Amy Richter (athas, Danu) provides private bodhran lessons. Additionally, she instructs Irish music classes for CUNY and has led rhythm workshops at Valley of the Moon Scottish fiddle school.

This course will introduce different performance techniques and musical concepts for playing the bodhran, including basic rhythm techniques for accompanying Irish reels and jigs.

How to Play

The bodhran is an Irish frame drum used in instrumental Irish dance music. Playing this popular instrument requires skillful musician with knowledge of rhythmic techniques; Amy Richter (athas, Danu) provides you with all of these tools needed to play this essential percussion accompaniment.

Amy is a much sought-after instructor. She can be found teaching both at the Milwaukee Irish Fest School of Music as well as privately. Furthermore, Amy often runs bodhran workshops and rhythm seminars at Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle Camp with Alasdair Fraser.

The bodhran is a shallow circular drum covered with goatskin at one end, played either by hand or using beaters, that adds depth and an intense bass note to Irish tunes.

Techniques

The bodhran is an Irish frame drum with traditional beaters or can be played using hands. This instrument can be used to accompany Irish dance, Celtic folk music and more; beginner and advanced students alike may take lessons.

Colin Harte is an ethnomusicologist, percussionist, and teacher with the CUNY School of Music/Irish Studies. He offers piano classes, world music curriculum classes and West-African/Afro-Latin percussion ensemble lessons as well as offering private bodhran lessons in the Bronx at his private studio in his Bronx home studio. In 2012 he published An Bodhran: Experimentation and Innovation through University of Tennessee Press.

Sanghamitra Chatterjee provides one-on-one private lessons scheduled according to mutual convenience, offering voice training, practice of scales and fundamental knowledge of Raga and Tala found in Indian songs of different types and languages like Bhajans, Kirtans, Ghazals, film songs from selective film producers/regional songs/Tagore songs (Rabindra Sangeet). She also teaches basic Tabla techniques.

Tuning

Amy Richter of Milwaukee is an exceptional instructor for this traditional Irish frame drum that can either be permanently tuned or played using beaters, the bodhran. Her classes at Milwaukee Irish Fest School of Music have drawn rave reviews while she has taken part in bodhran workshops both domestically and abroad, such as Junior Davey’s Bodhran Academy in County Sligo, Ireland and Alasdair Fraser’s Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle School where she also conducts rhythm workshops.

Colin Harte is an NYCDOE music teacher and Irish music instructor for CUNY. As a professional bodhran player and author of An Bodhran: Experimentation, Innovation and the Traditional Irish Frame Drum, Colin has performed at Bodhran Weekends nationwide as a featured artist. Through individual private lessons with him at Bodhran Weekends nationwide – covering technique, intonation, simple to advanced compositions across talas (rhythm cycles) and layas (tempo) cycles – his one-on-one private lessons cover technique, intonation as well as compositions within different talas (rhythm cycles).

Music

The bodhran has long been considered an integral component of Irish music. However, its rise to prominence has been marked by transformation and revival: prior to 1960 it was mostly used as an accompanying instrument; Sean O Riada is widely credited with helping make it musical.

Traditional drum playing was usually accomplished using both hands or a stick, and could vary in terms of style depending on how the beater was held; when held with both ends directly above the head it could produce Kerry or West Limerick style performance; otherwise if one end was above and one underneath this was considered top-end style performance.

Modern bodhrans typically incorporate adjustable tuning mechanisms within their wooden frames, and often the rim is covered with electrical tape to reduce edge-loading and dampen unwanted overtones.

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