Tsucchi's "Taiko Drum Story" No. 15 | Gamute - An indispensable presence in the field -

Dear readers of the JPC newsletter, the time has come for the familiar Taiko story.
It's almost spring. The cherry blossoms are blooming, and I'm sure everyone is enjoying the warm budding season.
Spring is the season for new starts.
There may be milestones such as entering school, graduating from school, getting a job, getting married, or having a child. I just celebrated my birthday the other day, and I'm a young man. Yes, I'm 48 years old lol
Well, at this age, it's hard to imagine a man celebrating his birthday that much, but it's still nice to receive birthday wishes on social media.
I have received many messages this year, and I am very happy to read them.
thank you very much!

Well, the last Taiko Kidan story was about putting Evans' Red Hydraulic Head on my Rogers, but it ended half-heartedly.
As a side note, I decided to make the bottom of the 12" tom resonant coated. Of course, the resonance and overtones have increased, and the character has changed just the right amount, which I really like. The 13" tom and 16" floor are still REMO silent strokes. The current situation is that I have a mix of double-head toms, single-head toms, and floors. The individuality of each instrument is different, but the connection sounds strangely natural. It's just my opinion, though.
``Tsutchi's Rogers doesn't play'' is becoming an established theory in the Akigase Park area.
A soul man is someone who bangs on drums that don't play (completely assumed lol).

Well, that's about it for the story about Rogers, and this time I received a clear theme from Mr. Nishio for this series, which always gets off track and rambles.
I'm sure Mr. Nishio was given a secret order to ``somehow organize that guy's series.''
When I see that Mr. Nishio is caught in the middle of a suicide, I feel unbearable and momentarily think that I must do something about it, but perhaps it is because of his innate, unworthy personality that Socrates famously said, ``Derailment is inevitable.'' (Socrates never said anything like that.) The story moves forward on its own, regardless of Mr. Nishio's suicide.

The topic of interest is "duct tape."

If you're thinking, "Huh? It has nothing to do with drums! What the heck is that?" If you've never used duct tape (hereinafter referred to as ``Gumute'') in your life as a percussion instrument, then you're still living a false life as a percussion instrument. (It's not that exaggerated lol)
For players of percussion instruments, especially drums and Latin percussion, the gamte is one of the must-haves.
Mr. Nishio said to me, ``Since you're going to be handling Gumute at Drum City, why don't you write about how to use Gumute at the Drum Tech site?'' It made a lot of sense. What's more, the GAMTE we handle is from Teraoka around the world, yes, even backstage at Fuji Rock, where they brought in tons of equipment, and the foreign crew even said, "Teraoka, please!"JapanTeraoka's gumte is almost always used not only in rock and pop music, but also in enka, plays, and movies. It's different from the usual Gamute.
It's not the brown paper tape that holds the cardboard box in the back of the closet. It's a tape that has a unique position, but Teraoka's gum tape has excellent adhesive strength, is made of cloth and is durable, and has a wide variety of colors.REMOIt's no.

I thought that if I wrote this much, Teraoka would probably send me a year's worth of Gamute, but when I thought about it, the day I received a year's worth of Gamute from my house, my family would probably think, ``I'm going to do this again by buying things I don't understand why,'' so Teraoka, you don't need to send it.
I would like to introduce here the close relationship between Gamute and Drum Tech.

Check out Teraoka's duct tape at the online shop eJPC!
Gum tape with the No. 1 market share in the drum industry! Also known as “Akaterra”
Gum tape is highly trusted by live houses and drum techs all over the country, and it is rumored that ``if you have this, you can deal with most troubles that occur on-site.'' That is Teraoka Olive Tape.
 

First up is "Gamte and Bamiri".

What is “bamiri”?

Although it has a monster-like name, it is indispensable not only for drums but also for concerts and plays. This means marking the standing position on the stage, the stage set, and the position of the amp and drum stand for musical instruments. When it comes to drum sets, the position of each part of the drum set is marked on the drum carpet in detail, so that anyone can set it up to a certain degree, and in order to always set the instrument in the same position and maintain a stable playing environment, this ``bamiri'' is essential. Furthermore, in my case, when the position of the chair or pedal changes slightly depending on the physical condition of the player, the color changes to a different color. In this way, data on how the settings changed depending on the conditions will remain on the drum mat.

For example, if you mark the center of a chair with an X with black tape, and a player says, ``I'm going to change the position of the chair a bit,'' and says, ``Yes, I'll try this position today,'' I immediately mark that position with red tape. It's important to be able to easily reproduce the situation when you say, ``I wish the chair was in a better position that time.'' This is true for all Bamiri.
Sometimes I see people use rubber bands to control the opening of tripods such as cymbal stands, but I don't recommend doing that. The adhesive from the tape will stick to the stand and get dirty, and the tape may get stuck between the pipe and the tripod, causing a malfunction. Above all, it doesn't look good.

