Hi all,
I’ve been playing the whistle for a while now but I’ve always wanted to learn the bodhran so I finally ordered a Hedwitschak online today. Can anyone recommend a book or website that teaches how to play the bodhran starting at the complete basics for someone like myself?
Thanks
Go to bodojo.com
Loads of great info there on Bodhrans.
Best of luck!
Great. Thanks Seanie
I wonder how long “for a while” is? Ha.
Reminds me of that facetious dry one where some punter in the pub comes up and asks you how long you’ve been playing the fiddle, and you reply, “About 20 minutes.”
I can just picture waraf sat in his/her house having just picked up a whistle for the first time and saying to themselves after 20 minutes of mession about on it, “bugger this … there’s gotta be something easier”.
Wow that’s not condescending at all….
You know llig, I have really benefited musically from some of your contributions here in this forum, but your edginess has become more entertaining than insulting. Waraf I’ve been playing whistle for a short while relative to many here and this year bought a bodhran also to add another dimension to the tunes I’m learning. It’s great fun and bodojo.com is a real good place. Good luck.
Bodojo is great, if you like the modern style. Not so good if you don’t want to be a soloist. I don’t know if there’s a good website for the more old-school style, but Stefan Hannigan’s book was a good way to get started when I picked up the drum.
Thanks for the responses guys. I’ve no idea about the different styles so I’ll have to do a bit of reading first. I’ve no intention of being a soloist (or even playing in public) either. I just like to play along to an odd tue at home cause I enjoy it - and believe me the public don’t want to be exposed to my ham fisted whistle playing 😉
No need for lessons- grab it and do this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGAfLuXeKfU
oh yeah, a few more pointers….
Jig-hit three times, repeat
reel, hit four times, repeat
Make sure u check out these mad instructional videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RhKSod_eV8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q3UCSsln3c - particularly enlightening
🙂
The good news is that this bodhran is in the hands of someone who knows the music and plays another instrument, rather than some boob who visited as session, saw drums, bought one, and wandered in and began thumping…….
I’m surprised no one has said this… The absolute best way to get started is to sit down with someone who knows what they’re doing. Looking at a video can get you close, but nothing will substitute for an actual person showing you (and even holding your hand!). I’m the same as you (at least in this respect) - I got a decent bodhran cheap and quickly jumped to a Metloef. My only other suggestion is to practice with recorded music. Oh, and one more thing - be patient! It’s not as easy as it looks!
Good Luck!
Pat
Ha ha, “It’s not as easy as it looks”. That one always deserves a slice of derision.
The only accurate literature I’ve ever seen available on the subject was a little booklet I saw for sale in Dublin airport once: “Learn to play the bodhran in an hour.”
Did you buy it. llig?
I read it (not much to do in airports). And very concise and entertaining it was too. If I remember rightly, the basic premise was that if you can’t master it in an hour, then you shouldn’t bother. i.e. if you find it technically difficult, then there’s no hope for you
There’s certainly very little to do in Dublin airport. I have to tell you that if you read it in the shop without paying you are guilty of intellectual theft!!!
ha ha .. now that’s what alanis morissette “wouldn’t” call irony
I suppose the court case would hinge on the issue of whether knowledge of how to play the bodhran qualifies as intellectual property.
Hey, I play the bodhran, too.
What did that mean?
Alanis Morissette - now there was a lass who needed a holiday.
Waraf - I will express no opinions on the bodhran, but I will offer a jot of advice based on hearing another learner.
When you play a 1-2-3 rhythm for a jig, make sure it really is 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3
and NOT 1-2-3-and-1-2-3-and-1-2-3- etc . . . as the latter really effs the ineffable if you do it in a session.
When you play a 1-2-3 rhythm for a “slip” jig, make sure it really is 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3 (lame, I know, but you asked for it)
OK I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks for the tip
When you play a 1-2-3 rhythm for a slide, make sure it really is 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3. Just keep going, faster and faster until your wrist wears out and your arm drops off at the shoulder.
You know who should play drums?
Drummers.
Just a crazy idea I had. Seems like most of the bad rep that bodhrans get are from people who aren’t drummers trying to play them. I mean, it’s a drum, right? Drum, drummer? [shrug] Crazy talk, I know.
Mr. Shaw, the Slide Is Not A Jig Society thanks you for your efforts. Your check is in the mail.
“Just keep going, faster and faster until your wrist wears out and your arm drops off at the shoulder. ” ??
Steve, I’m just glad that some advice on the mouth organ wasn’t the original request.
