Bodhran Lessons

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been learning how to play our bodhran drums. A student from Trinity comes in to teach us. He's showed us how to play a jig and a reel. Though I don't think I am very good at it, it is a nice break from the tin whistle!

Ceili Dancing

Last Friday night, our music class got to go out for some dancing, ceili dancing to be more specific. A traditional Irish dance. I had no idea what to expect because I had never seen ceili dancing before. I had no idea we had such a fun night ahead of us. When we got there, we all went into the auditorium with a big dance floor. There was a ceili band on the stage and a dance leader in the center of the auditorium. The dance leader would ask for a few volunteers and demonstrate how the dance is done.

After we all got a feel for the moves, we all jumped up and joined in. Boy did we work up a sweat! We did about 7 different dances with small breaks in between. They even gave us tea and crumpets half way through. By the end we were all exhausted but we had a blast. Here's a video of one of the dances!

Ceili Dancing

Classical Twist!

Last wednesday night, all of the music students went to the National Concert Hall in Dublin for a "Classical Twist" with Vladimir Jablokov. By the looks of the flyer for the event, we were all sure the show was going to be a bore.

(source: vladimirmusic.com)

Vladimir looks a lot older than he actually is and the picture gives you the idea that you're in for a night of typical classical music, which is not exactly what a group of college students would look forward to going to see. However, we were all pleasantly surprised once the show began.

Before the show, Caroline got us an opportunity to meet Vladimir, hear his story, and ask any questions we might have. Vladimir is actually from Slovakia and came to Dublin on a whim to come live with a cousin of his. He ran out of money after a few short weeks and could not find a job for he did not speak a word of english. Vladimir did the only thing he knew how to do to earn some money, play the violin. He started playing the violin everyday on Grafton Street to earn whatever he could to get by. Soon after this he formed a quartet with a few friends and they took off from there. Now Vladimir's orchestra plays at big venues all across Europe and is well known in the Dublin area. It is really impressive that he is now playing shows at the National Concert Hall.

After the meet and greet with Vladimir, we all grabbed some drinks and went in to enjoy the show, still expecting a somewhat uninteresting performance. But we soon learned what the classical twist was. Vladimir's orchestra consisted of 4 violins including himself, a piano, a cello, and the drums. The first half of the show consisted of a number of classic rock songs with a classical twist. Some of the songs he played were 'Eleanor Rigby' by the Beatles, 'Free Bird' by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and many other popular classic rock songs. It struck us all by surprise but it was really enjoyable to hear these songs we all know so well but in a different way than we had ever heard before. In the second half of the show, they played mostly their own music but it was still just as surprisingly enjoyable. I never thought I would enjoy a classical orchestra so much! After leaving the show I was happy I got to experience a concert different than any others I have been to before. I hope to hear more like it in the future.

Class Performance

Last week we were lucky enough to have a performance during our music class. Four Irish students came in to play some traditional Irish music for the class. Each student had their own instrument. They brought in a banjo, a bodhran drum, a sqeezebox, and the uilleann pipes

(source: banjolin.com)

(source: rikkismusic.com)

(source: smh.com.au)

(source: uilleann.com)

The banjo was actually the only instrument I had ever seen before. Each of the students played their instruments individually so we could hear what they sounded like on their own, and then they played several songs all together. What really blew my mind was the fact that they were not an actual band. None of the tunes they played were rehearsed or ever even played before. They were just four musicians jamming together. The songs would generally start out with one of them playing a tune until the other three would join in to create a song. And all of them sounded amazing! It was really interesting to watch these students join together, improvising and creating really impressive music. I hope we will be able to enjoy more performances like this throughout the semester.

Building Bodhrans

Over the past few weeks, we have been working on building our bodhran drums. It was a pretty simple step by step process and by the end it felt good to know the drums we were going to learn to play, we had built entirely ourselves. We started off with the base of the drum, the rim.

(source: alibaba.com)

The rim is a rounded piece of wood that has two crosspieces in the back to make it easier to hold while playing. We started off by thoroughly sanding the wood so it would be as smooth as possible for when we began to paint. The next step, of course, was to paint. Our teacher, Caroline offered us a few options for colors of the varnish: pine, oak, walnut, and mahogany. I chose walnut, a darker wood color. After applying the varnish to the rim, it was time to attach the head of the drum. The head of the drum was made of goat skin. Caroline had let the goat skins soak in water over night in order for them to become easier to stretch.

