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23 Sep 03 - 12:15 PM (#1023569) Subject: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac All too often i see bodrans brought to sessions and they seem to linger at the foot of the tables until! a certain tune comes up. these tunes vary.are there set tunes to play or will any tune do? Cheers a humble book reading amature! tuggy. |
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23 Sep 03 - 12:18 PM (#1023572) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: Leadfingers Some peoples Bodhrans should NEVER be played.No names no Pack drill. |
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23 Sep 03 - 12:20 PM (#1023574) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac Nice one leadfingers!Know where your coming from! |
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23 Sep 03 - 12:49 PM (#1023593) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: Tig You can play a bodhran to most any tune with a reasonably paced rhythm - I play a mean jazz bodhran when I feel like it BUT you must take into consideration anyone else in the room. When I was first learning I was told:- LISTEN to the rhythm, go with it rather than across it until you are totally confident in your playing. It's as important what you MISS OUT as put in - a constant hammering is unnecessary and unfriendly. COUNT the number of bodhrans in a session - one is brilliant (if played quietly), two - listen to each other, three - think hard and four- forget it (at least for that tune). DON'T try to play everything. A slow air or solo offering is ruined by a bodhran player and gets all of us a bad reputation! If you are not sure what/when to play try thinking "would it sound good if I was just listening". You will often find the answer immediately. If you are not sure why not try playing without your stick - fingers or knuckles make a far less harsh sound, especially with your hand firmly on the back - until you are sure. There is also no crime in giving up a tune if you are not happy with your playing of it. I've survived 30 odd years of playing like that. The best compliment I was ever given was "I don't notice when you are playing!". Enjoy the sessions, but let everyone else too!! |
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23 Sep 03 - 01:07 PM (#1023614) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: Uncle_DaveO When should a bodhran be used? Anytime you want to stoke the fire! Dave Oesterreich |
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23 Sep 03 - 01:17 PM (#1023625) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac Nice one tig and uncle dave! |
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23 Sep 03 - 01:35 PM (#1023641) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac ? |
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23 Sep 03 - 01:38 PM (#1023644) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: harvey andrews From my experience of them, as little as possible. |
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23 Sep 03 - 01:42 PM (#1023647) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy St. Stephen's Day |
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23 Sep 03 - 01:50 PM (#1023652) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: catspaw49 If you have to urinate. If you have to defecate. If you have to vomit. If you need an ashtray. If you need to stoke a fire. If you need to start a fire. If you lost your frisbee. If you want to watch something sail off a high cliff. If you need a spare tire. If you need a picture frame. If your gorilla needs a teething ring. If you need to make a banjo sound good. They have hundreds of other uses........ Spaw |
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23 Sep 03 - 02:34 PM (#1023679) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: greg stephens AS a tray to carry drinks to the musicians |
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23 Sep 03 - 03:03 PM (#1023689) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: open mike as a tool for winnowing grain, as a child's rolling game such as hoop and stick, target practice, tossed up like a skeet (clay pigeon), as a holder for ice to chill musicians' drinks, as a lamp shade. in a marching band...marching away.. or, as I do, as a rhythm in a band for contra dancers. once i played in the "orchestra" for a hill billy play and was able to provide sound effects for the train by playing the bodhran with a koosh.... you know, one of theose kid's toys of rubber whcih looks like a bunch of rubber bands tied together. sort of gives the effect of a drummer's brush- soft sound... |
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23 Sep 03 - 04:35 PM (#1023780) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST,tinker from chicago So easy to mock. Banjo jokes, bagpipe jokes, bodhran jokes, all arise from the simple fact that ANY instrument can be played poorly or wrongly. Or is it just the ones that start with "b"? My general rule is that when a bodhran genuinely contributes to the mood of the song AND can be played in a professional manner by someone who has learned, not just purchased, the instrument, then go ahead. It does not belong, ever, in songs in 3/4 time. And the eejits who hold one bulb of the tipper while beating the poor bodhran to death with the other should be arrested for goatskin abuse. |
