Hedwitschak Makassar Ebony Tipper

I have started using a Hedwitschak ME10 Bodhrán Tipper obtained from Whistle and Drum. It is a long lite dense stick with lipped ends made of Makassar Ebony (ME).

15g / .5oz
25.5cm / 10.0"

7 Bodhrán Rhythms

  Michelle Stewart posted a useful series of video blogs to help us get unstuck from our comfortable session ruts. 7 Rhythms in 7 Days.

Bodhran solo showing left hand

Cormac Byrne bodhran solo where the photographer captures the left hand magic. Most excellent top end player.

AcoustiCelts

The AcoustiCelts performed in public for the third time last night at Court House Coffee in Auburn. We are made up of two couples from the Sunday night session. Pete Grant (banjo, dobhro), Phylis Grant (flutes, whistle), Sharon Carl (fiddle, vocals) and myself (bodhran, whistles).

I started the evening using the tipperless hand style that Chris Caswell is teaching me. Good way to warm up. I also used the tipperless technique on softer numbers, especially when only one melody instrument or vocals are being featured.

We played for three hours mostly Celtic/Irish music with some Beatles tunes thrown in for fun. Towards the end as the art crowd thinned out some people and kids started dancing a jig.

This was part of the Placer Arts Counsel Art Walk. Stores and galleries all over downtown Auburn an hosted artist for the evening (see event map). Court House Coffee, the place were Sharon has her Tuesday night knitting group, asked us during our St. Patrick's Day gig there to return in two weeks for the April Art Walk. Glad we did.

Nancy Holtz was the featured artist. I really like her work; especially the ink and water color work hung over the fire place.

We had so much fun that by the end of the evening I had a friction burn on my dampin hand. I put the Chinese burn suave on and it worked so well I hadn't though about the burn until writing this, the next day :).

Music from Starwest 2008

Partial notes from: The Savvy Web Tester's Tool Kit, Erik Petersen

Very cool. I liked the video clips presented before the talk was scheduled to begin. He talked about guitars and music while showing YouTube videos.

• Bruce Mathiske, multi-traking live, tools expand a tester's potential
• Jesse Cook
• Oscar Lopez
• Ottmar Liebert
• Rodrigo y Gabriela, bodhran techniques on Spanish guitar

Tools of one trade applied to a different domain result in surprising insights and beauty.

Bodhran article

There is a two page magazine article about the bodhran in The Living Tradition, Issue 80, pages 62-63.

The Bodhran, from the makers point of view, by Sharon Armstrong.

Sharon talked with Albert Alfonso and Seamus O'Kane. Among other this it describes how bodhran playing has changed over the last 30 years, what I call 21st Century Bodhran.

How do you say that in Irish Gaelic?

There is a lovely plaque that has a Gaelic phrase on it. The sentiment is "There's No Place Like Home", although the litteral translation means "There's no fire like your own fire"...

Nil Aon Tintéan Mar Do Tintéan Fein

Here is a 17 page booklet that will help you figure out how to pronounce the and many other quaint phrases.

Learn Irish vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation with TeachMe! Irish software. If you have used this or have any recommendation please leave a comment.

Sláinte

How to save your skin

From Bodhran@yahoogroups.com:

Hi Ceallaigh,

I can't account for the strange localized loose spot in the middle of the drum except to suppose that before the lanolin was put on, that part was already the most supple from natural grease from your hand and the lanolin just pushed it over the edge.

However, whatever the cause I suggest you put some warm water in your bath and immerse your drum head in it for an hour or two, agitating the surface of the skin occasionally to get rid of any treatment that might have over conditioned it. You must then remove it, towel it dry and allow it to dry naturally (not over a radiator). It may take a few days to dry completely and you will probably find that it is now too tight and you have to start again with any treatment (lanolin or hoof oil or whatever) but this method has rescued a couple of my drums in the past.

Alan Ellicott N Wales UK

Double Sticking Practice

Many others may reply to your post in more detail but essentially there are two strands of double sticking, those at the 'top end', that is where the beater hangs down from the hand, and the other which is more centre based. Last time I saw Mel play he was a centre player. Most players these days do a bit of both. All that is said below can be used either way.

