Chiff and Fipple Forums

I have a 14" tunable and an 18" non-tunable. I always keep a spritz of water nearby to give the heads a drink fo water. The 18" bugs me in that it has two cross pieces, which stops me from moving my hand up and around too much. I was thinking of getting another 18" with no cross-piece, or at least just ONE cross piece, an maybe tunable.

How many bodhran you got in your collection?

caedmon wrote:How many bodhran you got in your collection?

1 bodhrán, 2 bodhráin.

One untunable Medium Pizza box. I think it was sausage and mushroom.

three... an 18" with two cross bars... a 14" with one bar... and an awesome 7" deep 14" Mance Grady with no bar... the Mance is my favorite.

be well,

jim

I have had a bodhran for at least 5 years, but I never really had anywhere to play it. I watched some YouTube videos and read a few pages on stroke techniques and then began playing to CDs of my favorite group, Fin Tan, Ceili Rain and random trad irish stuff I downloaded from Amazon.

About a year ago, I wanted the bodhran a little more seriously, so I tried to find people to play with. I found a group in Dayton, Ohio called Foghlaim Ceol. They are kind of a volunteer group of people that got together once a month at Flannigan's Pub to free form jam. Their meeting schedule just wasn't working with my work schedule. I got to go once, though, and knew I wanted more bodhran.

Eventually, I did what an self-respecting drummer would do...I sent out an e-mail to the SCA mailing lists I was on, looking for other musicians looking for an outlet. And I found some. Especially cool, was a fiddle player who had a wide knowledge of irish tunes. Another young lady is a singer and plays flute. We are getting together again this coming Monday.

I am not necessarily trying to form a band, but I think it would be cool if we practiced enough together and tried to be a cohesive band.

I like to search YouTube for bodhran solos. It gives me ideas for things to try.

Collection - 1 - 18", 4 - 16", 1 - 15", 3 - 12" and 2 - 9".

All except the 9" drums are tunable.

This is the drum that is currently getting most playing time.


If you are looking for bodhran related stuff - try bodojo

David

It's not the loudest of drums, but we generally put that down to the bluebell tipper

- chris

(Yeah I know it isn't a bluebell, but I'm not a botanist)

When you really want finesse in a tipper!

Although I have been playing the bodhran for 10 years, I have never acquired boa (Bodhrán obsessive acquisition disorder). Maybe it's the price?
I have a 16'' tunable by Brendan White and still love it to bits. I had another one by Belgarth but got rid of it, because the skin was too thick for my style of playing.
If I was to get a new drum, I would go for something tuneable, about 14'' diameter and a deep rim(>5''). Probably by Christian Hedwitschack or Norbert Eckermann. A deep rim will generally give you more volume.
It is not worth messing around with non-tuneables. If you want to make music, get an instrument, not a wall-hanger.
As for the cross-piece: I have taken mine out. It is of no use. OK-I have taken out one and kept the other to have something to tie the allen-key to.
Are you using the water on the tunable one? What for? It's tuneable!
Best wishes
Chris

I've 2 drums
Rob Forkner 15" - the first he made - at the moment in the case all the time.
Rob Forkner 12" - the best drum I've ever played.

Water on tunable, I sometimes use it.
Not pouring sh... loads on a skin as I used to did with cheapos without tuning
now I pour water on my hand and sort start to play.
it's not for tuning but just to make a skin a softer and sounding better.

Padre wrote:I've 2 drums
Water on tunable, I sometimes use it.
Not pouring sh... loads on a skin as I used to did with cheapos without tuning
now I pour water on my hand and sort start to play.
it's not for tuning but just to make a skin a softer and sounding better.

OK. Seems to depend on the skin. Mine's (well actually the bodhran's) become soft by playing and the natural moisture of my hand, so it doesn't need water.
I have heard a lot of good about Forkner's drums, never played one, though.

I think I am going to get a 7" deep drum next.

I have five. Three fairly standard drums, one small drum that I love to use with pipers because I can make it sound like a snare drum, plus one custom-made with a tunable suede head. It's a quieter drum for the indoors with a fine, deep sound.

Regarding the complaint about having cross pieces that prevent moving your hand up and down the drum, IMHO you are better off not doing that. It's a very annoying style that, at best, should be used VERY sparingly. There are some players that use the technique incessantly, and I think most players really hate it. As a flute player, I know I do.

This past weekend, I was playing my bodhran with a group that plays mostly italian and english waltzs and other fast tunes. They were quite pleased to have a drum playing along. Their selection of reels and jigs was tiny, something they admitted was a problem with their current song book.

But, it was fun. Just sitting out of doors, jamming on the drum with two fiddler and one viola-ist.

One Belgarth