Taiko Jinsei Practice Tip
You can make your own Practice Okedo, a "Faux-kedo" if you will, by bolting the bottoms of two 12 inch plastic flower pots together, and then creating stretched packing tape "heads," similar to the type of "drumheads" used to turn car tires into practice Chu-daiko.
Before taping on heads you'll need to set attachment loops for the strap (see below), and you may want to add some weight (ballast) for more accurate movement and action.
Strap: To make a sling-style strap, rip a 40cm wide x 200cm-ish long strip of fabric from an old bedsheet. If possible, ripping rather than cutting will reduce fraying, and the fabric naturally bunches into a nice "self-sealing" roll-gather, so you don't have to hem the edges if you don't want to bother.
Strap Anchors: Through-bolt a couple of small drawer pulls, or other anchor-loop to fix strap through. On a real Okedo, the strap is attached 4-headholes apart, so be sure to offset your "Faux-kedo's" loops a bit so it will have similar balance and action.
Ballast: Secure about 5-lbs. of weight in the bottom of the pots before sealing the heads with tape. Two empty soda bottles filled all the way-up with sand works. Screw lids down tightly then add a bit of duck tape around the cap to be extra sure no sand will leak out. You can judge the size of bottle needed by the density of your sand — light sand = bigger bottle, dense sand = smaller bottle. Be sure to center one bottle at the bottom of each pot to maintain balance, and tie tightly together through the bottom of the combined pots (the drainage holes are super handy for this). Try swinging the drum from the forward to the horizontal position to check the weight and balance before finally sealing heads.
Suggested "Faux-kedo" set-up, top (player's-eye) view.
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