Wartburg College professor builds taiko drums

WAVERLY, Iowa (AP) - Craig Hancock marches to the beat of his own drum.

And why not? He built them.

The Wartburg College professor and director of the Wind Ensemble spent several months this fall and winter constructing three large and two small taiko drums.

“A friend of mine, high school band director Cliff St. Clair of Spencer, made his own taiko drums, and he gave me the manual downloaded from the internet. I read it and thought, ‘An ordinary guy like me could do this,’” Hancock told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.

He became captivated with taiko – traditional Japanese barrel-shaped drums and style of drumming - when the college’s top concert band he directs, the Wind Ensemble, toured Japan in 2007 and 2013.

On a third visit in 2019, students traveled to Uto in southwest Japan, where taiko are manufactured. It is also home to a taiko museum and a hangar-sized building filled with centuries-old oak tree logs that hollow out as they age which are carefully stored for making taiko. Taiko have held an important place in Japan’s culture and history since the sixth century.

“The students were allowed to come in and taught to play authentic taiko drums,” Hancock recalled. When it was learned that the ensemble’s percussionists would be performing Japanese pieces on their own version of taiko-like drums, they were invited to use real taiko drums in the concert.

When Hancock took a sabbatical last semester, he was “champing at the bit to get started making taiko drums,” but was sidelined by shoulder surgery. While undergoing rehabilitation, he began learning the drum-making process in his garage using three antique whiskey barrels and two nail kegs as bases. The whiskey barrels had been used for animal feed by a farmer near Sumner. As the weather turned colder, he moved construction to the instrument repair room at Wartburg.

Hancock power-sanded the wood barrels and kegs, then used three coats of Bondo automotive filler for a smooth finish before priming and spray-painting the drum bases. Drum heads are made from cowhide ordered from a tanner in specific sizes. “They come hard, like dog rawhide treats. They have to be soaked in water for three days to become pliable enough for me to stretch them over the drums.”

It takes about three days for the drum skins to dry and contract to fit the drums using a homemade rope-and-ratchet system and decorative black tacks. Hancock also reinforced barrel rims with metal to keep the drum skins from crushing the barrels and also ensuring drummers can bang the rims as part of their drumming.

Hancock also built stands to raise the drums higher off the ground so a drummer can use both ends of the drum for different sounds. Height also lets audiences have a better view of a drummer’s movements.

“Taiko is a way of drumming. It’s like a dance with a specific stance and stroke when playing. You don’t just hit it; you dance and stand and stroke,” Hancock said.

Hancock admits he’s hooked on making the drums. “When you’re making something like this, you have to come up with your own tools and ideas. I started with the smaller drums before I built the large ones, and each one goes a little faster. I’ve got my eye out for materials and on a few online auctions.”

These aren’t the first taiko drums Hancock has had available for use, though. He and St. Clair co-own three taiko drums that they can use when their bands’ repertoire calls for authentic instrumentation. They are loaned out to other ensembles when not in use, and Hancock’s five new drums will augment the collection.