Fan Corner


This page is dedicated to discussion on activities related to Tachibana, Izusho, Matsusho, and other Japanese Brass Bands, as well as other topics covered in this blog.

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42,645 thoughts on “Fan Corner”

  2. The camera zoom in this one is amazing (I believe this person was standing from afar) and at 5:09, was the girl in black from the 120th class? (My Way soloist?)

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    • absolutely crazy to be able to capture that quality of video and sound despite the situation
      I really hope 慶次郎前田 will also go to Rose Parade, if we are in good hands and don’t need to worry about not capturing the best footage

      0:16 trumpet had an issue with mouth piece?
      1:45 banner girl love taking care of the kids

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      • 5:46 OG
        8:33 the little fans yelling Tachibana is cute
        9:33 fancy marching, front and back files swapping, I think we first saw that in Beppu 2021, is that an audible gasp from the audience?
        11:03 soft ground too sticky for the steps and twirling haha

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      • Tachibana Fan Hong Kong, the trumpeter’s mouthpiece fell at 11s we see her pick up her mouthpiece then she asks Kaneshiro sensei for a tissue to wipe it. To return to the 2nd year students following behind, the girl who carried the banner last year is not the only one. Last year there were often 3 girls who did not play in the back, the horn player and the trumpeter are not playing yet this year while the clarinetist participates in the parades and stage shows. There are 3 other 2nd year students who last year played during the parades and who are at the back this year, one of the 2 girls who play the sousaphone, the boy with glasses on the French horn and one of the 2 saxophonists tenor.

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    • Maeda-san’s video is trully worth the wait. His multi-cam editing has presented us a continous progression of KT’s Brass Expo parade albeit the very difficult situation. Hats off to you sir.

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  4. Sorry, another one, but I think really worth seeing. The Rooster not only does a good job of filming the parade, but also the traffic chaos at the start. Orange figures darting across the path between the bands! Also, we see KT really spaced out crossing the baseball field. Something that will need improving- especially to avoid the rear ranks having to run to catch up. https://youtu.be/ldr0ILQJ3FY?si=eH7AeOX41tS7fl1q

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    • Wowzer! I didn’t think the beginning of that parade was ever going to get straightened out. To me, it was one big cluster. Then, when KT got moving, it was again a mess … never saw such gaps between the ranks. Did all the bands perform like that? I hope the injury that of the gals of the last two with the first years is healed soon. Poor kid … walking with a limp. Who was in charge of that parade anyway.

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      • yea totally,
        with all the bends, and KT having a large size looked even more streched
        dancing/marching on the baseball pitch was probably harder than solid pavement

        This seems like a really challenging Brass Expo. Still, they had fun, the audience had fun, so it’s still a good event

        13:46 all the neatly placed KT bags actually looked impressive

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        • TFHK- Yes, they clearly all had fun. And it has to be said that the sound held up well. But now comes the time for some stern talking to, from the senseis. With videos as evidence.

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  6. The Marching Bands play together. As in other videos, the sound is not so good and it was recorded from far away. But you can clearly recognize the DM in the foreground

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    • In the text below the video, the composer and the song are mentioned.
      Deepl translation, no guarantee
      Concert March “Wind in May
      Compass of Your Heart
      Conductor: Akira Hayashi

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    • Rayon, I too was worried after the departure of very brilliant soloists such as the 2 alto saxophonists and even more after the departure of the 4 percussionists and the 4 tubists. No one is irreplaceable, it seems to me that there are 6 1st year percussionists and 4 tuba players (or sousa) and in a short time the girl on the 1st year snare drum is already playing often, the 3rd year one is doing the job now after a difficult start. In “September” the first solo is played by the 2nd year girl who was CG during the marching competitions last year, the 2nd solo is played by a 3rd year student, I was hoping to see the new president play a solo, it’s only a postponement.

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      • It’s a good job I refreshed my browser as I was just going to share that.
        Turbokun’ made a brave attempt to follow KT, but it would seem to be impossible for one person to capture the whole parade. Let’s hope that st.taketo or Keijiro Maeda were there with their assistants so that they could compile complete videos of the parade.

