Don and ka
Strike the middle of the skin for a full, deep don; move towards the edge for a softer note; hit the wooden rim for a dry ka. Two keys per hand on the keyboard, F and J for the skin, D and K for the rim.
Japan · Free · No account
Online taiko - don on the skin, ka on the rim
Three Japanese drums to strike: the deep ōdaiko, the chū-daiko at the heart of the ensemble and the high, rope-tightened shime-daiko. Hit the middle of the skin for a full don, the wooden rim for a sharp ka, then learn a rhythm in kuchi shōga, the syllables taiko players sing, and play your part while the others keep the beat.
3 DRUMS
2 STROKES
5 RHYTHMS
81 KB SOUND FILE
0 INSTALL
What you get
A taiko ensemble in your browser
Taiko is played with the whole body. Here it starts with two fingers and a beat.
Three drums
The ōdaiko booms on the first beat, the chū-daiko carries the melody of strokes and the shime-daiko keeps a tight, high pulse. Play any of them, or all three in turn.
Rhythms in kuchi shōga
Each rhythm is written in the syllables taiko players sing to learn: don for a full stroke, do-ko for two quick ones, tsu for a light touch, ka-ra for the rim. Under each syllable, the hand to use.
Play your part
Press My part: the shime-daiko, the ōdaiko and a small bell keep the base, and you play the chū-daiko. Each stroke turns green when it lands in time on the right spot, red if not.
From first beats to festival
Start with steady dons, add the don doko base beat, bring in the rim, then try the rolling Thunder and the busy Festival rhythm. Slow the tempo down to learn, speed it up to perform.
Recorded drums
Big drums, mallet and stick hits, a rim click on a rope drum and a metal bell, recorded by Versilian Studios and released into the public domain, tuned and layered into the three taiko.
Getting started
Your first taiko rhythm
Strike the skin
Tap the middle of the chū-daiko, or press J: that is don.
Find the rim
Tap the wooden ring around the skin, or press K: that is ka.
Listen
Choose Don doko and press Play: the ensemble plays the rhythm under the syllables.
Your part
Press My part and play the syllables yourself, J and F for do-ko.
Specifications
The full sheet
| Type | Japanese taiko ensemble, playable on this page, free |
|---|---|
| Drums | Ōdaiko (big drum), chū-daiko (barrel drum), shime-daiko (small rope-tensioned drum) |
| Strokes | Skin (don, do, ko, tsu) and rim (ka, ra), louder in the middle of the skin |
| Rhythms | First beats, Don doko, Ka on the rim, Thunder, Festival; 70 to 170 BPM |
| Practice | My part: timing and skin or rim checked on every stroke |
| Keyboard | F J skin, D K rim, Space V ōdaiko, S A shime-daiko, Shift for a soft stroke |
| Sound | Versilian Community Sample Library (CC0): concert bass drum, tom, rope drum rim, brake drum bell (81 KB) |
| Requirements | Any modern browser with Web Audio - Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari |
The great drum
Taiko means great or wide drum in Japanese, and outside Japan the word has come to mean ensemble drumming. The drums have a skin on both sides and a sealed body, often carved from a single section of tree trunk. On the barrel-shaped nagadō-daiko, the most common drum of an ensemble, the cowhide is nailed to the body with rows of tacks; the small shime-daiko has its skins stretched on iron rings and tightened with rope. The largest drums, the ōdaiko, can be too big to move and stay in temples and shrines. They are played with bachi, wooden sticks about 40 cm long.
From temples to stages
A clay figure of a drummer from the sixth or seventh century shows that taiko were already played in Japan then. Drums sounded in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, at harvest festivals and bon dances, and on battlefields, where they set the pace of the march and carried orders. In 1951 Daihachi Oguchi, a jazz drummer from Nagano, arranged drums of different sizes like a drum kit and created kumi-daiko, the taiko ensemble that his group Osuwa Daiko made popular across Japan and that groups around the world play today.
More drums to play
Hear Japan in another way with the 13 strings of the online koto, play the bass, tone and slap of the djembe, and find every instrument on the world music studio map.
Questions
Frequently asked
Is this online taiko free?
Yes. The three taiko at the top of this page are free, with no account and nothing to install. They run in your browser with the Web Audio API and load one 81 KB sound file.
What do don and ka mean?
They are kuchi shōga, the syllables taiko players use to sing, teach and remember rhythms. Don is a deep, full stroke in the middle of the skin, ka a sharp tap on the side of the drum, tsu a light stroke. Do-ko means two quick strokes, one with each hand, and ka-ra two strokes on the rim.
How do I play taiko on a keyboard?
F and J strike the skin of the chū-daiko with the left and right hand, D and K its rim. Space and V play the ōdaiko, S and A the shime-daiko. Hold Shift for a softer stroke.
Are these rhythms traditional pieces?
No. Don doko is a basic beat that taiko players use everywhere, and the other rhythms were written for this page to practise the strokes. Traditional and festival pieces are best learned from a taiko group, many of which welcome beginners.
Where does the sound come from?
From the Versilian Community Sample Library, released into the public domain (CC0): a concert bass drum, a tom played with a mallet and a stick, a stick on the wooden rim of a rope-tensioned drum and a brake drum for the bell, tuned and layered into the three taiko.
Keep exploring
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Ready when you are
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