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Leo's Parade Diaries:
The Taiko Parade
Leo the Tiger speaking; you also know me as the Marching Wonder. When Blue and I (and occasionally his sister, Pink) have our music time together, we don't always march. Nor do we always do the same old thing. We always try to have a variety of things to do to keep ourselves from getting bored and falling into a rut. Sometimes we still end up falling into a rut, though, because Blue likes his routines. Since the twins can shapeshift, however, we also played around with the variety in that way. Last time around, he was marching as an anthro bear with a bass drum. (In contrast with Pink, who just played her special ocarina, or her "flute of time," as it was properly known since it had the same abilities as the ocarina in the game "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time," Blue played both the ocarina and the bass drum. The bass drum was an instrument he learned so that he could perform for his kingdom's king, King Santos of the Toppet Kingdom, for a special festival. I can't remember which one it was, though. But he obediently marched and beat his drum, and the king was delighted with what he heard. Oh, and King Santos is a lion, as is the Queen of Toppet.)
Blue didn't just play music, however. He was also a martial artist in addition to wielding the special sword he owned (and his sister did likewise, I believe), but it was just Blue performing today, and he was a bear. He stood to attention as always as the marchers marched in with their field drums (rope-tensioned snare drums and bass drums, or "soldier's drums" as we call them), and they were the Snare Soldier and his Drumbum Rats, plus Macho Major and his Drumbum Lions, and Timpani Tiger and his Drumbum Tigers. There was also one Drumbum Dingo, Drumbum Bulldog, Drumbum Fox, Drumbum Otter, Drumbum Goat, Drumbum Ram, Drumbum Bull, Drumbum Bear, and Drumbum Bison, just to add a little bit of variety. Being the Drumbums, though, they just wore their swimsuit and speedos, but they still marched with true soldier's discipline, and they could march and play forever without injuring themselves because of what CNG had done to them in the past before it died.
Blue marched and beat his drum, and I stood to the side out of sight banging on timpani. Timpani Tiger walked over next to me, and began drumming on the timpani next to mine, since we could magically summon instruments and tweak them. We both each beat just one kettledrum, but it was magically changing pitches as needed. The others used their drums to lead us into a medley of military marches, both American and Forsythian (and there were a few in there I didn't know). Blue wasn't familiar wih them either, but he drummed along quite nicely, and he kept in step. There were enough animals to have a full military marching band and then some, and it helped that my room had a sort of a TARDIS effect; it was bigger on the inside than the outside, and it expanded and contracted as needed. That way, other animals could play the melodic percussion instruments such as the glockenspiel, vibraphone, crotales, xylophone, and marimba. Eventually they stopped when they got to their places, but Blue kept marching. And just like everyone else in the room, he performed barefoot. He was a bear today, after all.
After a while, we finally halted, but we remained at attention. We clicked our sticks to cue Blue to put his bass drum away, and he did. Then the Snare Soldier approached him, and the otter beat a drum roll, prompting both to salute one another at the end. Timpani Tiger then handed Blue a baton.
"I understand there is more to you than just your musical ability," he said.
"Yes, sir; there is," said Blue. "Watch what I can do!"
We cleared the floor to give him room to do this, and I blew my drum major whistle, followed by another drum roll from the otter. This one ended with a cymbal crash and a "TA-DA!" from the trumpets after Blue performed his stunt, and what he did was throw the baton up, leaped up to grab it in mid-air, and then he landed with just his one hand touching the ground. Then he flipped back up after the "TA-DA!"
After some applause, Snare Soldier asked him, "Where did you learn to do that?"
"It's a gift," said Blue.
"Oh, okay; we'll leave it at that. Now let's switch things up a bit, and have you perform to different music." We can magically changed out the setup so that all of us were banging on taiko and other Japanese drums of different varieties, and Pink played her flute alongside, sight-reading sheet music of traditional Japanese tunes.
When we began drumming, Blue held up his baton, and in time to the drumming, he did some other stunts, with the first being stunt number one. Stunt number two consisted of him throwing the baton off the wall, and he ran to the other side and jumped to catch it, which he did, followed by cartwheels. Then he landed on his feet again, and the drummers beat a loud unison note to acknowledge it. We then sped up the tempo to cue the third stunt; this time, Blue threw the baton from one hand and jumped to grab it with his legs, followed by a handstand. Then he kicked it up straight with his right foot, before flipping and jumping, catching the baton and landing on both hands. This was quite the impressive stuff here.
