everyone taiko! I had the privilege of helping Byron and Kevin out with the Omiyage workshop on Saturday. For the first two hours we split our group up into two groups. Byron took one group to teach the chu part and Kevin and I took the other for the set part. In the beginning, I was really nervous because it was my first time teaching a workshop, and I was wondering how we were going to teach omiyage in just two hours. After seeing how quickly the participants were learning, I soon realized that learning how to play omiyage in two hours is possible! For the last portion of the workshop, we got back into one group and played Omiyage together. I was truly amazed at how enthusiastic everyone was about learning this piece and how fast they learned it as well. I was so happy I was able to take part in the taiko conference this year! The only regret I have is that I did not attend as a participant. Next time i will definitely be signing up as a participant!

~Jenny~