I recently bought a bodhran and ordered a copy of “Paddy League’s Bodhran Tutor” from Grey Larsen’s website. I thought I’d mention this on the C&F board since I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book is as much a whistle tutor as a bodhran tutor. The accompanying CD has 25 tracks of Grey and Paddy playing a series of standard reels, jigs, hornpipes, polkas, slip jigs, etc. Each is played slowly first, then up tempo at session speed. The playing is fantastic and the slow tracks make learning the tunes easy. I haven’t even gotten to the bodhran side of things yet, but the instruction there is clearly and systematically laid out, with lots of demonstrations by Paddy.
I’d recommend this book and CD set highly. Grey, it seems, is becoming a one-man Irish music instruction industry!
That looks great, I’m going to add that to my to-buy list.
A few months ago I was telling a bodhran player that I’d love to have a recording of just bodhran playing different rythms at different tempos to practice against.
I’m a bit rythmically challenged, and practicing solo or with a metronome can be a bit different than playing with a bodhran doing a complicated pattern.
I can’t find a link to the cd either but my husband got it at East Durham a
couple years ago. Maybe write to Grey if he doesn’t see this. This is the
cd I recommended a while back on woodie-L for rhythmic whistle/flute +
accompaniment practice. (I haven’t personally used it but it is perfect for
that.) The title is something like An Gabhar Ban (excuse spelling - white
goat).