Question for Bodhran players from a prospective newbie

[William O'Cairns]

Hi all. I am wanting to add a Bodhran to my instrument collection and was wondering what, if any, pros and cons there are in sizes? Specifically 14 inch vs 18 inch (Guitar Center sells them in both sizes for a decent price). Of course I may just annoy my wife and get both sizes . Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

[416 Rigby]

If you simply want one to add to your instrument collection, it doesn't really matter. I'd say 18" is probably the most common. If you want a top quality drum for playing, Mance Grady builds an awesome drum. I love mine.

http://www.mance.com/acebodhrans/bo.html

[OC Richard]

The bodhran has undergone a near-complete transformation in recent years. The new drums look and sound completely different from the traditional drums, and require a different type of stick and different playing technique.

I bought my drum around 1978 and it was state-of-the-art then, but a total dinosaur now.

The old-school drum usually had an 18" shallow shell. It had a thick goatskin head held on with Iron Age upholstery tacks at a fairly low tension. It was played with a wooden stick. Though you could get a wide range of notes, the basic purpose was to provide a low basic beat.

Here's Kevin Conneff of The Chieftains playing an old-school drum in the style heard in the 1960s etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7pDiO52xSs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44IxVw7Qt4Q

EDIT: Did a bit of research, corrected the following: Some of the neo-drums have a deep 11" shell designed to accommodate a heavy brass Banjo tone ring inside, and a thin head at higher tension. It's played with a bundle of switches- hit it with a traditional bodhran stick and you get a high-pitched "ping". These drums are often made and played by people coming to the bodhran from rock, pop, jazz, or world drumming, in other words not people raised in Irish music. The approach is to get a single drum to sound like a drum kit, and these guys get pretty darn close!

Here's the new style of drum, and playing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9HyB5yNS1A

[Father Bill]

My Sweetie gave me one for my birthday, 16", much as Richard has described and I love it. I had wanted a 14" for the convenience, but they were not available in what I wanted.

The question is whether you want that deep steady background beat (often with silk-screened Celtic art) or a sophistocated instrument that will do all sorts of things. I chose the latter. Now I'm going to see some day if I can get the silk screening done as an "add-on". (Suggestions on that very welcome!)

[Pleater]

I hade a big tambourine and to jazz it up I taped a picture on the inside of the plastic and traced it onto the surface using felt tip pens - with computers and printers it should be even easier to create a design - even to cut out a number of stencils to make the job easier.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Father Bill]

Anne, you're a genius!

[William O'Cairns]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I am going to go ahead and buy a set I found with both 14" and 18", non tune-able. I'm mostly just wanting it to learn the basics so I don't need anything too fancy. My son is 6 and learning tin whistle, so I thought it would be nice to have an instrument that I can use to play along with him without over powering what he is trying to do noise-wise which happens if i use my whistle with him or the fiddle.

[OC Richard]

I corrected my post above. The standard banjo tone ring is 11 inches, that's the size of the small deep very heavy high-tension "neo-bodhrans" I've seen.

Here's some very talented kids. Wow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaoml9_Ue1g

His drum is the more modern style, with the deeper narrower shell, probably 14", but a far cry from the 11" ones with the banjo tone ring.

[kiltedcontractor]

They are great! Love that tune.

[Father Bill]

Good to watch. Despite what one might think, this is actually a fairly young instrument and still evolving in both construction and in the musicianship used with it.