Double sticking involves a departure from the traditional 'down up' technique, to a 'down down up' style. The reason for this emerging style was to accommodate more syncopated rhythms that the traditional style found difficult or impossible to achieve. Everybody has their own way of getting this double downstroke Shiobahjn O'Donnell does it by mimicking the drag roll of a snare drummer, allowing the beater to bounce off the skin in a single downstroke action. The sound is quite effective but to my mind does not give you the measure of control, which was one of the main reasons for going to double sticking in the first place. Most players make two distinctive beats on the downstroke followed immediately by an up stroke. The first part of the down stroke, (which in 'top end' drumming is the first of two strokes away from you) is more of a tap, with the second stoke following through to the up stroke. Many hours of practice are required before this action becomes natural, but once achieved its advantages immediately become apparent.

Firstly, by combining double sticking and conventional down ups, you can engineer your play so that all your accents are on downsrokes. Many players find this to be an advantage, although I personally don't stick to it. An up beat accent always sounds different to a down beat one, and adds a lightness to many rhythms, so I use a fusion of the two which adds a measure of interest to the tune instead of merely repeating the same thing over and over again. For example, many a jig has a twelve beat cycle broken down into two sixes. For this I play DduDduDudUdu, (two double sticks of three notes each and traditional 6 note jig to finish). This routine adds a nice variety to the tune and can be further lifted by missing one of the traditional notes out. DduDduD-dUdu.

However the main advantage is the ability to place accents in positions that traditional sticking does not allow. The simplest of all is to put the accent on the second note of a set of three, dDu dDu. Placing the accent in this position causes the first note of the set of three to become the grace note to the accent, (a note that tells you the main beat note is about to follow). This type of action allows you to syncopate a rhythm in ways the lend a little swing or jazz into the playing. for example for an 8 note reel, instead of playing DuduDudu, you might give it a swing by playing DdudDudu (DOWN down up, down DOWN up down up). This has an incredible lilt to it even though the two accents are in the traditional places.

All of this takes a while to sink in but once you are happy with your double sticking try the RHYTHM SCALES as an exercise. The idea is to go through every rhythm from 1-16, integrating double and single sticking to get your numbers right. I have listed a few below as a starting point. Where I have a hyphen that is a paused note, but where I have a comma this is merely to separate visually the parts, there is no break in the rhythm, play the sequence as though the commas are not there

1 D-D-D-D
2 DuDuDu
3 Ddu,Ddu,Ddu, or grace noting dDu,dDu,dDu
4 Dudu,Dudu, (the motor rhythm)
5 Ddudu,Ddudu, or rather dDudu,dDudu
6 DudUdu,DudUdu (pineapple apricot)
7 Ddududu,Ddududu, of rather dDududu,dDududu
8 DdudDudu,DdudDudu or the paradiddle DDudUUdu,DDudUUdu
9 DdududUdu,dDududUdu
10 dDudDududu,dDudDududu
11 DduDduDdudu
12 DduDdududUdu,DdudduDudUdu,
12a or the syncopated version which is a 5 and a7 rolled together, 
dDududDududu,dDududDududu
13 dDudDudDududu,dDudDudDududu
14 DdudDudududUdu, DdudDuduDudUdu, an 8 and a 6 rolled together
15 DdudDududDududu,DdudDududDududu, an 8 and a 7 rolled together
16 dDudDudDuDudUdu,dDudDudDuDudUdu, 3 x dDu followed by a pineapple 
apricot

I play each one for a little while then change to the next in the sequence. When I get to 16 I go back to 1. Because the sequences vary as you go you have to stay alert, but because of this it doesn't get boring. Beginners usually try 1-6 first and the go on to 1-9 etc. Give it a go and let me know how you get on.

Once you get into the higher numbers there are endless variations to choose from, make up your own. And finally you can add triplets or rolls at any time to make it a bit more explosive. For the double stick triplet you merely put 4 notes wherever there is a DDU. This roll is made up of a dudu.

Naturally the caveat in all this is that the music determines what you play, but the ability to switch rapidly from double to single sticking in any combination means that you are ready for anything those pesky musicians can throw at you.

Happy drumming

Alan Collinson
alan@bodhranwisdom.co.uk

[Posted to Bodhran@yahoogroups.com on September 11, 2007.]

Xerfa

I discovered a new Celtic band this afternoon, Xerfa. Check out their videos on YouTube (Abraham's Reel and Doa os teus Reels). They sound like Flook, good 21st century style bodhran.