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23 Sep 03 - 04:47 PM (#1023789) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: McGrath of Harlow Don't be beaten down there. A bodhran played well - and that doesn't mean played flashily, or over-loud - can really lift a tune sometimes, and not just in Irish tunes. I've always understood that the right way to play the bodhran isn't to think in terms of playing the rhythm, you play the tune, following the lead melody instrument. So it has to be a tune you know, or you're good at picking up tunes. And bodhrans should be solitary animals - one at a time, at most. |
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23 Sep 03 - 05:11 PM (#1023810) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac Well so far the responce on my q, has been very informative as well as hillarious! Thanks so far mateys. Tuggy. |
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23 Sep 03 - 05:23 PM (#1023827) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac ? |
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23 Sep 03 - 05:28 PM (#1023833) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: rock chick Now see what you have started, again ;o))) and i'm sure again and again and again |
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23 Sep 03 - 05:48 PM (#1023856) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST,skippy I agree with all of the above! However last week at Bromyard, there was a bodran player in a band whose name that I did not catch (as I was in the bar when they came on - no surprise there then)who was to say the least EPIC & only a young chap too. He played the instrument as though it was a part of his body & soul, so for me for once it really worked. Long may he play, if anyone knows the name of the young band in question them reply & give them the publicity they deserve. |
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23 Sep 03 - 06:18 PM (#1023880) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac Nice one skippy,i heard a young lad in dublin amongst 13 other instruments. When i told him that hes playing was excepional, he modestly replied.:Could you here it through all of the others. He played very well Cheers matey! Tuggy. |
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23 Sep 03 - 06:25 PM (#1023887) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: BanjoRay A good bodhran player sounds great in an Irish session. The best bodhran player would sound terrible in an old time appalachian session. I'm not ducking and running, I'm just going to stand here. Cheers Ray |
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23 Sep 03 - 06:36 PM (#1023893) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: wysiwyg embroidery hoop cheese mold hm...... a vision is coming.... there's Spaw.... using it to mold post-vegemite material..... nonononono....... ~S~ |
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23 Sep 03 - 06:37 PM (#1023894) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: open mike not compatable with waltzes as former posts states. |
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23 Sep 03 - 06:38 PM (#1023898) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: McGrath of Harlow I'd say that any music where the sound of feet tapping would fit in could be music where a bodhran might fit in too, if played the right way. |
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23 Sep 03 - 09:02 PM (#1024010) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: The Fooles Troupe It is not compatible with waltzes if played the "normal" way! i.e. in Trad Irish Style! (shuffle shuffle... played with the "tipper style") But THE PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT can be played as a medieval tambor, and then it works very well in other styles of music, including early music, which is what I bought it for originally! I haven't learnt the Irish style very well yet, I must admit. If you also think "tambourine with rattly bits", you also get something quite different too. Although my research shows that some Irish instruments had rattly bits too... Since it's a "frame drum", it works well in Arabian/Egytpian music too. Robin |
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23 Sep 03 - 09:12 PM (#1024014) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: McGrath of Harlow American First Nation music too. Frame drums turn up just about anywhere. Mind, I don't think any other part of the world devised the Irish way of playing them. I'm convinced it was the invention of someone who'd got in the way of strumming a guitar or a banjo, and just transferred that way of thinking to the drum. |
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23 Sep 03 - 10:26 PM (#1024051) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: The Fooles Troupe So mcGrath, In African/Arabian style drumming, many drums (of differnt pitches and sounds) are played together without the claimed obnoxious result of the multiple Bodrans... do we agree that it is not the INSTRUMENT, but the (Irish) STYLE of playing that tends to make the active presence of more than one or two of the things in a session often objectionable? Robin |
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23 Sep 03 - 10:48 PM (#1024058) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: artbrooks Bodhrans are, of course, appropriate on all appropriate occasions. Pity the poor bodhrani, who is maligned more than G.W. Bush, and with much less reason. It is primarily his (or her) excellent taste that gives the extra sparkle to those tunes in which he (or she) chooses to participate. |
