Bodhran Beater
A bodhran beater (commonly referred to as a “cipin” or a “stick”) is an essential accessory for playing the bodhran, and this article can assist in your search for one suitable to your style of playing.
Though bodhrans can be played with one’s hands, most modern Irish bodhran players prefer using beaters that produce different tones and sounds.
Weighted
Beaters, tippers or cipins are used to hit the skin of the bodhran. Available in various shapes, sizes and weights for any player’s style of playing the instrument, made from any hardwood and often hand carved for ease.
Traditionally, the bodhran is played using both hands with bare fingers on one hand and index finger knuckle knuckling together; however, many players now utilize beaters. With so many styles of beaters now available for the instrument and different sounds being created through various beaters styles available today, an enormous variety of sounds is now being created through playing this traditional instrument.
A bodhran beater should be constructed from any non-damaging material that will not damage the drum itself, usually thin wood with either ribbed grips or smooth surfaces for gripping purposes. Some models even come equipped with metal weights attached at their ends for added stability and to reduce pressure on wrists while providing easy swingability when held by hand.
Hot Rod
The Bodhran is a frame drum played with both hands or sticks that first became popular during the second wave roots revival of Irish Traditional music in the 1960s, becoming widely played across Celtic countries since.
Many bodhran players prefer hot rod beaters because of their versatile sound production with soft yet percussive click. Constructed out of thin dowels held together with tape, hot rod beaters usually feature mechanisms for tightening or loosening their dowels to achieve various tones; wider apart the dowels are, the softer their tone becomes.
This lightweight and ergonomic bodhran beater is lightweight yet comfortable to hold, making it an excellent choice for sessions or casual play, or anyone seeking to incorporate sound healing techniques into their practice. Additionally, its multicolored sari silk binding carries associations with moon, water, magic poetry and music – perfect for adding powerful sound healing elements into their practice!
Hard Tip
Hard tip bodhran beaters feature small metal weights welded into their tip – often brass or steel – that allow the player to strike the skin with different amounts of pressure for different sounds and rhythms.
This type of bodhran beater has become very popular among musicians who specialize in other styles than Irish traditional music, especially Middle Eastern frame drum styles like the tar, where its use mimics that of tabor or tambourine.
Bodhrans can be played using both hands simultaneously for the most exciting and complex sounds. Hitting the rim with one’s heel to create sharp, urgent taps while flat strikes can produce slower rhythms; in addition, using your spare hand to press against its skin can mute, muffle or change its sound of the instrument altogether.
Soft Tip
Following its recent rise in popularity due to Irish Traditional music’s second wave roots revival, the bodhran has found increasing adoption across genres and musical subgenres, particularly Middle Eastern frame drum styles. Here, it is played upright with skin out and held with one hand from below by another hand; then slapped using a stick for rolls and ornamentation purposes.
While it is possible to play the bodhran with just a stick, most players prefer using a beater made out of almost any material and capable of producing an array of sounds.
Soft tip beaters, also known as brush beaters, consist of several thin rods bound together like brushes used with snare drums. Their sound falls between hard sticks and brushes and allows you to customize it by loosening or tightening dowels to achieve an ideal midtone sound; furthermore they allow more hits per impact area than hard rod beaters for creating fuller and stronger tones.
