Kirkersville students learn Taiko

The sounds at Kirkersville Elementary School during school hours and after school on Tuesdays are coming from drums -- large drums.

In Rachael Undericht's music room, students pound on drums and chant while waving bachi (sticks) in repetitious patterns.

It's a Japanese style of drumming, called Taiko, which has early roots in Japanese martial arts and feudal warfare. The drumming style recently was modernized and is beginning to rise in popularity in, of all places, Kirkersville, Ohio.

"It's fun and entertaining," said Monica Tumlin, a sixth-grader who's been drumming since she was in fourth grade.

Tumlin and others who learned under Ungericht now are part of a traveling Taiko ensemble that performs at the Asian Festival at Franklin Park Conservatory over the Memorial Day weekend and other festivals throughout the state. The group practices after school, seemingly in a trance when the drumming begins.

Ungericht said the drummers have to focus because some of the pieces have seven different transitions and might never repeat the same movements twice.

The students all learn in Ungericht's music classes and may choose to be part of the traveling ensemble.

"We're truly blessed to have a teacher who brought her own interest here to school," Kirkersville principal Nicole Jiran said.

Ungericht said she became interested in Taiko when the school was studying Japan during "Right to Read Week" in her second year at Kirkersville. She likes to use authentic sounds in her music units, so she began researching Taiko drumming.

She participated in workshops from Capital University's Eric Payton, who later came to Kirkersville as an artist-in-residence. During his residency, he helped Ungericht's students learn more about Taiko drumming and showed them how to build drums for the classroom. Another parent later helped to build several more drums, all of which the students continue to use.

"We've been doing this for seven years now," Ungericht said.

When she first started the traveling ensemble, 20 students signed up.

This year, Ungericht had 100 signed up.

She won't turn away any student, but she had to schedule practices three days a week and begin categorizing the students by age just to accommodate them all.

"There are only about 150 professional Taiko groups in America," she said. "It's not something many kids get into."The Kirkersville students have embraced it, though, prompting them to learn more about others and about themselves.

Sixth-grader Samantha Newman said she enjoys learning about the drumming and learning more about the culture of the people who started it.

"They ask about the culture," Ungericht said. "There's an interest there."

Musically, the drumming teaches them to "listen across instruments" and learn how one part of a musical composition works within the entire piece, Ungericht said.

Taiko also teaches the students self-confidence, Ungericht said.

"It's huge confidence-building," she said. "You can see them puff up. It does something for them."

During the Asian Festival at Franklin Park Conservatory, the Kirkersville students team up with Dublin City Schools' Davis Middle School and perform for up to 1,000 people at a time.

It's such a confidence-builder that two girls at Watkins Middle School who still are part of the traveling ensemble are composing their own Taiko piece.

"It makes me so proud," Ungericht said.

She said she knows how addictive Taiko could be. After learning from Payton, she began performing with his traveling Taiko group, and she studied under Eitetsu Hayashi, one of the world's leading taiko performers.

The next performance of the Kirkersville traveling Taiko ensemble will be May 12 at Watkins Memorial High School during the school's musical program.

The traveling ensemble includes students in first to eighth grades. The only requirement for being in the ensemble is the students must have the means to travel to performances.

lwince@thisweeknews.com