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        • From the limited observation so far, there are no cameras following and none running alongside. However, there are many fixed ones, which indeed could make for good combined videos.
          Unless my count is up the pole, we now have 108 members on parade including 17 in black and 13 boys. Needs verification!

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            • Thanks for checking! As usual, mystery shrouds KT’s actual numbers, which I find irresistible to try to pierce.
              We had learnt, from a report in Yahoo Japan, just after the Toyama tour, that the band had 106 members- the number we counted parading at Blumen. Also at Blumen, there were twelve boys. Now we see 13 boys in all, in a band totalling 108!
              Which, by the way, marginally increases the proportion of boys to an unprecedented 12%.
              But I think the main point is that there is a clear intent to grow numbers to a level not seen in ten years. My hunch is we’ll see the band grow further to 120 next year, a number never reached before. (I think the previous max was 118 seen in a 2014 group photo. Have I got that right?)

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        • A good effort by the videographer at a nearly impossible task. Harvey O. here.. They sounded good for this time of year. But, they need to work on dressing their ranks the spacing was all over the place. This is something they will get better with given time.

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        • The caps are labeled “Kyoto Tachibana SHS Band”.
          They should sell the caps, I’m sure they’ll go down well with the fans and the proceeds will go towards the Rose Parade budget.

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        • So, instead of KT’s usual Brass Expo field show of ‘Winter Games’ and ‘Sing3’ they play ‘September’. I like it. Perhaps a result of the constraints arising from the event being held in a much more confined space than normal?

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          • yea no, I can’t say I am a fan of this year’s arragenemnt
            the sound and view are too far away
            don’t know how it feels or likes on site, but it is not as good as the usual Brass Expo in my opinion
            the parade als seems much shorter…

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            • We knew that this would be the result of sidelining the event from the main park to the nearby sports area to accommodate a pop concert. (That was disgraceful, as the Wind Band Association will have booked the park for the second Sunday in May a long time ago.) The space available was far too small for the number of people who normally attend, leading to some curtailment of activities.

              However, the result was actually not as bad as I had feared. I thought that the bands might only be allowed to play once they had reached a certain point inside the baseball arena. Fortunately the embankment around the arena provided a barrier stopping the sound outside from interfering with the sound inside. Even so, the u-turn made by the bands after they emerged from the all-weather pitch meant that they were quite close to the next bands starting off. However, sound interference from other bands was always a feature of Brass Expo!

              I think the organisers did pretty good job in a very unfavourable situation.

              This video looking from the embankment shows how close each band was to the next one setting off. In the background you can see the waiting bands shuffling across to the right to take their place in the queue.
              I noticed that at 6:30 someone seems to be in the wrong place!

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          • KT was the last in the lineup, weren’t they? The way the previous band (Ryoyo?) was rushed out and KTs quick setup, I’m thinking it was approaching a time limitation. Earlier, they gave Kyoto Momoya enough time for three songs.

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        • Note that the first year soloists seem unused to mike positioning!
          Also, the arrival at the start of loads of instruments, some of which join the performance (eg piano and fourth sousa, and some that don’t. Where were the instruments stored, one wonders?

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  18. Another video of the Taiwan Plus 2024 event from the semi-left side of the audience. At the end of the concert, you can clearly see the incredulous amazement of the KT members at the huge and rousing applause.

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      • Thank you, people of Taiwan, for always supporting us. Whenever we visit Taiwan, you have always shown us warm hospitality. We always perform to cheer you up, but we are cheered up by you. This gives us the courage to work harder in our daily practices. It also makes us more grateful to everyone who supports us. We hope that we will have the opportunity to go back and perform in Taiwan again.

