These songs are for people to use! My students have found them really fun. If you choose to use one or both, let me know. I would love to see your versions. Also, please credit Taiko Shine or Dr. Wendy Jo. Happy drumming from St. Paul, Minnesota!
The songs are Chōchō Fun (uses basic techniques and is great for a beginning class), Let’s Taiko (2+min funny song to start a recital, can be played really fast for more advanced students), Murasaki Swing (a celebratory song with a swing beat, moving and solo sections, fun vocals, and a couple of dance moves), and Purple Surge (a short piece that could be repeated and arranged or used as a solo, for example an odaiko solo or a group chu piece (I use it inside Narushima by Katsuji Kondo)). Soon, I will post A Celebration of Purple as well.
Chōchō Fun
This is a good song for beginners. I have been teaching it since 2023 in a six-week course. I don’t usually get to part D, but the students are able to do the split part (when each side plays something different), and so do the intro through the song to the finale, just omitting D.
Link to the folder with musescore pdf, kucheshouka page, and audio file.
Playlist on YouTube:
Let’s Taiko!
This song works well to open our recitals. It works with beginning and intermediate students who like to be goofy and add in some theatrics (the drummers are split into two groups who argue a couple of times about whose turn it is to do the call), and the shime player has to fight in the beginning to get the students’ attention because they are messing around playing whatever they want! 🙂
Let’s Taiko playlist on YouTube.
Resources (musecore PDF, kucheshouka, and audio file).
Murasaki Swing
All the resources are here. Watch performance and instructional videos on YouTube.
Murasaki Swing was inspired by Jonathan Kirby’s practice song, “Shouts, Kas, and 3 Big Beats.”
These songs are open source if you credit Dr. Wendy Jo and Taiko Shine. Enjoy!