Traditionally, the Shimedaiko is tuned by means of rope (shimeru is the verb to tie or tighten), but these days it is common to see the taiko tensioned by bolts. In the past, Taikoz tensioned their Shimedaiko by the rope method, but more recently the ensemble uses bolts. Although in our opinion the sound is not quite as good as rope tensioned Shimedaiko, this is a much simpler, quicker and less physically demanding method that can be done by one person instead of two.

In this lesson, Ian shows you the ‘star sequence’ that achieves a nicely tuned instrument.