Ten Top Tips for Teaching Taiko
Creating a “top ten” list is an easy way of writing a magazine article. How many times have you seen features on the “top ten movies of all time” and the like?
As with any such list, the “top ten tips for teaching taiko” may change from teacher to teacher and from year to year. The following list has certainly changed over the last twelve months, and if I were to write another a year from now, it might change again.
Some of the following are my own invention, some have come from teacher-training courses I have run, and others have come from teachers who are now running their own groups. I would particularly like to thank Joe Cooper for his memorable contributions, some of which are quotations from Buddhist teachers.
In saying that this list is dynamic, variable, and includes contributions from lots of people, I am inviting feedback and your own suggestions. Creating a list of your own might also be a process in which you could usefully engage the help of your own group, so as to help develop everyone’s understanding of what happens in a taiko session.
Ten Top Tips for Teaching Taiko
- Be clear about the reason your group (or class) exists, and on the conditions of membership.
- Embody the four principles: attitude, kata, technique, ki.
- Establish a ritual for starting and finishing.
- Be firmly resolute in what you want to achieve, and endlessly flexible in how you go about achieving it.
- Be prepared to break everything down into its smallest constituent.
- Demonstration is often better than talk.
- Recruit other teachers.
- Silence and stillness trump noise and movement.
- NEVER blame your students.
- Smile – You’re playing Taiko!