Help. Bodhran backing track needed.

[caberman]

Tomorrow I'm playing whistle unaccompanied for a kid doing Irish dancing at a school assembly. I play quite well but my rhythm is occasionally just a little dodgy. If I can download a track of bodhran /bones etc playing a good fastish reel rhythm to keep me on track I'll be happy. Not so much your flashy party piece solo just a good snappy rhythm with a bit of variation. Can anyone help?

[srt19170]

Here's some possibilities:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/markstone
http://www.bodhran-info.de/soundsamples.html

And searching Sounddog for "bodhran" turns up 173 samples:

http://www.sounddogs.com

-- Scott

[Father Emmet]

Check your PM's.

[caberman]

Thanks Father (nice avatar, is that your normal expression?)
I'll look forward to the tracks.
Thanks too to STS, the Mark Stone tracks look just the ticket but I keep getting a "could not connect" message on the winamp player.
Mark

[Father Emmet]

is that your normal expression?

Only before I've had my morning coffee.

[Jon-M]

Based on the samples at Sounddogs.com and looping them into five minutes tracks using Audacity, I've been able to put together a few mp3s that, combined with the slowdown/speedup functions of MediaPlayer, function very nicely as a metronome that is much more fun to play with than the usual click/click. However, I can't find any jig samples--anyone have any suggestions?

[caberman]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I didn't get time to put something together before playing for the boy so I played unaccomplished ... I mean unaccompanied and held it together pretty well. Guess what though? It was a high School Talent Quest, not an assembly and we won! (= 1st)
So Dominic has a $100 music shop gift voucher and lots of new admirers.
Great for his self esteem too as he's been harrassed by some of the local pond-life for daring to do Irish dancing.
I got some enthusiastic comments too from kids surprised at their old maths teacher!!
Jon-M , the Mark Stone link that STS 19170 gave has a jig set and a reel set. Maybe you'll have more luck connecting.

[Jon-M]

I can't get those to download either--it's the .m3u format--It apparently has something to do with "listplay" but how that translates into a downloadable, playable file, I can't make out. I don't know what to make of it and neither, apparently, does my computer. If anyone can bring any light to bear on the subject, that would be great.

[caberman]

Father Emmet sent me some mp3s but the attachments have come up in grey text and I can't open them yet. The email took a little while coming through so they must be there somewhere Any ideas?. Mark

[Father Emmet]

Try opening them through an application rather than double clicking on them. Hope that helps.

[Jon-M]

Thanks, but every time I try to open it with Media Player, I get a message that a network error has occurred and no other application has worked so far either. Oh well. . .

[srt19170]

CDBaby seems to be having some problems with its sound files. The .m3u files are just text files with a pointer to the music, e.g.,

http://audio.cdbaby.com/mp3lofi/m/a/markstone-01.mp3

If you try to load that file, you'll get a server not available or too busy message. Presumably CDBaby will get that fixed at some point.

-- Scott

[Jon-M]

Thanks very much for clarifying that. I've periodically encountered these M3U files and never could figure out what was going on.

[Aanvil]

is that your normal expression?

Only before I've had my morning coffee.

Good Father, your last name is Hackett by any chance is it?