(source: catdreams.com)

We applied wood glue to the top of the rim and stretched the goat skin over the rim to be as tight as possible. Once the skin was stretched as much as desired, we placed an elastic around the rim in order to keep the skin in place. After leaving this over night, it was time to do the best part, decorating the drum. After cutting the extra goat skin around the sides, Caroline offered us various colored ribbons and gave us gold tacks. I chose a purple ribbon with just a few golden tacks around it. It was finally looking like a real drum. Although it may not look like one you could buy at a store, it was nice knowing I had built it entirely myself. Now all we have to look forward to is learning how to play it!

MaSamba - the Sounds of Brazil

(MaSamba logo - fundit.ie)

For our second week of music class, our professor, Caroline Elbay, brought us to the MaSamba Samba School in Dublin. In addition to performing at various festivals and parades throughout the year, the MaSamba School in Dublin provides people the opportunity to come and learn Samba. Samba is a brazilian dance and musical genre. When we were on our way to the studio, I had no idea what to expect. I was not even sure what Samba music was. I was half expecting it to be a type of Irish music. After arriving at the studio and finding out that Samba was a type of Brazilian music, I was happy to hear that even in Ireland they have such a diverse mix of music. At the studio we were met by our instructor for the day, Sylvian, and another member of their Samba band, Ruth. Sylvian was not only extremely friendly and welcoming, but he gave us a great opening introduction to Samba music. He was very knowledgeable about the whole genre including history, background, instruments, and of course the important technical stuff of playing the instruments. Sylvian had each of us choose an instrument to play. Some of the instruments included agogo bells, ganza shakers, snare drums, bass drums, and tamborims.

(agogo bells - bryansmusic.com)

(samba drums - newcastledrum.co.uk)

(ganza shaker - woodbrass.com

(tamborim - grcesuniaodailhadamagia.blogspot.com)

Sylvian went around teaching each group of instruments the beat they needed to play for the song. The song we played was called Afro-bloc. It was a relatively easy song to learn, but Sylvian showed us how to spice it up, using all different techniques such as giving each group of instruments a solo part and then layering the other sounds back in one at a time. Also putting a random break in the middle of the song helped to change it up a bit. For our first time gig, I think we did a good job. Everyone was loving it! He also had us switch instruments after a little while to be sure we could each get a taste of a few different ones and to keep it interesting. I was able to learn the tamborim beat for the song as well as the agogo bells and the bass drum. I think the agogo bells were my favorite, there was just something about the beat that appealed to my ear drums. At the end of the session, we were all sad to go, but Sylvian invited us all to come back for their open rehearsals on Wednesday nights. Hopefully we can get a small group together to go back and learn some more Samba!

Intro to Music in Dublin

Hello all!

It has been about two weeks since all my fellow Champlainers and I arrived in Dublin. The first weekend was filled with various orientation activities including powerpoint presentations, scavenger hunts, group outings to a couple of pubs and a beautiful town outside of Dublin, called Bray. Anyway, after this activity filled weekend, Monday morning finally arrived.. the first day of classes. Of course everyone expects the first week to be a drag as it is usually entails awkward introductions, going over the syllabus, grading procedures, future assignments, etc etc. However Monday morning we were pleasantly surprised with our first class of the semester. It is called Cultural Immersion through Irish Music. Yes, we did do introductions and yes we did go over the syllabus, but this syllabus was different than most of the others we were going to receive the rest of the week. Yes, this syllabus was filled with grading procedures and future assignments, but it was also filled with various activities we were going to embark on over the semester. Some of these included making our very own traditional Irish drums, called bodhrans, learning how to play a few different instruments including the drum and a brass whistle, as well as attending various concerts/gigs throughout the semester. What a way to start off the semester! I'm sure all my fellow students were just as happy about all of this information as I was. Included in this syllabus was also an assignment to be done throughout the semester which would be our individual creative projects. It is an open-ended project, meaning each student may decide on their topic and content themselves. For my creative project.. well this is it! I am starting a blog which will feature all of our activities we embark on in our music class this semester. Whether it be a reflection on our instrument lessons or reviews of the Irish music concerts/gigs we attend this semester. For those of you interested in hearing about Irish Culture through the Sounds of Music, please enjoy!