The easiest way by far to play a bodhran.... is with a double ended stanley knife! (industrial sliding blade in an enclosed metal case for the uninitiated) Bodhrans in sessions are a bit like fiddles, accordions, bagpipes and the most hated of all - recorders. You shouldn't be allowed out with them in public till you've passed a test! Cruel I know, but as en ex publican, the amount of seats that were taken up by people coming along and hashing away on duff instruments, ( and all drinking one half pint of lager all night unless someone else asked them if they wanted a drink - then they miraculously drunk pints!)was a pain in the a**e!