It's never ceases to amaze me in sessions when a stranger comes up and asks if he/she can have a go on your bodhran.They never seem to ask if they can have a go on your fiddle or flute etc. I suspect they thing the bodhran is pretty simple to play and they will master it straight away.There are people that play the bodhran and bodhran beaters a big bloody difference. I learnt a valuable lesson some time back, I use to make bodhrans and sell them locally. The next thing I knew our local session was chock full of new bodhran players all playing bodhrans made by me and all going for the world record of beating the goatskin at their first attempt. Well as you can imagine this didn't go down to well with the other session players so we needed to do a bit of bodhran culling to return things to a more managable situation.As a result of all this my little bodhran making busines was shelved. I still get requests from people to make them a bodhran, but I am not game to do it the nerve has gone. I've been through one epidemic not going through another. But a good bodhran player is great for a session and a good player knows when to shut up. As with all aspects of life there are time when we have to be told things.So I suggest he is told in the correct way and he will learn from it.We don't want you to go away we just don't want you to play :) Spot on with your quote Mikal "The best players are hardly there, just a heartbeat in the background most of the time."

Grubby