I am so delighted to share this online course with you. I have had the pleasure of meeting and teaching so many wonderful Bodhran players over the past 15 Years and in that time, I have learnt so much from all those experiences in terms of the things that students struggle with the most and how to unlock those for each individual. As a result, I have planned each lesson of this course with all those in mind.

I share with you some of the tricks of the trade that I feel every good Bodhran player needs to know. From the perspective of a fellow Bodhran player, a singer, guitar accompanist and fiddle player I feel that it is so important to share your music, personality and passion in a way that allows space for everyone in the session and complements the music in the best way possible. This course hopes to give you a deeper understanding of how important the Bodhran can be as the driving ‘pulse’ of the Irish session.

This Intermediate/Advanced Bodhran course is aimed at players that understand the structure of all the main Irish tunes and are competent at playing along with reels, jigs, slip jigs, and hornpipes. A good knowledge of tuning, triplets, and skin tone will be essential to access the content of this course.

You will learn:

• more complex rhythmic patterns to accompany a reel, jig, hornpipe, slip jig, slide, polka, march, waltz, song and mediation ideas.
• extra skills for developing your skin tones and tuning your drum to ensure that your bass notes complement the music.
• Single ended triplets and Bodhran drills for the more advanced players.
• How to approach tunes in various keys and the use of dynamics to create suspension and add variation
• how to accompany songs in more detail, lilting tunes and creating your own meditation patterns.
• how each pattern works in a piece of music giving you the opportunity to play along to music at the end of each lesson.

To learn more about the content of the course please go the lessons page and view the themes of each lesson.

A sincere thank you to all of you who continue to fall in love with the Bodhrán and spread the joy across the world!