Hey. My name is Bill, and I have just purchased my first bodhran. Now I am trying to learn to play it. Any advice for me? My biggest trouble seems to be avoiding a scrape when trying to pla. the Tipper always seems to slide along the skin surface as opposed to striking it. What am I missing?

Thanks.
Bill

Hi Bill,
I tell all my students that 'when you first start playing you will scrape across the front of the drum. This is actually a good thing because it tells you that you are making contact with the skin. As you speed up and relax the "Grip O' Death", the scrape will become a bounce and will go away.'

Take your time with it and remember to "Relax, Dude. You're a drummer".:silly:

Hey Bill,

This is a common occurrence for beginning and developing players.

What works for me and what I usually advise is to imagine that you are hitting a skin that is a half inch behind where the skin on the drum actually is. This way you get a solid impact 'into' the skin rather than across it, it changes the angle of attack to being slightly less shallow and may means a slight adjustment to the angles of your hand.

I'd also recommend concentrating on developing the up-stroke, do simple up / downs slowly but with focus on hitting *into* the drum, developing a solid up stroke is important and the place where many of us find weaknesses without concerted effort, it's better to start by developing good habits.

The practise link on the main menu with its 'rudimentary' approach might offer some mechanisms to make the development of these somewhat structured.

Hope this helps. let us know if I/we can offer any more input.

Be well, happy tipping

Paul

Thanks both of you. I will give what you have recommended a shot and let you know how it works out. My only "lesson" material besides the stuff I have seen on the web is a DVD tutorial featuring Ray Gallen. It's really good, but sometimes you just gotta hear some different approaches.

Thanks again.
Bill

Had the same problem and it is slowly going away as I practice more often than I ever was able two in the past.

Relaxing the hand is really a key to eliminating the scratch. The Tipper will bounce back from the skin more easily. I guess skin quality is also an issue, harder skins might have less bounce and lend to being scratched.

Greetings Bodojo folks,
I'm a newbie and just joined this forum several weeks ago. I got my bodhran last Friday. It is a Brendan White with a real nice Blue Heron case from eBay. I have no idea what I am doing apart from the info I have gathered here and the Hannigan book/CD/DVD and some email help.

As soon I rec'd it, I started in and was very quickly humbled ...I will never tell another drummer joke ever again :blush:

I am having a blast and not nearly as spastic as I was a week ago. But still a very long ways to go. I need to work on the upstroke and the "scraping" the head thing also, then the triplet. I am focusing on the Kerry style.

Please have patience with me as I embark on this new challenge.

Fred