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What Defines Me As A Daiko Drummer of Singapore Polytechnic

Thursday, November 24, 2011


“Okay, let’s start from the beginning.” Someone started hitting the drum sticks against each other to count the beats. “One, two, three, go!” Sitting around in a circle, we began playing on the floor to the newly learnt beats. Running the beats in my mind, my hands struggled to coordinate with my mind. Despite my best efforts (and everyone else’s too), we never fail to miss a couple of beats here and there. Even if we had perfected the beats, there comes a new challenge: movements on the actual drums.

Though every new song brings new challenges and the training gets tougher, every one of us Daiko Drummers can never hide our excitement at learning a new song. It meant a new song for us to perform to the audience. We stretch often to prevent muscle spasms. We did our warm ups seriously as we know the consequences if it’s not done properly. Whenever we feel like giving up, we just have to look around us to see our comrades working equally as hard. Jokes were exchanged often during the grueling trainings. Laughs escapes readily from our lungs and thoughts of quitting dims immediately.

Now, I stand behind the curtains, positioned at my drum. I can hear the emcee announcing us. I took a glance at my fellow drummer beside me. I share a smile with her, as we get into the mood of the song. As the curtains parts, I looked at the audience into their eyes. I smiled and send them a message telepathically. “Look at us. We’re awesome.” When the cue is due, we started of our beats simultaneously, bringing on every sharp movement that has been drilled into our muscles. I gazed constantly at the audience. At the climax of the song, I share a glance with the drummer beside me. I know what she’s thinking. “This is what we’ve been working for.”

-Ong Wendy


I post this now because I believe that this should be my last post on the club's blog. I often wondered what held us together and for me, it is the prospect of performing to the audience. SP Daiko is one of the greatest thing in my life. SP Daiko, fight on!

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しん

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