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        • From one of the Taiwanese television clips, she said “I miss Taiwanese bubble milk tea hahaha” at the end. (Google lens translation)
          Also, Kaneshiro-sensei – “Time it happens to be May. Because new students come in April, only one month to prepare. Hope everyone is satisfied.”
          Also Lee-san – “From communicatioin to co-creation, emotional significance to both countries is very important.”
          The chyron at the bottom read – “Taiwan and Japan make friends through music! “Landlord” Orange High School White Suit Suite Makes a Whirlwind”

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    • Colin, Thank you for this. Yes, that’s a good start. How did you find it? There’s one problem, though. The snare drummers are using the match grip. The snare drummers I would use would have to be proficient with the traditional grip. Do you know the difference? If they would learn with the traditional grip, they would have no problem switching to the match. But, if they learn only the match grip, they would never ever be able to play using the traditional. I knew of two young men who played the snare drum in our local high school marching band percussion section. They both learned to play the snare using the match grip, and they both wanted to audition with the Madison Scouts DCI drum & bugle corps to play snare drum on the contest field. I took one of the boys to Madison for his audition. I was able to be with him. He did quite well during the first part of the audition. But, when he was asked to play what was required using the traditional grip I knew his audition was literally over. And, it was. What a disappointed kid on the long drive home. The other boy failed his audition for the same reason. This young man was invited to try out with the pit drum section … which he did and played with that section for a couple of years.

      If you watched the program with the Secret Drum Corps and the military band snare drummers … all 12 of them were using the traditional grip. It was beautiful watching them. They did things with their sticks that they wouldn’t have been able to do using the match grip.

      So, your wife played clarinet with the Orange Devils. Was she with them all 3 of her years? I met my wife while in the percussion section of the La Crosse, WI, Logan high school band. She played snare drum, too, but did not do so after graduation. Needless to say, we have had some lively conversations after watching DCI drum & bugle corps contests. Tell your wife “hello” for me. Perhaps she can add her comments to our discussions.

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          • Alan. If you were referring to KT when you made your post, I don’t think in all the time I have been a fan of KT, I have ever seen their snare drummers use the traditional grip. Always the match grip.

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            • Back in the 2014 marching contest entry, Mentapu opened the performance with a snare drum solo, joined by a trumpet solo. During the solo Mentapu used her own version of traditional grip, but quickly changed back to the familiar matched grip after the solo. There was another video that showed her in close-up for longer, but I can’t find it at the moment, but you can see it in this video:

              A one-time regular on this blog called ‘Rick’ wrote: “I asked my wife about it (she’s a Japanese music teacher). She said traditional grip tends to look fancy so it is discouraged. Matched grip also gives more power and endurance (i.e. Taiko Drummers). “

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              • MartinC. I guess I never knew that the snare soloist in this show was Mentapu, now Shima-coach. I think as a member of the DCI Mandarins Drum & Bugle Corps, if Mentapu knew how to play snare with the traditional grip, she would have been marching on the field in the snare drum section rather than playing drum set in the pit. From what I know of DCI, all drum & bugle corps use traditional.

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                • Here in Orange Fairy’s “Great Memory 2014” video, Mentapu, Pure, and Lucamaro can be seen briefly playing their snare drums with traditional grip, before switching back to matched. And it looks like they handled it quite well, even performing some fancy stick moves. Clearly, Mentapu was already under the influence of drum and bugle corps.

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                  • Thank you Manny … I can remember seeing this a long time ago now that you posted it. And, yes, they used traditional, I think, because they wanted to do some fancy stickwork. I don’t think with the match grip they could have done what they did. So, where did you go to school, Manny. I think I can remember you saying that you went to school in the U.S.

                    And, yes, if you had auditioned for a spot in the snare section of some drum and bugle corps, you would have ended the day like the 2 guys I mentioned in an earlier post. Huge disappointment.

                    I can use both grips, and have occasionally, but my preference was traditional. I still use it when I warm up on my drum pad … which is every time I go to my Man Cave in the basement.

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                • Yeah, the snare drummers in my high school band drum section all played traditional grip. And our section leader was just as influenced by d&b corps as Mentapu was. But I never learned to play using traditional, I learned playing matched, which I use to this day (good thing I never wanted to audition for a d&b corps 😁). Also, since I played tri-toms, that required using matched grip.

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