There were several more like that, but I only remember the big finale. By then, we were drumming like crazy and letting out grunts to accent it. Blue's description of the big finale was him throwing the baton in the air so that it spun, and then he jumped sky high like a speeding bullet to grab it. (Good thing he didn't hit the ceiling; that would have been ugly.) He spun at the same speed as the baton, however, and then followed it up with more baton flips. Eventually he tossed it up to jump up and snag it, and then gently landed on his paws. We finished with one single drumbeat. Then he held his baton up high before taking a bow as we broke into applause.
We took some time to rest, and afterwards, Blue went back to playnig his flute. However, we were following the example of the Taiko Tigers; we were using Japanese drums to drum along to American fife and drum music.
Blue would later do these stunts again, but in the presence of Judge Marcus, since he wanted to see the bull in a marching band uniform. The judge stood on his bare hooves and wore a proud drum major uniform of maroon and silver. This felt more like a circus, because each time Blue did a stunt, I blew my whistle to command it, followed by the judge beating a drum roll on a concert snare drum. I also crashed my cymbals at the end of each stunt. It was just the three of us, though.
After a rest period, Blue played a fife (instead of his regular ocarina), and we pretended to be the musicians in the famous painting "Spirit of '76" by Archibald Willard.
The next time Blue did these, we had a variety of marchers doing the same thing. Prince Adam (the Beast in Beauty and the Beast) performed a timpani drum roll to add to the snare drums, which both SWAT Kats were playing. Zeke the Big Bad Wolf banged on the concert bass drum I had, doing so simultaneously as another marcher crashed the cymbals. Then Blue marched with the baton to our drum cadences, demonstrating some other skills he learned.
Blue's final routine of doing the martial arts was doing so in the presence of the Taiko Tigers themselves.
That night, Blue spent the night with me because he was tired. "Thank you for letting me stay, bandmaster," he said as he gave me a hug.
"You're welcome," I said, "and we thank you for the shows you've put on for us. It makes even more happy to be your friends."
THE END
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Leo's Parade Diaries:
The Taiko Parade
Leo the Tiger speaking; you also know me as the Marching Wonder. When Blue and I (and occasionally his sister, Pink) have our music time together, we don't always march. Nor do we always do the same old thing. We always try to have a variety of things to do to keep ourselves from getting bored and falling into a rut. Sometimes we still end up falling into a rut, though, because Blue likes his routines. Since the twins can shapeshift, however, we also played around with the variety in that way. Last time around, he was marching as an anthro bear with a bass drum. (In contrast with Pink, who just played her special ocarina, or her "flute of time," as it was properly known since it had the same abilities as the ocarina in the game "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time," Blue played both the ocarina and the bass drum. The bass drum was an instrument he learned so that he could perform for his kingdom's king, King Santos of the Toppet Kingdom, for a special festival. I can't remember which one it was, though. But he obediently marched and beat his drum, and the king was delighted with what he heard. Oh, and King Santos is a lion, as is the Queen of Toppet.)
Blue didn't just play music, however. He was also a martial artist in addition to wielding the special sword he owned (and his sister did likewise, I believe), but it was just Blue performing today, and he was a bear. He stood to attention as always as the marchers marched in with their field drums (rope-tensioned snare drums and bass drums, or "soldier's drums" as we call them), and they were the Snare Soldier and his Drumbum Rats, plus Macho Major and his Drumbum Lions, and Timpani Tiger and his Drumbum Tigers. There was also one Drumbum Dingo, Drumbum Bulldog, Drumbum Fox, Drumbum Otter, Drumbum Goat, Drumbum Ram, Drumbum Bull, Drumbum Bear, and Drumbum Bison, just to add a little bit of variety. Being the Drumbums, though, they just wore their swimsuit and speedos, but they still marched with true soldier's discipline, and they could march and play forever without injuring themselves because of what CNG had done to them in the past before it died.
Blue marched and beat his drum, and I stood to the side out of sight banging on timpani. Timpani Tiger walked over next to me, and began drumming on the timpani next to mine, since we could magically summon instruments and tweak them. We both each beat just one kettledrum, but it was magically changing pitches as needed. The others used their drums to lead us into a medley of military marches, both American and Forsythian (and there were a few in there I didn't know). Blue wasn't familiar wih them either, but he drummed along quite nicely, and he kept in step. There were enough animals to have a full military marching band and then some, and it helped that my room had a sort of a TARDIS effect; it was bigger on the inside than the outside, and it expanded and contracted as needed. That way, other animals could play the melodic percussion instruments such as the glockenspiel, vibraphone, crotales, xylophone, and marimba. Eventually they stopped when they got to their places, but Blue kept marching. And just like everyone else in the room, he performed barefoot. He was a bear today, after all.
