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!