I’ve playing for 3 weeks in a Bodhran class and as the cool dry weather approaches the goat skin tightens with the dry conditions. Ive been using a damp cloth and wiping the inside of the Bodhran but Im not sure if I should be doing both sides (Im surprised with the sound difference as the dryness tightens the skin.)
What is the best way to treat the skin when storing the Bodhran during the dry winter/Fall months?
I’ve been playing the whistle for 3 years -and still loving it- however, its a nice compliment to work with a Bodhran.
Can anyone recomend a good site for a apprentence level Bodhran player?
water in INSIDE of skin only, as you have been doing. Treat a new skin with dubbin everysix weeks or so at first, but don’t overdo it.
There are some sites out there, but Stefan Hannigan’s ‘Bodhran Book’ with CD (and even video and advanced video) is the one to go for, although once you have the basics, like everything else it’s simply practice, practice, practice. (playing along with CD’s is more fun!).
I speak more as a bodhran player observer than a bodhran owner/player (I am both, but not a lot of people want to know that).
If you play along with CDs you will, if you combine this with study of a good tutor such as the aforementioned Hannigan set, at least learn the rhythms of the different tune types. Most - and I mean most - of the bodhran “players” I’ve come across have not got this knowledge. This is one reason why nearly all bodhran players are complete crap. Another reason is that they don’t realise that you cannot effectively accompany a tune unless you know the tune. If you can hum the tune from memory you may well be able to accompany it. If on the other hand you think: “Ah, a reel - I can do that…” then do me a favour and go for a wee while the rest of us play it. We spent long, hard hours learning that tune, and here YOU come…
Here’s the real conundrum. You can play along with CDs and tutorials as much as you like. This will get you ~somewhere~ but you can only become a good bodhran player if you take on board all the above and then learn your trade by playing with other musicians. You will, justifiably, meet resistance. I know what I’m on about: you try being a bloody ITM harmonica player! You cannot learn to play any instrument that is intended for ensemble use unless you play in an ensemble (e.g. a session) with other human beings. A CD is not a human being. It cannot interact with you, nor you with it.
Yes, this is yet another bodhran rant but I’ve attempted to rant without putting a joke in it. God, I’ve had a bad week.
I learned bodhran primarily by listening to the Chieftains. A good player/ friend of mine Shawn Gaffney (RIP), would occasionally show me a few different techniques for the many different rhythms accompanying the tunes…I suppose it also helped that I was a fiddler at the time, and was familiar with said rhythms.
I never played the thing in a session…never wanted to…partially because of the stigma that came with the instrument, and partially from the brutal treatment drummers would get (good or not so good players) from the pretentious snobs that usually made up 90% of the session attendees…a good many of whom could barely play the instruments they had brought to the gathering…all of this is really beside the point.
While it is best to learn any instrument one on one with a polished player, good recordings of good players can go a long way to improvement…one advantage right off the top of my head…there’s always play back…try and get a session player to play the same piece again and again and again and again.
We are basically in complete agreement I think. You refer to the fact that you were (and are still, one prays!) a fiddler…you were intimate with many tunes and understood the little rhythmic nuances thereof…unlike some of the d***heads who swan into sessions with their drums who wouldn’t know a reel from a polka if it hit them between the eyes.
As for pretentious types in sessions…they certainly exist but I 'm not sure whether bodhran-hatred is their trademark. If I hark back over the last five years, say, the most pretentious people I’ve come across are a recorder player, a fiddle player, a rock guitarist, a jazz guitarist and a fat teacher from Yorkshire who tried to take over our sessions with his daft songs and bloody five-string banjo. I know his first name but I’m not going to tell you except that it was five letters, first letter K, last letter H… They all had two things in common - they were all extremely arrogant and they were all (with the exception of the fiddle player) crap - not in their own fields, but in ITM. They seemed to come in with a superiority complex.
I don’t deny the value of playing along with recordings, and the especial usefuness of playbacks repeated ad nauseam. What I was saying in my clumsy way is that you can’t ultimately get to the heart of session playing unless a lot of your practice is with other real live human beings.
SteveShaw:“I don’t deny the value of playing along with recordings, and the especial usefuness of playbacks repeated ad nauseam. What I was saying in my clumsy way is that you can’t ultimately get to the heart of session playing unless a lot of your practice is with other real live human beings.”
