Got to find the right session though. The kind with human beings are best. Better than the rule enforcers and the TRAD police. Humans. Not too few or you're limited, not too many or you never get your turn.

I play several instruments, so I tend to look for something there's not too many of. Too many of anything can spoil it for everyone. Yes, even too many fiddles! Though the fiddlers won't admit it.

Our problem is, people often think a bodhrán is easy to play, whether you have any music in you or not, so they blather away and embarrass us all and give us a bad reputation so other musicians reject us.

But we can overcome that. Come and sit and listen at first. Just appreciate the music. Ask nicely if there's a tune that would be good with a bodhrán, and accept with good nature the ribbing that may come. Play quietly and on-beat. Save your blood and guts stuff for after you've won their confidence. And if they still won't let you in, start your own session. It's not as hard as you think.

Hi Michael,

Thanks for posting - Good advice!

I had meant to announce this forum - apologies for it just popping up - I felt sessions might be useful area because it's a common area of questioning.

I think I must be fortunate, the sessions I play at here in N ireland are very welcoming of the drum and a wide variety of playing styles - as long as it's in keeping with the musical energy and of course, in time.

I think a lot depends on the player and as you say Michael, proving yourself. Most good melody players will really enjoy having a good quality bodhran player at the session if it's working to everyone's benefit. I've seen me doing all kinds of outrageous & funky stuff but it fits with the group level of drive so it's cool.

For my 2p, session playing is simply about musicianship. Being there for the music and playing your part in making it awesome through your chosen implement. Anything anyone plays should either add positively to the session or it should not be there.

I've had loads of great sessions recently, there are some awesome players in and around the Belfast session scene and I'm expanding my reach a little to find good choons. I was spoilt by having Rob Forkner and Amy Richter to stay for a few days along with Heather and Jeff from Athas. It was great craic, we recorded a session as you will no doubt hear :)

The live music I'm getting is great, the playing quality is very high, and I'm usually pretty free to carve a wee bod-furrow of my own shaping. I'm loving it!

I had some thoughts on multiple bodhrans in a post I had made on a different forum, I'll transfer that here where it's more relevant

Start a thread with your thoughts or questions.

Thanks for reading & participating

P

bodojo wrote:

QUOTE:
Hi Michael,

Thanks for posting - Good advice!

I had meant to announce this forum - apologies for it just popping up - I felt sessions might be useful area because it's a common area of questioning.

Sorry, didn't mean to jump the gun on you. Just seemed like a good topic and I hated to see it empty.

QUOTE:
I think I must be fortunate, the sessions I play at here in N ireland are very welcoming of the drum and a wide variety of playing styles - as long as it's in keeping with the musical energy and of course, in time.

I think a lot depends on the player and as you say Michael, proving yourself. Most good melody players will really enjoy having a good quality bodhran player at the session if it's working to everyone's benefit. I've seen me doing all kinds of outrageous & funky stuff but it fits with the group level of drive so it's cool.

For my 2p, session playing is simply about musicianship. Being there for the music and playing your part in making it awesome through your chosen implement. Anything anyone plays should either add positively to the session or it should not be there.

That's very true, and fortunately, in most sessions these days, we are allowed the chance to prove ourselves, provided we make the attempt in a diplomatic manner. At least that's my experience. Many session players are jaded by the hordes of people who think they can play the bodhrán with no instruction, experience or musical talent. But the current crop of talented percussionists has convinced many TRAD players that the bodhrán can add to the music, in the right hands. They seem more willing to at least let you try, don't you think?

QUOTE:
I've had loads of great sessions recently, there are some awesome players in and around the Belfast session scene and I'm expanding my reach a little to find good choons. I was spoilt by having Rob Forkner and Amy Richter to stay for a few days along with Heather and Jeff from Athas. It was great craic, we recorded a session as you will no doubt hear :)

The live music I'm getting is great, the playing quality is very high, and I'm usually pretty free to carve a wee bod-furrow of my own shaping. I'm loving it!

I do love the North of Ireland and look forward to coming back, now that I can anticipate good music, good friends and good craic. Keep a chair open for me, eh?

