Well, that was fun.

I went to the solstice thing and I got out my tambourine, and then Ken was like, hey, why don’t you play the bodhrán instead!

So I played the bodhrán, even though I’m not particularly good at it, and it was fine, but it wasn’t until after that Ken kinda showed me how he plays the bodhrán that I got a bit of an idea, though I find it easier to hold the stick the traditional way rather than the way he does it, but then he played a reel and then a jig on the fiddle and I drummed along and that was nice. Ken is a really good fiddler. He also plays guitar, mandolin and banjo. He’s awesome.

A bodhrán, if you don’t know, is a kind of Irish frame drum with crossbars on the inside and you put your hand in between them and the head of the drum, and then you can put more or less pressure on the head to change the tone, or control how much it’s dampened and whatnot. And the stick, or cipín, is shaped kinda like a dumbbell and you hold it in like a pencil grip and hit the drum in a kind of sweeping motion, letting the stick swing from side to side. It’s kinda weird, but when you get used to it it’s easier.

The bodhrán is probably something I could be pretty ok at playing with some instruction and practice. But I’d have to buy one and I already blew most of my money on a didgeridoo.