It's not just a matter of hitting the drum mat, it's important to do it so that it can't be seen from the audience.
You want to keep the stage clean.
It's certainly easier to see if you mark the black drum mat with white tape, but I don't think the drum set looks very good when viewed from the seats slightly above the audience. Hard to see from the outside, easy to understand from the inside. I am keeping in mind. Black drum mat with black gumte. ``If you use black on black, you won't be able to see it as a crow in the dark.'' No, it's obvious when you use a matte mat with a dull, glossy gumte. Really lol
When it comes to marking tape, imported ones are also often used.
It's called ``Gaffa Tape,'' an American-made tape that has recently become more common. This is a conspicuous fluorescent tape that was used on the set of Hollywood movies. There are many different thicknesses and colors, and the one I always keep in my tool box is a thin piece of tape specifically for marking standing positions, commonly known as ``spike tape.''
It's 0.5 inch, so it's about 1.3 cm wide, which is great for marking the drummer's feet. I'm doing this with the hope that the drummer will also be able to feel a little more excited by saying things like, ``Oh! You've marked them so neatly! Good!''
Why not try selling this spike tape at Drum City?

[PR] See Spike Tape Fluorescent Yellow 12.5mm x 41m on Amazon
This is a product from the American company Pro Tapes & Specialties Inc. It is matte, so you don't have to worry about reflections from lighting. Although it is a strong adhesive, it peels off cleanly without sticking even after it has been glued. It's light and small, so you don't have to worry about the weight even if you carry it around.
*Clicking will open the Amazon product page in a new window.
 

Now, what's next about the close relationship between Drum Tech and Gamte...

It's "mute".

When did the strong and sweet relationship between these two, gamte and mute, begin? Who was the first person to use gamte to mute a drum? Nowadays, in order to control the harsh overtones of the snare, everyone either sticks the tape on the studio or the tape they bring with them. Really, who will be the first? When I think about it, I can't sleep at night lol

In recent years, it has almost lost its place to something called gel mute, but when it comes to muting drums and percussion, Gamute is still the king. You can stick it on as is, or you can cut it into 3-4 cm pieces, roll it up like a cigarette, and place it on top of the head (the sound of this mute will change depending on where you place it on the head), or you can get a tight mute effect by sticking it together with tissue paper, the mistress of gumte mutes. There are many different ways to do this, and depending on your ideas, it is not a dream to breathe new life into the Gumtemute world. No, seriously lol

If you tear the gumte into long strips and stick it on the back of the ride cymbal from the center outward, you'll get a cymbal sound with moderately controlled overtones, and if you stick it vertically to the cowbell opening, you'll easily get a really thick cowbell sound. You can easily get a thicker and brighter sound by layering several dice-sized pieces of square gumte in the middle of the timbale. All of these things are things I've learned from the wonderful works and musicians I've worked with. Not just musicians. There are so many things that I have learned first-hand from my senior roadies, stage managers, props, and people who work on set.
At the concert sites where we work, we wouldn't be able to do anything without this gamte. I remember something that a senior lighting expert told me a long time ago. ``Okay, you're not a roadie, you're a roadie, a farmer, an industrialist, a merchant, a dog, a cat, a bandman, a gunte, a nail, a box horse, a stone, a roadie.''If I said something like this now, it would immediately spark a debate in the Diet, and I would be denounced by each local government's board of education.JapanDemonstrations were held all over the country, weekly magazines, TV newspapers, right-wing left-wing groups, and people's homes were stormed, and families were separated, but back then it was commonplace. What my seniors probably wanted to say was, ``You'll probably get yelled at, picked on, and beaten up by everyone, but you came into this world because you love music and musical instruments, right?Then, put your heart and soul into putting up a good concert, no matter how hard it is.I hope everyone who sees the concert goes home feeling good.'' It was a tough but warm whip of love.
(However, at the time, I thought, ``Someday, I'm going to crack this old man's head.''
It is also true lol)

Such an epic story? Teraoka's duct tape, which is behind the scenes, is now on sale at Drum City, so if you visit Asakusa from Tokyo or other regions, please purchase Teraoka's duct tape and thunder drum head at Drum City along with Kaminari Okoshi, and we hope you will have a good memory of your visit to Asakusa. Oh, if you're feeling hungry, go to the flower shop.^{*Editor's note}We recommend the yakisoba! It's like that
Shall we close this article here?
See you soon! ! !

Editor's note: Florist...or more accurately, florist. Unfortunately it closed a few years ago.