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23 Sep 03 - 11:46 PM (#1024093) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: The Fooles Troupe Actually, artbrooks, it wouldn't be the "poor" bodhrani, but the excellent one... :-) Robin |
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24 Sep 03 - 02:16 AM (#1024130) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST,Boab I think Robin has it about right. The bodhran can be a very versatile percussion instrument in hands which have not only learned its "traditional' use, but have progressed and experimented in its application to other genres, such as blue-grass, jazz and many a piece of music of any kind which has a rhythm which can be accentuated by percussion. I do |
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24 Sep 03 - 02:52 AM (#1024138) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST,Boab ---My spatulate digits don't tend to make the same mess of my bodharn playing---honest!--As I was trying to say---I do NOT agree with the assertion that the bodhran can have no place following 3/4 time. I have used it ,and heard it used, very effectively as soft percussion to "Fanny Power" and several other similar melodies, usually in mandolin instrumentals. The drum, I would agree, is hardly suitable if a slavish adherence to the wooden tipper is indulged. But the bodhran, in spite of much popular belief, is NOT a "traditional" instrument. So it follows that neither is the wooden tipper! Many a nice waltz instrumental is complemented by a background of bodhran played [discreetly!] using a tipper composed of bunched kebab sticks---or better still in some cases, an even less intrusive stick made up by bunching broom twigs , which can be "tonally adjusted" by positioning elastic bands on either side of the central binding. A steel jazz brush also can add to the versatility of the bodhran, not only by directly playing the skin , but in certain instrumentals by using it to complement the wooden tipper simply by lightly keeping it in contact with the skin while the tipper does the striking; this can mimic a "snare drum" almost to perfection. So don't be intimidated by the detractors! If an instrumentalist or vocal performer does not want bodhran backing, by all means comply with their wishes. Experience will at length let you know when NOT to play bodhran---and there are many times when this will be so. Those who caution against multiple bodhran players in a session are in general quite right. Unless players can synchronise every beat the result is almost surely discord. And bodhrans are a BACKGROUND INSTRUMENT. Unless a drum solo is asked for, the bodhran sound should blend quietly with the rhythm being created by the group as a whole. As a bodhran player you can never be a "star" unless you can play jigs and reels while doing somersaults . Just enjoy what you do, don't intrude excessively [as many another instrument does!], and try all innovative methods of playing with c.d. or cassette at home first! |
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24 Sep 03 - 09:01 AM (#1024291) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: McGrath of Harlow Massed percussion is a different genre. It can be overdone, even in traditions where it is very important, but it's capable of being extremely intrixcate and delicate as well as exciting. But it doesn't belong in the kind of music where bodhrans are at home - and by that I mean, not just frame drums, but teh frame drumn played in the Irish techniques. And I'd say the same about pretty well any instrument, not just the bodhran. It's a music made up of individual instruments playing together, not of rhythm sections and string sections and so forth. A kind of chamber dance music even. I can quite imagine that massed bodhrans might work in the same kind of setting as massed bagpipes, such as a marching band - but neither would be too welcome in an indoors session or a dance. |
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24 Sep 03 - 09:20 AM (#1024301) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST I hate the bloody things, mostly because they are played so badly by so many. They have become the equivilent of the tambourine, toos it at the member of the band who is tone deaf. Played well it is a fabulous addition to CERTAIN songs. |
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24 Sep 03 - 01:09 PM (#1024382) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST,Strollin' Johnny FURTHERMORE (and driftin' away from the main theme, as is my wont) - how should the word 'Bodhran' be pronounced? I've heard people at our club pronounce it many ways, including "BO-rran", or "Bo-RRAN" (stress on the capitals) but I saw a programme on the haunted fish-bowl a while back about the history of the Bodhran, and every one of the many Irish expert players called it the "Bow-Ron" (pronounced 'Bow' as in Bend From The Waist, and 'Ron' as in.... well, Ron! Anybody got the definitive answer? ('Ere comes another argument!) JB |
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24 Sep 03 - 01:17 PM (#1024384) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: McGrath of Harlow I always say "bow-ron". But people vary. Just so long as you avoid prnouncing it with a "d" in the middle. The "d" is there as a way of warning people not to pronounce it... |
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24 Sep 03 - 01:34 PM (#1024396) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: wysiwyg ... for fear of unleashing a bodhran attack... Hm, does that mean that "jodhpurs" should be "jowpers"? Geephers! ~S~ |
