The Bodhran Instrument
Bodhrans are traditional Irish drums that resemble large tambourines without the jingles. Made of goatskin stretched over a wooden hoop frame, players beat this skin using an extended drumstick known as a cipin or tipper to produce rhythms on these flat instruments.
Bodhran playing has evolved since Sean O’Raida introduced it, with innovative musicians such as Mel Mercier and the Chieftains making lasting contributions to its development. Bodhran makers and tippermakers also contributed significantly to this development.
Origin
The Bodhran is an easy instrument to learn. From outsider perspectives it appears like an instant ticket into becoming a musician.
The instrument consists of a shallow wooden cylinder covered with mammal skin that has been attached to its wooden frame by means of two strips of wood tacked onto it, at right angles to one another, in order to provide the performer with a handle for maneuvering it around a stage.
Peadar Mercier, Johnny “Ringo” McDonagh and John Joe Kelly have become among the most influential bodhran players of recent decades. These three musicians have taken playing technique and sound quality of bodhran drum to new levels.
Sound
The bodhran can produce an array of sounds depending on how its player holds their hand within its frame drum – soft tapping, hard rapping and slides are all possible with this instrument.
Traditional frame drumming involved using one’s hands or a stick known as a cipin to play the frame drum, while in recent times musicians such as Peadar Mercier, Johnny McDonagh and John Joe Kelly have taken this genre of music to new heights with bodhrans.
This library of five unique bodhrans, featuring different skins and rim sizes, provides a range of tones suitable for Celtic percussionists. In addition, 22 MIDI loops have also been included to assist beginners.
Technique
As with any instrument, mastery of the bodhran takes time and practice; fortunately it’s relatively straightforward for beginners to pick up and can even be played while practicing their chords.
Most bodhrans do not feature handles and should be held vertically against either knee or thigh using one hand (right-handed players should hold with their left). By touching different areas on its skin, one can vary its pitch and sound characteristics as desired.
Bare-hand style can produce a range of tones, from urgent taps to melodious ringing beats, conveying both sentiment and emotion – or even martial calls to action – through skillful playing. An internal tuning system allows bodhran makers to adjust pitch using an adjustable screw.
Styles
The Bodhran is a single-head frame drum consisting of a shallow circular wood shell covered with mammalian skin (usually goatskin) at one end. Wood strips crisscrossing at right angles to the shell rim serve as its handle.
Traditionally, performers used their hands to play a bodhran; today however, a stick is used which allows players to control tone variation and produce different types of sounds.
A bodhran can be tuned to play at either high or low pitches, with different vibratory rates depending on its use in various playing styles. As one of the most flexible Celtic percussion instruments, this makes the bodhran one of its kind.
Materials
At its core, a drum is a 14-18 inch diameter plain drum composed of goat or calf skin stretched over a wooden frame. A player touches various parts of its surface in order to control pitch and sound characteristics.
The skin of a bodhran must first be cured or dried to make it flexible before being attached by nailing, stapleing or gluing to its rim. Gumming provides the strongest and neatest finish when attaching the skin.
The drum can be played either sitting or standing. When played sitting, one hand (in right-handeders’ cases, their left) holds onto a tipper stick against the drum head to keep its pitch steady and sound clear.
Tunable
Bodhrans may seem non-tunable at first glance, but there are ways you can make one tuneable. Simply adding thin cardboard strips (or even paper or felt strips) between the top of a bodhran and its skin can increase tension on its head and raise its pitch.
Water can also create the same effect by wetting skin and then rubbing it dry, but too many wetting-and-drying cycles might cause its loosening or tear over time.
Many bodhran players choose to make their drums tuneable by installing a movable interior hoop that can be pressed against the head and adjusted. Although this approach reduces skin diameter slightly, installation should not take too much time or effort.