SWFL - It’s a nice thought, but drummers from other types of music tend to bring all sorts of weird ideas that don’t really work.
A few weeks ago, there was a guy who came in - fortunately he had a broken bone in his hand, and was unable to play - who was trying to insist that slip-jigs were in 12/8.
What he tapped out on the table to demonstrate sounded at least interesting, but if you wanted to play the tune with it, you’d have a hard time.
Trad music has a lot of idiosyncratic expectations, particularly in rhythm, and just being able to play the drums doesn’t mean you’ll understand your role, any more than a good jazz guitarist would be able to suss out that they should not play all the upper extensions that they’re used to.
Rock drummers seem to want to keep the beat regardless of the small fluctuations in the rhythm of the melody. It ends up sounding pretty mechanicle in my opinion. Or they do the 32 pc drum solo ala Peter Chris or John Bonham on a goat skin drum which sounds equally horrendous.
Mastering the bodhran is a process. I firmly believe in taking it one step at a time… get to know your instrument by getting to know where it originated… how it was made…
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3357/3558940266_81d6a7b9e7.jpg
I tell the drummers in my school band that the drums are the easiest instrument to play poorly,and one of the most difficult to play correctly. They roll their eyes…but I know I’m right.
“It’s a nice thought, but drummers from other types of music tend to bring all sorts of weird ideas that don’t really work. ”
Like rhythm and tempo?
Fanatics!!
Yeah, fantastically wrong rhythms and tempo
“The easiest to play poorly”?. For christ sake, Give me the school orchestra’s percussion section any day over the fecking string section. Come off it.
SWFL Jon said pretty much exactly what I was going to reply.
The problem with people who primarily see themselves as “drummers” or “percussionists” playing the bodhran is that they most often come from another tradition. They tend to be drum centric rather than genre/tune centric and import ideas like the existence of a “rythm section” seperate from the tune section; or “laying down the beat”; or improvising polyrythmic accompaniment; or drum solos. Regardless of how talented these guys may be as *percussionists* if they import these attitudes they will completely undermine an Irish session.
Much, much better, than a “Drummer” or “percussionist” is a trad musician (and yes, can even be someone whose main stick is the bodhran but who is forst and formost a tradie rather than a drummer) who knows the relevant music and tune repertiore playing the bodhran. Even if they are technically not as skilled as an actual drummer, they will have a much bettre feel for the music and what percussion accomp is suitable.
“Drummers” frequently ruin sessions regadless of their talent with the drum. Of course a band is something entirely different.
As a side issue it is amazing how bad so many (almost all) of the Johnny djembe Bobby Bongo types are who turn up at a sessiona nd ask to play along. In our local sesh this usually happens towards the end of the night (we’re open later than most pubs). I never say no to anyone when the night is drawing to a close (why hurst someone’s feelings when your going home in 15-20 minutes, right?). Most of these guys sound like they bought the drum the previous week and practiced for an hour or so each night against whatevre came on the radio.
That’s my experience anyway.
- chris
“”The easiest to play poorly“?. For christ sake, Give me the school orchestra’s percussion section any day over the fecking string section. Come off it.”
Yes, that’s exactly what he means. On a scale of …
- Can’t play at all
- Plays to a dreadful standard
- Plays to a poor standard
- Plays to an intermediate standard
- Plays to a good standard
- Plays to music college entrant standard
… then it’s easier to get to the first couple of rungs as a percussionist than as a string player.
OK gents, so let’s see. Do I want a drummer playing a drum or someone who claims to play something else but is just so much better at the drum because…he plays something else.
Well what the heck do you play then? If you play something else, why are you playing a drum? Get out your instrument and play some tunes!
Are these seriously my choices for playing this thing? How about just ‘no’ then? Will that work? If you play something else, I want to hear you play that, not the drum. If you like this music, and you play drums, and you still suck at the bodhran, then go practice. That’s what all the other musicians do with their instruments. Rocket science. It’s not like it HAS to be played.
“Oh, thank God Bob is here. He’s an ace whistle player, but we have no one to play the bodhran! Thankfully, he can play whistle so well that he’ll be able to handle the vital bodhran duties for us!”
The argument about a melody player knowing the music better is a straw man. Any musician who wants to play this music must study this music, it doesn’t matter what instrument they play. If a whistler sucks, they need to study more. If the fiddler sucks, he needs to study more. If the bodhran player sucks…There, are you happy now? I just called drummers musicians. Look what you’ve made me do.
I wonder how long “for a while” is? Ha.