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24 Sep 03 - 02:54 PM (#1024468) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: McGrath of Harlow That's a Hindu word - different rules apply. |
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24 Sep 03 - 03:19 PM (#1024492) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST a bodhran should be used when you need kindling for the djembe |
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24 Sep 03 - 03:51 PM (#1024511) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: greg stephens you dont really need the d in djembe either. |
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24 Sep 03 - 04:29 PM (#1024541) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: Herga Kitty I'd just like to add button accordion to Tinker from Chicago's list of b instruments..... Kitty |
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24 Sep 03 - 07:09 PM (#1024628) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac SO FAR SO GOOD VERY INFORMATIVE YA,ALL! |
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24 Sep 03 - 07:31 PM (#1024636) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: McGrath of Harlow and of course there's bongos and bones |
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25 Sep 03 - 01:53 AM (#1024699) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: The Fooles Troupe Best advice to a beginning bodran player I have heard: "Play it with a sharp knife!" Robin |
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25 Sep 03 - 12:46 PM (#1024746) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: Art Thieme Of course, Catherine The Great used one as an I.U.D. for many years. It was she who made up those buttons that proclaimed for all to see ----- "FANNY POWER"----and then she handed 'em out to all her consorts. One of 'em must've written the tune which I hear once in a while now. Art Thieme |
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25 Sep 03 - 01:09 PM (#1024763) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: McGrath of Harlow I think the folk-singing horse should maybe make an appearance around now. |
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25 Sep 03 - 01:14 PM (#1024764) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: Tam the Bam (Nutter) I'm ashamed to admit I play the Bordhran, I think a bordran should played as loudly as possible so you can't hear the Banjo and Accordion players. What do you call someone with very little musical tatlent? A bordran player What do you call someone with no musical tatlent? A banjo player |
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25 Sep 03 - 01:24 PM (#1024773) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: fretless No one has yet mentioned the other percussive toy that is sometimes used to abuse Irish traditional music: the spoons. Bodhran and spoons can both, separately, complement traditional music, but I don't recall ever hearing them work well together on an Irish tune. Why? |
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25 Sep 03 - 01:25 PM (#1024775) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST,Claire At least a bodhran, if played somewhat decently, doesn't smear across the tune and take all the lift out of it. Even the best dijerido playing can do that! Somehow didg players at sessions seem to think that anything in their key is licence to....mmmmmmrmrrrrmmmmoooooooomnmmmmoooo. A pet peave, and even we bodhran players have them! Claire |
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25 Sep 03 - 01:48 PM (#1024790) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: McGrath of Harlow A didge played as a drone can work quite well. Of course just playing one note throughout a whole tune might get a bit boring to do, but it's what drones are supposed to do. "What do you call someone who likes to hang around with musicians?" "A drummer." |
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25 Sep 03 - 11:17 PM (#1024952) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: The Fooles Troupe I'm proud to say that I have an Acoustic Four-Guitar Piano-Accordion. It can drown out Four Acoustic Guitars.... :-) Robin |
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26 Sep 03 - 02:02 AM (#1025013) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: Manitas_at_home Spoons and bodhrans suit differebt rhythms. Reels are great for bodhrans but very tiring for spoons and bones. Polkas are great for spoons or bones but most bodhran players I've met struggle. |
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26 Sep 03 - 02:24 AM (#1025016) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST As contraception for an elephant? |
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26 Sep 03 - 03:43 AM (#1025041) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST,Boab Harking back a wee bittie to the pronunciation of "bodhran"----ALL the Irish folks I have heard say "bow-ron"; most of the Scots say "bo-RANN". I've often wondered if this could be due to difference in Scots and Irish gaelic? |
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26 Sep 03 - 04:03 AM (#1025052) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: Splott Man Going back a bit (I"ve just picked up this thread), Skippy, the young fellow you heard playing at Bromyard was probably in the Irish band Mise - pronounced Mee-shah. Cheers |
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26 Sep 03 - 05:43 AM (#1025085) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac It seems ive hit a raw nerve with this question.\but no sugestions from the penny whistles/mandolins/or singers even! cheers everyone, tuggy mac. |