After a while, we finally halted, but we remained at attention. We clicked our sticks to cue Blue to put his bass drum away, and he did. Then the Snare Soldier approached him, and the otter beat a drum roll, prompting both to salute one another at the end. Timpani Tiger then handed Blue a baton.
"I understand there is more to you than just your musical ability," he said.
"Yes, sir; there is," said Blue. "Watch what I can do!"
We cleared the floor to give him room to do this, and I blew my drum major whistle, followed by another drum roll from the otter. This one ended with a cymbal crash and a "TA-DA!" from the trumpets after Blue performed his stunt, and what he did was throw the baton up, leaped up to grab it in mid-air, and then he landed with just his one hand touching the ground. Then he flipped back up after the "TA-DA!"
After some applause, Snare Soldier asked him, "Where did you learn to do that?"
"It's a gift," said Blue.
"Oh, okay; we'll leave it at that. Now let's switch things up a bit, and have you perform to different music." We can magically changed out the setup so that all of us were banging on taiko and other Japanese drums of different varieties, and Pink played her flute alongside, sight-reading sheet music of traditional Japanese tunes.
When we began drumming, Blue held up his baton, and in time to the drumming, he did some other stunts, with the first being stunt number one. Stunt number two consisted of him throwing the baton off the wall, and he ran to the other side and jumped to catch it, which he did, followed by cartwheels. Then he landed on his feet again, and the drummers beat a loud unison note to acknowledge it. We then sped up the tempo to cue the third stunt; this time, Blue threw the baton from one hand and jumped to grab it with his legs, followed by a handstand. Then he kicked it up straight with his right foot, before flipping and jumping, catching the baton and landing on both hands. This was quite the impressive stuff here.
There were several more like that, but I only remember the big finale. By then, we were drumming like crazy and letting out grunts to accent it. Blue's description of the big finale was him throwing the baton in the air so that it spun, and then he jumped sky high like a speeding bullet to grab it. (Good thing he didn't hit the ceiling; that would have been ugly.) He spun at the same speed as the baton, however, and then followed it up with more baton flips. Eventually he tossed it up to jump up and snag it, and then gently landed on his paws. We finished with one single drumbeat. Then he held his baton up high before taking a bow as we broke into applause.
We took some time to rest, and afterwards, Blue went back to playnig his flute. However, we were following the example of the Taiko Tigers; we were using Japanese drums to drum along to American fife and drum music.
Blue would later do these stunts again, but in the presence of Judge Marcus, since he wanted to see the bull in a marching band uniform. The judge stood on his bare hooves and wore a proud drum major uniform of maroon and silver. This felt more like a circus, because each time Blue did a stunt, I blew my whistle to command it, followed by the judge beating a drum roll on a concert snare drum. I also crashed my cymbals at the end of each stunt. It was just the three of us, though.
After a rest period, Blue played a fife (instead of his regular ocarina), and we pretended to be the musicians in the famous painting "Spirit of '76" by Archibald Willard.
The next time Blue did these, we had a variety of marchers doing the same thing. Prince Adam (the Beast in Beauty and the Beast) performed a timpani drum roll to add to the snare drums, which both SWAT Kats were playing. Zeke the Big Bad Wolf banged on the concert bass drum I had, doing so simultaneously as another marcher crashed the cymbals. Then Blue marched with the baton to our drum cadences, demonstrating some other skills he learned.
Blue's final routine of doing the martial arts was doing so in the presence of the Taiko Tigers themselves.
That night, Blue spent the night with me because he was tired. "Thank you for letting me stay, bandmaster," he said as he gave me a hug.
"You're welcome," I said, "and we thank you for the shows you've put on for us. It makes even more happy to be your friends."
THE END
Leo's Parade Diaries: The Taiko Parade
Leo the Tiger's amazing friend Blue is not just a hero and musician, but he is also a martial artist, doing unique stunts with a baton. Here he performs several shows, some of which feature concert percussion, but the main shows of which are done in time to the beating of Japanese taiko drums. Once he does this with the Drumbums, and later he does this with the Taiko Tigers.
All canon characters belong to all who own the rights; I own nothing of that sort.
Blue, Pink, Toppet Kingdom, etc. © BlueMario1016
Leo the Tiger, Judge Marcus, Drumbums, Taiko Tigers, etc. © me and me alone
All canon characters belong to all who own the rights; I own nothing of that sort.
Blue, Pink, Toppet Kingdom, etc. © BlueMario1016
Leo the Tiger, Judge Marcus, Drumbums, Taiko Tigers, etc. © me and me alone
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 120 x 120px
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