Psyko Taiko

Psyko Taiko is a collegiate taiko group from the Claremont schools in Claremont, CA. Taiko is a Japanese-American art form featuring rhythm, movement, and a unique blend of tradition and innovation. Subscribe for taiko vids and information concerning the 5C Psyko Taiko group!

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SPRING CONCERT IS APPROACHING!

2PM Thursday, May 3rd

Benson Auditorium, Pitzer College

Flyer made by our very own Katie Huang and Jacqueline Wijaya.

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Jen and Maz rehearsing Symmetrical Soundscapes - kuchishoga.  

At our home stay’s basement in Virginia.  :D

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This is pretty cool

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Another awesome video from OnEnsemble, this time using Lighted Bachi to draw the path of a strike.

Featuring Kris Bergstrom and Yuta Kato

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Kodo's Irodori, from Live at the Acropolis (1995).

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10 minutes of intensity

Group: Amanojaku

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Oh Kodo you so silly.

(Featuring a super young Ryutaro Kaneko in the center)

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Holy awesomesauce, Batman!

Amazing OnEnsemble performance. I love the matsuri-inspired rhythms in the background.

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Drums built: 1 of 2

HOW EXCITING! Pictures to come.

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Awesome (and silly) doubles taiko battle at Good in Gardena.

See more videos of taiko battles here. There's a lot of interesting stuff in these videos.

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Chappa!

After a week in customs, our new chappa finally arrived! Look at these beauties. 5 sun and 6 sun from the Taiko Center of Kyoto.

We're trying to remember what we learned from the workshop with Ryutaro Kaneko over the summer and it's slowly coming back to us. I'd forgotten how loud chappa are; my ears were ringing after practicing. In future we should probably use earplugs and/or practice in a larger space.

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These guys are super intense. Look at all that energy! Especially the dude rocking the chan chiki.

I love the choreography of the yatai people on the right. They're all pretty wild but it looks great.

If only we had a Koto! (and someone to play it). Adding tonal instruments to taiko really opens up tons of possibilities. One day, one day...

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One of our favorite Taiko videos. Pay particular attention to the dude in the front right. Why? Because I'm pretty sure that's Yuta Kato and he's a total BAMF.

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First Post, and the launching of the new blog

Hi everybody (or nobody)! After a long absence, Psyko Taiko is back on the interwebs, in blog form. Don't worry, it'll get prettier!

This is looking to be a pretty busy semester for us; here's some of the stuff we're hoping to get done:

New songs! We're expanding our repertoire with at least two new songs (including some original compositions) this semester. Depending on how things go, there may be more. 

Spring Concert! It's a concert in the spring! It's gonna be sweet.

New equipment! Chappa arrive soon. Drums need skinning. HOW EXCITING

Training new members We recruited some people back in Fall semester. This semester we'll be shoving more Taiko into their brains and then pushing them on stage in front of tons of people.

New website? The official website is being reworked. Hopefully we'll have it done this semester.

??? Who knows what else the future holds? 

We're going to be using this blog not only to post exciting and totally interesting updates about Psyko Taiko, but also general Taiko musings, inspirational videos and other sorts of junk. But will anyone ever see them?