All Things Taiko (allthingstaiko.org) is a resource for free taiko drills! This site currently acts as an archive for all posts made in 2007-2009 and is not regularly updated at the moment, but there’s a lot of valuable information available for your perusal.
I began studying taiko under RYO Shimamoto (link, Japanese only) in Japan in 2007, four years after I first started my practice. Lessons with RYO opened my eyes to new ways of thinking of my body as a taiko player. My connection with my drum sticks, the relationship and spacing between my body and the drum, the angles of my hips, the role of my toes in stabilizing stance—all of these things affect my ability to play dynamically and warrant deep consideration. I started re-learning my body and re-learning what it means to play and interact with taiko.
During that time, I took 10 hours of lessons with RYO each week in addition to my own practice time. In an effort to be thoughtful about what changes I wanted to make in my artistic process, I began to keep a journal to record what specific things of value I discovered and how I would apply them to my art. At a time when there were no online taiko learning resources, I decided to make everything I learned free and available to others. This journal became All Things Taiko!
The site will be re-organized soon. If you’re looking for a tutorial about a specific skill and can’t find it, please feel free to email me. I love talking taiko!