Reminds me of that facetious dry one where some punter in the pub comes up and asks you how long you’ve been playing the fiddle, and you reply, “About 20 minutes.”
I can just picture waraf sat in his/her house having just picked up a whistle for the first time and saying to themselves after 20 minutes of mession about on it, “bugger this … there’s gotta be something easier”.
Llig are you as foully rude and horrid to strangers you met in real life or do you save your unpleasantries for the many thousands of anonymous comments you make on the Internet? Do you make such incredibly nasty statements to all the drummers and strummers at Sandy Bells? You must be quite unpopular there if that’s the case.
🙂 I think you just out-strawed man-ed any previous post SWFL
The point is an-irish trad musician with some capacity for the bodhran (maybe even one who is primarily a bodhran player) will do a bettre job of accompanying Irish music on the bodhran than a percussionist who doesn’t know anything (or very little) about Irish music.
That’s all.
NOT: a mandolin player or fiddler will be bettre on the bodhran than someone who actaully knows the music that plays bodhran. THAT would be silly.
I’d agree if you know the tunes and play a melody instrument well enough, usually better to play the tunes for the most part.
But for any percussionist/would be bodhran player it is important to learn the tunes. Prefrably be able to play them on a melody instrument to some extent, but at least be able to recoganise and hum a good repertoire of tunes and not just think “oh, jig” or “reel!” (although that would be a big step up from johnny djembe and bobby bongo mentioned above, who egnerally look pleased if they’ve got through as set and only missed the drumskin with one slap in twenty or so).
- chris
If Bob is an ace whistle player and also enjoys playing the bodhran, I see no reason why he shouldn’t play whichever he feels like playing. If bob is a rockin’ djembe player who doesn’t know the tunes, I see a very good reason why he should be welcomed to the session - as long as he leaves his drum at home and is content to listen.
Sorry, Michael, I stand by my comment. Every year, new kids join the school band thinking all they have to do is whack something with a stick; they usually drop out when they learn there’s a lot more to it than that.
You would get better advice from “real” musicians, rather than people who read a few instructions about “Irish sessions” and think they know something about the genre.
You will find many of those on here.
Find a bodhran player, ask him to whow you how to hold the drum and beater/finger.
After that, practice at home with music tapes.
More like Devil’s Advocate, my main pitchfork. If you can play a melody instrument, why are you screwing around with a drum? 😛
Every year, new kids join the school band’s percussion section knowing that all they have to do hit something. The string players have significantly more to do. The novice percussion players fair better, of course. Does how long either stick at it have anything to do with their expectations?
I have the same expectations for every student in my school, no matter their background or what instrument they play.
I can understand why a person who plays whistle would also play a bodhran if they are confronted with a tune/tunes they may not know in a session. Provided there are no other bodhrans playing.
I don’t understand why someone would play it as a primary instrument, and no other, for years and years and I hope that that doesn’t really ever happen except in a place I like to call nightmare goatskinland. It’s located somewhere between Norway and Hell. Check your map.
I took up the drum a couple of years ago to fill a void at our sessions. The Pipes are my main instrument of 40 years and the Low Whistles are a pleasure to play too, but my effciency on them is not as good.
i just bought a decent drum, makes a huge difference too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJITqSosNo8
Your bodhran has no jingles? Why did you opt for the no jingle model. If I played a bodhran I think I’d get one with jingles. Gives you more options. Sounds more authentic. I don’t go for the ‘ancient war drum of the Celts’ thing. It’s not loud enough. I think it’s just a modified tambourine introduced to Ireland by black faced Irish Americans (whatta fckin contribution that was!). Good luck with your bodhran playing and congrats on your purchase.
Greg, of course you should not discriminate with your expectations for your students. I was asking what expectations they had of themselves. Do the kids joining the percussion section of your orchestra have the same expectations as the string players?
Joel. Nice clip. Entertaining even. But there is no doubt that, skillful as that player may be, it would be a horrendous train wreck of a mess if he tried to play along with diddley music.
And it has to be said that the very very very worst reason to bang a bodhran is merely because you don’t know the tune. It’s the exhibition of the most complete and utter disregard for the music, the most profound example of disrespect. The most succinct admission of stupidity I can think of.
“And it has to be said that the very very very worst reason to bang a bodhran is merely because you don’t know the tune.”
Sitting in on a 4 hour session, it’s great to take a break from playin all the many reels and jigs and why not play when you don’t know a particular set of tunes, it’s all the same timing in terms of Rhythm. Not a real brain twister to figure out!