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26 Sep 03 - 01:34 PM (#1025189) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: Tam the Bam (Nutter) When people ask what it's called I just say 'drum' saves the confustion. Mind the spelling Tom |
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26 Sep 03 - 03:11 PM (#1025254) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: clansfolk like any other instrument (including voice) whenever you want! |
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26 Sep 03 - 03:46 PM (#1025267) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: Folkiedave Is a bodhran played by a modhran? Dave www.collectorsfolk.co.uk |
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26 Sep 03 - 06:26 PM (#1025347) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac Like it dave, funny but naughty! |
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26 Sep 03 - 08:30 PM (#1025407) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: michaelr Click `ere for a song that explains it all. Cheers, Michael |
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27 Sep 03 - 10:50 AM (#1025622) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac like it but cant hear the tune!Michael! Cheers tuggy. |
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28 Sep 03 - 05:18 AM (#1025724) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac I heard the other day that the bodrhan was actually used ,played in front of irish funeral.to beat the walking pace!Fact or fiction anyone please? Tuggy mac. |
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28 Sep 03 - 09:24 AM (#1025783) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: belfast I've been to more funerals than I care to remember and I've never seen or heard a bodhran been played there. Occasionally a single piper in front of the cortege and occasionally a fiddle or flute playing a slow air or lament after the interment. |
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28 Sep 03 - 02:57 PM (#1025862) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: tuggy mac Thanks belfast. read it somewhere , All the best tuggy. |
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28 Sep 03 - 05:09 PM (#1025945) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: McGrath of Harlow A sing;le muffled drum at a military type funeral you might get. I suppose a bodhran could be used at a pinch. I've heard the suggestion that to start with it was just an improvised drum made by stretching a bit of skin over the kind of sieve you'd use in a farm, and was done just for "hunting the wren", or maybe for scaring birds. Are there any records of it being used as a regular musical instrument before the 1960s? (I don't mean recordings - though them too of course, if any.) |
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28 Sep 03 - 05:23 PM (#1025957) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: Mr Red Did I miss something - did no-one mention "as a trampoline" (Ok - with shoes ON for the completeness of the joke) I have had people nearly sit on mine because being red it can be mistaken the padding on a stool if put down like that for a moment, which begs the question about the bar. As my dear mother used to say in such circumstances - "comfortable in a funny sort of way". Answer to draw fire away from the massed melodeon players when the jokes start flying. (the Banjo player can look after himself) |
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28 Sep 03 - 05:45 PM (#1025967) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST For when to play try listening to some old Planxty albums. The use of the bodhran is really well judged (apart from a rather badly recorded one on Hackler of Grouse Hall which is still brilliant) |
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28 Sep 03 - 06:28 PM (#1025990) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: dick greenhaus Whenever the chamberpot's full. More seriously, loud instruments should be used with great care--a bad player can destroy a session. |
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29 Sep 03 - 09:34 AM (#1026308) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST McGrath Of harlow, as usual, has hit the nail on the head here. The Bohdran was used really only by the Wren Boys of county wexford in their annual ceremonies of catching, killing and caging a wren. It was not played widely at all and was used to make a noisy chorus. When Sean O Riada began to look at ways of rcreating and bringing irish music music to the sttention of the irish people his reseach led him to create small music groups which led to the Chieftains. He didn't use a Bohdran and the guy was the worlds leading expert in the subject. Like the session its self the Bohdran has no authenticity as a traditional music vehicle. i enjoy sessions myself of course, but they are a very recent invention. In the past in Ireland traditional music and musicians were very rare. The people were terrfyingly poor and people could not afford instruments and had no time to play or to listen. In some parts of Ireland in the nineteenth century over 85% of people lived in little more than mud huts. Music was not part of their lives. I have spoken to older irish people who tell me the first irish music they heard was in the form of 78 records sent back from america in the 1920's. If you go back to the first part of the nineteenth century about 75% of people lived in temporary dwellings in England, almost 90% in parts wales and I imagine similar figures in scotland. Its a miracle the music survived and I guess much of it didn't. stevethesqueeze |
