A bodhran designed by Glen Velez and REMO for hand techniques. Played in this manner, the drum closely resembles the frame drums tar, duff and bendir found throughout the Middle Eastern and North African regions.

While I was still a teenager, my father began building his own bodhran drums at home and soon taught himself to play. I became fascinated with the instrument, and learned the basics from him. My on-going attraction to the entire family of frame drums is in part due to this first exposure to the Irish bodhran.

While stick drumming is more widely recognized in many parts of Europe and North America, hand drumming is common throughout Africa, the Middle East and many parts of Asia. The frame drum family of instruments is found on virtually every continent and are often played with the bare hand. This intimate contact with an instrument, that of one's hand striking a skin surface, is an element that is missing from stick drumming and one that attracts many players to hand drumming, including myself. Certainly frame drums, held close to the body and with a sound so rich in overtones, are an ideal example of this intimate quality.

During my time in university, I was introduced to the playing and music of Glen Velez, the American percussionist and frame drummer. He is widely acknowledged as the leader of the current interest in frame drumming in North America. His unique playing energy and his virtuosity on a multitude of "exotic", but simple, instruments such as the bendir and the riqq made a huge impression on me. Glen is also responsible for a new style of bodhran playing involving a fusion of hand techniques that had a particular resonance for me.

In 1993 I attended a series of workshops at Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, B.C.). Glen was one of the teachers, along with Sal Ferreras and Trichy Sankaran. These workshops illustrated the diversity that exists in the hand drumming family, and introduced me to South Indian kanjira, an important instrument among frame drums. The complexity and depth of expression of classical Karnatic drumming was awe inspiring and left me feeling certain that I needed to continue to dig deeply into the possibilities of frame drums. I have continued to take occasional private lessons with Glen since then, and have also visited Trichy Sankaran in Toronto, and Allesandra Belloni in New York for the same.

In the 10 years since those first workshops, I have been inspired by many exceptional drummers. I have also shared the frame drumming passion with friends and colleagues, and performed with artists such as Ganesh Anandan, Farhan Sabbagh and Carlo Rizzo. The diversity of the various frame drums is limitless, and I have learned that this is only equalled by the creativity with which they can be played.

This okedo-daiko comes from Hirosaki in Aomori prefecture where horsehide drumhead construction is very common, although the drums used are generally larger and refered to as neputa taiko. The drum can be used with a strap so that both heads can be struck, a style of playing largely inspired by Korean changgo drumming and popularized by Kodo

I first became aware of Japanese percussion when I attended a Kodo performance in 1989. To say the group had an impact on me would be a significant understatement: their music and artistry has resonated throughout my life and my development as a musician since that concert, and served to spark my ongoing fascination with Japanese percussion. While in university, I joined Montreal's community-based taiko ensemble, Arashi Daiko. With Arashi Daiko, I was fortunate to attend workshops with other North-American taiko groups, and with Kodo members Yoshikazu and Yoko Fujimoto. Meeting these two artists, as well as Canadian taiko performer/composer and friend Kiyoshi Nagata, inspired me to continue my learning in Japan.

Up to this time I was exposed to what is commonly referred to as "taiko", or kumi-daiko, and I was largely unfamiliar with the older roots of this modern style of percussion. The "taiko style", as performed by numerous North-American groups, as well as the well-known Japanese ensembles such as Kodo, Ondekoza, and soloists such as Eitetsu Hayashi, is largely an amalgam of elements from traditional Shinto kagura music and modern influences ranging from jazz to contemporary composition fused with a theatrical stage presence that is equally influenced by kabuki as it is by popular styles. In 2000, I participated in the first Taiko Koh-kan workshop presented by Kodo on Sado Island, Japan, which focused on developing a personal approach to taiko playing. This workshop revealed that what I had taken for granted as a largely traditional form, the music performed by Kodo and others was really part of a bigger, older picture, and that there was a greater depth to be mined. The same year, I was fortunate to meet Japanese flutist Kohei Nishikawa in Montreal and collaborate on an ensemble project that joined traditional Japanese music elements with the Euro/American chamber music tradition. In Tokyo, he introduced me to Taichi Ozaki (stage name Kaho Tosha ), a well-known performer and teacher of traditional Japanese classical percussion. Since then, with Kaho-sensei I have been able to touch on the music of nagauta (which forms a large part of kabuki), elements from noh theatre, as well as the kagura styles rooted in the Japanese countryside. To many, the image of a sweating, half-naked man beating a drum the size of a mini-van with 2 huge sticks raised above his head represents the dominating image of Japanese percussion. While this striking scene does reveal something about the country, there is a great deal more to discover. Japan is to a large extent, and certainly when compared to many western-European or Christian dominated cultures, a drum-country (although the sound of pachinko now drowns out even the drums). The huge variety of bells, gongs, drums, wooden instruments and cymbals is staggering. While the music of Japan's many festivals is largely very energetic, loud, outdoors music, the sounds of noh and kabuki can range to the quietest, subtlest extremes. From frightening intensity to the gentlest whisper: the power of expression that so impressed me at that concert in 1989 remains essential.

The shimejishi daiko is a hybrid instrument developed by Kodo and Otodaiku. With alternating cow and horsehide heads, the drum is a fusion of a shime daiko and the type of drum used in the drum/dance festival styles of the Iwate prefecture. (Photo by Dominique Sicotte)

Some terms:

Kabuki-a very stylized operatic form of
theatre previously associated with the merchant class.

Kagura-the music associated with Shinto festivals.

Kodo-a traditional arts organisation and performing company based in Japan.

Kumi-daiko-literally "group taiko"; the modern phenomenon of grouping different drums together for large ensemble performances.

Nagauta-the"long song", employed in many kabuki plays.

Noh-an older form of traditional theatre previously associated with the samurai class.

Okedo-daiko-literally "bucket-drum"; a barrel-shaped drum with two heads tuned by rope tension.

Shime-daiko-literally "tightened drum"; a rope-tension drum played with sticks. It is the largest of the three drums found in the Noh hayashi ensemble, where it is refered to simply as "taiko".

Taiko-literally "drum"; daiko has the same meaning.