Basic bodhrán Rudiments & exercises
Paul
Marshall ©2005
These
are the basic patterns that are necessary to play the bodhrán. Any tutorial will
start here. Make sure you can execute these smoothly and evenly in terms of
their regularity and their strength.
Free online metronome
Suggested practise tempii - 90 bpm upwards
This
unaccented single stroke roll is the most basic playing pattern. It is also your
warm up.
Play the
pattern 4 times for each of the following variations
- without
accents
- with the accent on
beat 1
- with the accent on
beat 2
- with the accent on
beat 3
- with the accent on
beat 4
- with the accent on
downstrokes
- with the accent on
upstrokes
- repeat the
process
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Jigs
and Reels
The
fundamental difference between jigs and reels is that the jig is a 3 or 6 beat
pattern rather than the reel's 4 beat pattern. It is easy to remember this
because jig has 3 letters and reel has 4.
All jigs
are counted in multiples of three, a waltz or single jig is 3 beats, a double
(or standard jig) is 6 beats, a slipjig
is 9 beats (3 groups of 3) and a slide
being 12 (4 groups of 3).
The
accents shown below reflect the standard reel pattern and are shown for
demonstration, you should try and work on accenting different individual beats
as you practise
The
standard reel is simply a single stroke roll with the accent on the first
beat.
Variations are suggested above
suggested practise tempii from 90 bpm to 200bpm
The jig
here is shown as being in 6/8 time, i.e. 6 beats to the bar. This is by far the
most common form. You will notice that the pattern automatically reverses itself
on the 4 count for the second set of 3 beats. This means that the accent occurs
on the upstroke. Try to make this upstroke accent clear, it is the one that
causes some difficulty to beginning and progressing players.
As with
the reel, I suggest that you accent different beats within the pattern as part
of your practise regime
suggested practise tempii from 90 bpm to 180bpm
Go To Intermediate rudiments and
exercises
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