…you’re right…we are in agreement here.
On the matter of Bodhran humidity, what I found worked for me, if I wasn’t going to play the thing for a while, was to put a damp cloth into a sealable plastic bag, and stow it away in the drum’s case.
As far as keeping the head wet, do so on the back only. Though I do not recommend it, I used to use a little Guinness on the back of the drum. In time it it gave the drum a nice mellow ‘rattle’…still have that drum, works great.
It’s interesting that there are so many decent players I’ve run across over the years who haven’t ever heard of tuneable drums. This solves the problems with tension in the skin and also allows a degree of tuneability without the constant dry/moist cycling that is so hard on a natural material like skin.
Look into a good quality tuneable drum. All problems solved, and an extra degree of flexibility will be added to your playing and enjoyment of the instrument - and hopefully everyone elses enjoyment of it too.
Brian, you’re right about how handy the tunable bodhráns are to have, but the wetting of the skin can’t be avoided at first. Most drums are far too tight, and the dryness of the air on this side of the pond just makes them worse. Some bodhráns are so tight they make a metallic “ping” noise when struck. Over time and daily wetting, the skin will stretch and stay loose, but you’re not going to get that deep, satisfying bass whump until you’ve trained the skin stay loose without going slack.
I dunno - if a skin is prepared correctly for a drum head, I’m told by several makers (including many who don’t do bodhráns at all) that the stretch should be taken care of by the maker, and not left to the player. According to just about all of these guys I’ve spoken with it should be possible to get that stretch taken care of before the skin is applied to the rim. I’m currently playing a 15" that if it gets hot and I don’t loosen the tunign ring will have that horrid metallic ‘ping’ you mention. But after tuning the four adjustment lugs about a half a turn each, it sings with that lovely deep resonance we all hear and strive for.
I had played a Halpin tuneable for several years prior to getting my new drum, and Fred likes to use a very thick skin for his heads. It was great for that low end resonanace, but really didn’t perform well in the higher harmonics range. Ah well. Still, the tuneability of that drum helped it to play better as far as tension was concerned in many different climates.
I have a Cooper, and very much regret not having gotten the tunable version. I did not think you could tune it that far as to get the skin down from the metallic ping to the proper looseness. Good to know.
Is the Cooper related to the Cooperman? If the maker is worth anything, they should be able to give you a range of tuning all the way from tight as snot to loose as a dead fish. Those are, I believe, the correct musicological terms. Have you had a chance to play a drum by Alfonso, Forman or Belgarth for example? They can (and usually are) fitted with a tuning system that should allow for that. The thing I was cautioned about though is kinda two-fold. First of all, you do want to be careful with how much goop you put on your skin. A properly prepared skin shouldn’t really need much at all. And all that stuff like oils, waxes etc. will clog the pores and affect the tone. Think of this much like dipping your uilleann chanter reeds in oil or something - completely changes them. Secondly, if you’re always wetting and then drying the skin through playing, it will tend to dry out and crack the skin.
So if you can tune the thing a bit, and relieve or apply a bit of tension to the head as needed, you should be in a better place for consistant tone. With luck, this offers a little more insight into the oft misunderstood world of goofy guys, beating dead animals with sticks whilst thei enjoy several pints of their favorite liquid diet foods.
Chain a heavy weight to the crossbeam, and totally immerse the entire drum. Best done in very deep water, like the middle of a lake, a deep, cold river, or the ocean.
Story one: At a festival session someone was trying out a drum form an instrument booth (No name used to protect the gulty) It was quite a hot and humid day (95 & 90) and the drum was obviously reacting to the conditons. Some guy grabed the drum and said, “I can fix that” and dumped some Guiness on the front of the skin. I heard no appreciable difference but he seemed satisfied with the sound. 2 or three people continued to play the drum until someone noticed that the head was beginning to thin and develop a hole. The instrument was quickly retired back to the booth it came from.
Story two: A local sessioner recently came with a new drum. It is a lovely tunable instrument. She is constantly applying water to the out side of the head and so has the tuners tightend so far down the retainer ring is starting to pull over the lip. There is speculation that the retainer ring will soon reside halfway down the shell.
Moral: Use extreme caution when applying anything to a drum head.
I always thought that a tuneable drum was ment to eliminate the need for the wetting and heating ritual?
God, I’ve had a bad week.