I’ve always liked the sound of these drums, maybe that’s why the top bands use them! 😉
Just take a break then.
If nothing, I’d like a cure in my lifetime for the disease people have of not being able to sit in a session and just listen without having some obsessive compulsion to do something, whack a dead animal’s skin, clack or click something, cripes. Just shut up and listen. It’s OK. No one will think poorly of you, and in fact, everyone will think so much higher of you if you just listen politely without banging, clacking, shaking or clicking at tunes you don’t know.
End of public service announcement. We now return you to you regularly scheduled clicking, banging, clacking and thumping.
“… why not play [a drum] when you don’t know a particular set of tunes, it’s all the same timing in terms of Rhythm. Not a real brain twister to figure out!”
Never a truth more succinctly put. And never a more succinct admission of stupidity than to not head one’s own words.
I can’t descibe anything more boring than a session with just Fiddles and Flutes, caught in an endless spin cycle of jigs and reels.
Is there something hard about playing 2 part tunes that people really think they are too good to play on their own?
Wow! Wrong genre.
You know Lone Rover, I didn’t mean to sound so snippy, my apologies. This is what happens to you after years of eejits strumming, clicking, clacking, banging and shaking at the wrong tempo and/or wrong rhythm when you are trying to play music.
…and to answer your ridiculous question, yes, these tunes are brilliant enough without clacking, clicking, snapping, banging and other assorted noises, that’s why we love them and don’t crap all over them with clacking, clicking, snapping, banging and other assorted noises.
Oh geez, I went and got all worked up again. That’s it, I’m switching to decaf.
This is what makes the bodhran so generally unacceptable. Folk who don’t or can’t hear the tunes filling in the spaces.
If you genuinely want to play the bodhran then have a listen to a bodhran comp at an all ireland fleadh and have see how conscious the players are of rythm and volume, be ready to ask a proper bodhran player to show you how to play and prepared to practace to cd’s until your are really good.
but if your picking up the bodhran cause tin whistles hard and you think any old joe can beat a drum………………….
llig---“And it has to be said that the very very very worst reason to bang a bodhran is merely because you don’t know the tune”.
What if he knows the tune, just can’t play it on his whistle yet?
That seems a little different than just haphazerdly banging out a rhythm in 4/4 or6/8.
Makes not a blind bit of difference. If anything it’s even worse.
“Ooh ooh …. I know this one … pass me my whistle quick … tooty toot … feck, I do know it, I do, but just haven’t played it enough to get it under my fingers yet … doh … pass me the feckin drum will ya?” Idiot.
Ouch!
What if they know the tune on the bodhran, but not on the whistle???
“Ooh ooh …. I know this one … pass me my drum quick … thumperty thumperty clack thump … feck, I do know it, I do, but just doesn’t sound like I do … doh … it’s not my fault I’m playing on an instrument that can’t play tunes … … … thwack thump … one of these days I’ll show you I know it by playing it on the whistle for ya … one of these days … I will you know … I will … I will ……………… one of these days …………… in the mean time I’ll just play it on my drum.” Idiot.
FIN
I could play tunes on a harmonica but felt stupid. I mean no-one plays a harmonica for irish music.
So I played the bodhran instead.
I became that good that I would have been depriving the world of a musical genius if I had reverted back to another instrument.
Nowadays we also do a lot of songs, so I find myself playing mandolin or harmonica again.
Or even playing guitar and singing.
Of them all, the bodhran is the most difficult to master.
In my humble, modest, opinion.
No one plays harmonica for Irish Music, eh? I guess I have to change my name to No One!
Someone better tell this guy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rx8kVBjAL4&feature=related
Bliss, the argument has never been about how difficult playing the bodhran is, it’s about the fact that, at its very best, it’s pointless (unless your aim is to impress the world with your genius, of course).
Some people play the pipes because it’s difficult. They are idiots.
Some people play difficult tunes because they are difficult. They are idiots
I must be an idiot, this is my band!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qxvJ28W-7k
Hey Rover, down boy. That was a great performance. I particularly like the rhythm change for the first tune, very refreshing. But then why would your “performance” not be meant to impress in the “world championships”?
But we’re talking about completely different circumstances. Much as I’d love to hear you guys for real, in the “field”, down the pub for a quiet monday night’s tune swapping would be a tad challenging. (Anyway, I was referring to the Irish pipes)
Are musicians of any kind not constantly in competition with each other and perform to impress? I’ve heard other fiddlers comment on another performers skills when they are not present, it’s not pretty and people are too aware they are always being judged.
