The third of the Saturday lessons for foreigners is tomorrow at the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts (NCKTPA), quite a mouthful. It's fun, and I'm learning a bit, but the class is so large and so filled with people who've never before held a chae (drum stick) that I don't expect it to be extremely useful for substantially increasing my drumming ability. Dong Won Kim is still trying to find me a teacher in Seoul for some private lessons; I am hopeful that will happen.
I prepared for the possibility of lessons (and practicing) by buying a drum -- my own janggu. On Tuesday I took the train to Daejeon, the large city near Dong Won's home, and he took me to the "factory" which produces, according to him, the best drums. It's a family business which has operated for years in this very specialized field. I'm including a few pictures from that trip, but if you want ALL the pictures, you can go to
http://picasaweb.google.com/
I actually created a slide show, with captions and everything! But you really have to be interested in drumming. . . .
A jumble of drums and other equipment in the "showroom"Mr. Kim working on putting together my drum.
Here is also a picture with Dong Won at dinner that evening. That's the restaurant where I subsequently had the restroom experience detailed in a previous blog. That restaurant will never be the same!
I experienced really wonderful drumming last Sunday, 3/15. That's when Michael and Angela Huh took me to see Michael's mother and her drumming group. It's a community "team" so reflects the type of drumming done in that particular piece of geography. It is quite different from what I have previously heard, but I very much liked it. There is a lot of singing, primarily by the leader but with the other members joining in. They did a long, quite traditional, piece about rice planting which was beautiful. And the lead buk player (that's the drum I have been playing in Shinparam) was magnificent. I've never heard such subtlety from the buk which is usually pretty loud and mostly performing the bass, beat-maintaining, function.
Because this particular "practice" turned into a small performance for a group of elementary school students, the group members also did a little teaching to show the kids how the different instruments were played. That meant a bunch of children -- and I -- were on the floor being taught while proud parents bustled around taking pictures. It's good that, at my age, I am very seldom embarrassed! A few pictures from that drumming event are also included.
Planting Rice
Buk player extraordinaire
Kyung-Hee Cho, leader of Chunmoosori, and me
The kids and me with members of Chunmoosori
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