Hi! I´m learning the bodhrán all by myself and it feels kind of lonely sometimes. It would be fun to speak with someone who plays the bodhrán.

I don`t play bodhran, but my one friend does...i`ll get ya some info or if u want to talk to him i`ll tell him.....email me

Klitch

i dont play the Bodhran but i play the pennywhistle!

i dont play the bodhrán, but i do play the drums piano clarinet guitar bass and some others i cant think of right now.
peacers!

isnt she looking for someone who actually plays it?

Yes, I do pla the bodhran - and it makes a lot of fun.

Oliver

I just bought a bodhran last Friday.. so I`m just starting. It`s kind of fun, but I`m having some trouble avoiding the `sweeping`. Whenever there`s an upstroke my beater often kind of sweeps up against the skin. It`s also hard to figure in what area at the backside of the drum your left hand should push the skin to create a good sound... Right now I sound horribly `flat`, as though I were hitting a piece of plastic. I suppose I should leave room for the skin to resonate. But how to place your left hand?

Don`t know if you`re a beginner too, but at least it`s good to know I`m not the only "moron with a bodhran" around

Hi,

I´m sure you are not more a "moron" than every beginner was....
It´s normal that the first sound is more a "plock" than a real good strocke. The problem is, that the beginner is not able to change the sound thus it sounds plock, plock .....;-).
After a while you will be able to change the sound and you will be able to use the plock sound beside a lot of other sounds and even the plock will have his place in the rhythm.
For the first steps it is enough to place the palm flat on the skin (for the 2 and 4) and and lift it on each 1 and 3 stroke.
That you are sweeping on the upstrokes also normal because this is a more or less unusual movement, but it will disappear after a while if there is not a main fault in the way you hit the skin.

Hope this helps a bit.

Oliver