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29 Sep 03 - 10:20 AM (#1026328) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: McGrath of Harlow Mind, the fact, taking it to be a fact, that the bodhran appears to be a recent introduction, is nothing against it. That's what happens in a living tradition. It happened a few years earlier with the banjo and the melodian, and a few years later with the bouzouki. And in fact with just about every instrument, including that hi-tech masterpiece of its day, the uilleann pipes. Perhaps in time it'll happen for the didgeridoo, if the didgepayers can discipline themselves into just supplying a drone. |
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30 Sep 03 - 01:57 AM (#1026536) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: The Fooles Troupe One year at the Woodford Folk Festival, there was this young guy with a didj, a car battery, an amp, and a pile of techno boxes cross linked with all sorts of effects. Very interesting range of sounds. But of course, it was what he was doing that was gathering the crowds around. (No, you disgusting creatures, it was the sort of music he was making!) Native traditional players of the didj used it to "talk", almost, they can create a wide range of sound effects, some so natural sounding that it is stunning, and other sounds that symbolically represent animals behaviour. Some of these aren't obvious when you first hear them, but they are played to accompany certain physical actions of the dancers. Robin |
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30 Sep 03 - 04:50 AM (#1026594) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: Steve Hunt Re: The bodhrán player at Bromyard. His name is Daniel Griffin, and you can check Mise's web site here: http://www.misemusic.com |
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30 Sep 03 - 05:18 AM (#1026612) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: gnu Mud huts and no time to play or listen. And then the famine. No wonder my Irish forefathers left for the fly-infested bog country of Kent County. They did, however, bring a fiddle, whistles and Hran. Only the fiddle survives to this day. |
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30 Sep 03 - 06:27 AM (#1026641) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST,Bodhrandophile Wasn't always a 'phile, but I used to go occasionally to a session that had lots of bodhran players as regulars (unkindly known as the Bodhrandoliers)- once there were TEN going at once in a session of about 20 players! That session is now deceased - I wonder why? |
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30 Sep 03 - 09:49 AM (#1026653) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: MartinRyan One night in 1998, I was singing, unaccompanied, "Henry Joy" at a session when a guy I'd never seen before started tipping at his bodhrán with a brush. He came over to me afterwards and said: "I hope that was alright?". "No, it wasn't alright" said I, " It was bloody great!". It ended up on the Mudcat Violet CD, via a Roscommon SIngers Circle recording. However..... this was an exception. As has often been said, what matters is not how easy it is to play the bodhrán badly, insensitively ar just too loud - but how difficult it is to play well. Regards |
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30 Sep 03 - 01:07 PM (#1026711) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST Martin... And that's what gives Bodhran players a bad name. I've heard "real" musicians say, "You're just banging on a drum.", mainly because they have never had a session with someone who plays "well". There are two main types of playing for any instrument... lead or accompanyment. The attitude of many Hran players I have met is that are the beat, the rythm, but, usually, they are the ones who are just banging on a drum. I was in a group once where the others insisted that I play when I knew it wasn't appropriate because I instinctively knew I'd just be banging on the drum and not adding to the music... simply put, either there were other instruments better suited to do the job or none suited, especially mine. After refusing flat out to play on some tunes, they told me that it was for looks and that the sound man could turn off my mike if I felt that strongly about it. I was pissed. Mainly because it meant I would get no break for a pint. |
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30 Sep 03 - 01:13 PM (#1026715) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST Oops... 01:07 PM was me at my new, second, job. I suppose I could log in, since I am the Manager (what a prick to work for !). gnu |
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30 Sep 03 - 01:17 PM (#1026722) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy actually, 'guest' above, it WAS Sean O'Riada who introduced the bodhran into Irish traditional music, not heard before him, though there are some tambourines played on a couple of early 78s without much jingle. |
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30 Sep 03 - 09:46 PM (#1026890) Subject: RE: Folklore: when should a bodran be used From: McGrath of Harlow I've sometimes wondered whether the name bodhran is actually an abbreviated version of tambourine. Yes, I know it's supposed to be related to the Old Irish bodar for deafening, but I wonder whether that mighty be cod back-etymology. |