You can play taiko! Come learn with us.

July update:

• We’ve moved back to our studio for summer! 
• We’re still teaching casual hour-long lessons during July.

We’ll teach beginners on Sundays from noon to 1 pm at our studio in Bellevue.

If you’re interested, please let us know by emailing us at pitt.taiko+recruit21@gmail.com (mailto link). We’ll add you to the beginner class announcement list.

Or studio is on the second floor at 2 North Balph Ave. (Bellevue PA 15202). The building is at the corner with Lincoln Ave. and the door to our space is near the juice bar named Vibe.

Please let us know ahead of time when you’re planning to join us – we lock the outer door when we start class and want to know whether to wait for you.

There is no charge for these lessons, but donations are welcome.

What to expect

Each lesson will include:

• Calisthenics and other exercises to get your body ready to play
• Lessons on how to stand and how to hit
• Drills to learn and improve your taiko skills
• Learning some simple taiko repertoire

Please wear comfortable clothing. Be prepared to remove your shoes to enter the studio – we practice barefoot or in clean/indoor-only shoes. Yoga socks (with grip) are fine too.

A bottle of water is nice to have. You should wear earplugs in the studio; we have disposable reusable ones available.

We provide drums and drumsticks (bachi).

These classes are designed for adults; older kids (13+) are welcome with a parent or guardian.

Please join us!

Covid safety guidelines

• Please wear a mask if you are not fully vaccinated (2+ weeks after the last shot).
• All of our core group is fully vaccinated. We are tracking the stories about possible delta variant infections in vaccinated people and might change our mask requirement if evidence supports it.
• If you aren’t comfortable being around unmasked people, let us know – we are flexible and want to make sure everyone feels safe.
• Our studio is not very big, but has decent airflow (the walls don’t go all the way up to the ceiling). It’s usually too warm to open the windows during practice.
• Please don’t participate if you are ill or have recently been exposed to someone with covid-19 symptoms. We can wait!

After July

We are preparing for a long series of performances that start in August, so we won’t offer lessons in August.

Depending on interest (and our energy level) we’ll try to schedule a more traditional class later in the fall. We’ll announce that to the beginner email list also, so sign up!