as a singer who sings mostly unaccompaniewd, AND a boudhran player, I gotta say, if someone is insensitive enough to think they should play the drum during an a cappella song, and expect the SINGER to keep time weith the DRUM, instead of the other way round, there is no reasoning with them.

I have been to sessiuns where the "leaders" have no compunction with telling boudhran players to just stop or not play. This I think is wrong (unless, as happened one night, the drum is really interfering with a complex or slow song on solo fiddle); the "other" boudhran player at this sessiun told me when I arrived one night the "leader" would probbaly perefr if only one of us drummed during any given song...

If I bring my drum to a sessiun, I tend to sit out a lot of tunes; some just don't need thr drum, and you also gain a little recognition for being perhaps sensitive to the MUSIC instead of just banging away because you CAN. (Most boudhran players do not really bother to learn it properly and many cannot keep a rhythm very effectively).

It is frustrating to me that at sessiuns where no one knows I am a decent singer, and where there is no oppurtunity to sing, others assume the only thing I can do is play the boudrhan, and I am really only a middling drummer (I can keepo a beat though). A GOOD boudhran player who is sensitive to when it is most appropriate to play, is an asset to a sessiun I believe.

Peg