I think some have lost the Plot to the Monday night open session and think they have a right to produce music on their own and exclude anything they perceive non traditional. I welcome anything that adds to the ensemble of the sound.
Hell we had a guy with a synth and a Didge come in one night, another guy with a steel guitar, what a pleasant change it was from the same drab routine every week.
I can well appreciate how annoying lesser talented or poorly trained students might ruin a session, but if you can play this stuff in your sleep after years of playing it, why not welcome a little variety?
No one plays harmonica for Irish Music, eh? I guess I have to change my name to No One!
# Posted on January 14th 2010 by AlBrown
Al, thousands of people play harmonica for Irish music as you and I knpow.
The point I was making, as I have in the past, is that in 1967 in Belfast if you had turned up to a session with a mouth organ you would have been laughed out the door.
A bodhranm was much more acceptable as a traditional instrument.
Merely illustrating my route into the real tradition.
Or illustrating that there is no such thing in 2010.
“Are musicians of any kind not constantly in competition with each other and perform to impress?”
NO (and it’s sad that you think so)
If you can play this stuff in your sleep, then you’ve lost the plot. Why the feck would you want to play it in your sleep? And if you need a feckin didgereedo to wake you up, you must have lost the music all together.
Sorry, didn’t know we were supposed to sit quietly and listen to fiddles all night long? Wake me up when it’s over! Zzzzzzzz
Would it wake you up if the fiddles were in competition?
Lone Rover, you’ve proven with your posts that you aren’t as keen on traditional music, other than pipe band stuff, as most people who post here.
“I can’t descibe anything more boring than a session with just Fiddles and Flutes, caught in an endless spin cycle of jigs and reels”
“Are musicians of any kind not constantly in competition with each other and perform to impress?”
“Sorry, didn’t know we were supposed to sit quietly and listen to fiddles all night long? Wake me up when it’s over! Zzzzzzzz”
etc…….
Well that’s absolutely fine, everyone has their own taste, yours just happens to be quite different to most of the posters on this thread. There are many people, myself included, who love the “endless spin cycle of jigs and reels”. And more often than not, whether they say so or not, hate it when folk turn up at their session who don’t have a very deep understanding of this music and think it’s fine to bang away on a bodhran, blast out the guitar chords they know without ever listened properly to the tune. Steel guitar !!!! f*uck that. Didge, fecking burn the bast*rd. You can be sure if there are any good trad players at the session they will be cringing through every second.
When I looked at your clip I thought, right, I’ve misjudged this guy, he can play well. I thought, explain why just picking up a bodhran because it’s a shortcut into a session is wrong. I thought, with your fingers get stuck into the whistle and discover the real joy of sessions. Unfortunately I don’t think you listen to enough of this music and judging by your posts you’re not really into it.
Maybe your local session is a free for all were anything goes, and that’s great if you all enjoy it. But please, don’t go taking your bodhran to a real traditional session where the players love and care about the music. You’d just join the enormous list of chancers who the regulars can’t wait for to leave so that they can enjoy their tunes.
Your right Bogman, traditional sessions are too stiff for me, I like variety and lots of good craic too, the craic being more important.
Here’s a sample of what I was used to in California.
http://www.myspace.com/unwarthee
The Characters made the night and yes we had the odd guy playing the spoons once in a while too, no harm in letting everyone enjoy themselves.
From the so called open sessions i’ve seen here in Belfast, non of them interest me enough to join in or motivate me to return for a listen.
BTW, pipe band competitions bore me as well, but they have their diehards too.
Bodhran Bliss, I understand anti-harmonica predjudice, I was the trailbreaker who first brought one to a local session, but soon won them over (or at least they stopped complaining to my face, no telling if they still mutter about it when I am not around)!
I just wanted to say thanks to all the people (particularly Seaniemcg) that provided extremely helpful recommendations on what to join and where to look for good bodhrán tips. I found a great group for Bodojo on Facebook and joined it; I’m excited to glean from it what I can.
However, I visited the www.bodojo.com website and it directed me to a simple landing page with nothing but an image on it; has the domain moved to something else or is the site down for good? If someone could fill me in on what happened (or how to find an equally good resource), that would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Saludos,
~ A.N. Parker, a lass who greatly appreciated the truly helpful recommendations instead of bodhrán carping 🙃
(P.S. Has anyone heard of Emery Hutchins? I just found his channel on YouTube a few weeks ago and really loved his work as both a singer and bodhránist. I think he plays banjo too, or something similar. Here’s an example of one of his works:
https://youtu.be/kQ1J4967kFA)