QUOTE:
I had some thoughts on multiple bodhrans in a post I had made on a different forum, I'll transfer that here where it's more relevant

Start a thread with your thoughts or questions.

Thanks for reading & participating

P

AHHHH Yes the session.....can't live with it and you can't live without it. I've had a very very mixed bag playing in my local sessions. I'll keep it anonymous to protect the guilty. In general there is an anti-bodhran sentiment in my scene. I think that comes from a lack of really good and serious players but also from their love of musician hierarchy...you know, which instruments are better/worse and so on. A lot of the anti-bodhran banter is just good natured ribbing and a little self-deprecating humour, from me ,goes a long way. That being said, I have been talked down to, ridiculed from across the table(by a well known box player who was back visiting from Ireland...he used to live where I do but we'd never met), yelled at as if I were someones misbehaving child(for talking to the person next to me...as others did the same and nary a peep was said to them) and the occasional sneering in my direction. Now there is nowhere in my life that I am treated in such ways nor do I ever bring a disrepectful attitudes towards others....to say the least I find it extremely frustrating. My local mentor and senior drummer says that's just the lot of us bodhran players but it's very hard for me to accept that. The only positive I've gleaned from these negative interactions is the motivation it's given me to practice practice practice and get to a point where my skills can not be denied! But in the meantime I feel my patience slipping away as people continue to feel the need to be disparaging. I know this is a bit like therapy but what are ways other drummers have dealt with persistently negative local scene's? Do we really just have to grin(or scowl) and bear it? To be fair I have received a few encouraging comments from non drummer folk who've noticed improvement on my part and that is well appreciated...even thoughtful critiques would be great in order to work on my weaknesses. But straight up dissing...no thanks. Love the new look here...thanks much. Ciao, Fanokeano

Can't say I've ever been treated that badly, but my experience is limited. I have my own local session where bodhráns are well-accepted, and I've hit a few others where there was already a drummer. We kind of informally traded off so only one of us was playing at a time.

I guess good-natured is the order of the day. You can put up with some ribbing, but if it goes too far or too long, perhaps a good-hearted comment would bring things into the open. Snide comments don't fare as well in the daylight.

Hey FanoKeano, Michael,

You don't say where you are FK, might that be relevant? are you in Ireland?


So sorry to hear of such negative experiences - I think that often people forget that a session is community music created for the populus from within it. I've never experienced anything like that either, it sounds like a touch of Ennisitis (ooh I like that :). "Bodhran, the cure for Ennisitis "((c)2008 Paul Marshall :) - sounds like a t-shirt in the making :) LOL

The only time that I can really envisage that strength of rection happening is that if the playing of the drum is not up to the general standard of the session and it's disrupting everyone else. I don't know how well you play FK but it is clear that you care enough to want to get better as do good players at all levels, I suspect it's not that.

I'd certainly try other sessions if possible and see what their responses are like. If the players are different and the response is more positive then it's not you; if the response is similar then yeah it may be that you need to improve your skills - but that's pure speculation.

I'd not give up on the troublesome session, if you have the skills and control to be able to contribute to the music positively then there's no reason why you shouldn't have as much right to be there as anyone else. If it is a skills thing then as your skills improve so will your ability to contribute - even the worst finger wagger among them had to start somewhere.

In the US particularly I see so many people hanging on to the threads of what was the tradition maybe 30 years ago, or that which was told to them by their grandparents as direct from the aul sod. IMO that's at worst wrong and at best unhelpful. Claiming a point of perfection totally misses the point of tradition IMO, it is a vibrant living breathing thing, the cultural & musical equivalent of evolution where only the strongest and most adaptable will survive.

Tradition didn't suddenly appear in a thunderbolt, it was never perfect and I hope it never will be. Today's firebrands and early-adopters will be tomorrows traditionalists when the curmudgeonly aul farts are 6ft under and can wag fingers no more. Here's hoping for open minds and a return to community music.

Bodhran, the cure for Ennisitis. :) Love it!

P