Do your favorite Irish CD's have Bodhran or Bass?

lollycross · Post by **lollycross** » Mon May 17, 2004 10:13 am

Hi,
All my favorite ones have bass. I thought Bodhran was the chosen
instrument? If yours has the drum, does it stand out loud like the
bass, or do they just mix it in with the rest of the instruments?
Lolly

OutOfBreath · Post by **OutOfBreath** » Mon May 17, 2004 10:47 am

A little of both. Though too much bodhran is, well, too much. There is one great similarity between bodhran and the bass - if the player is really doing his job you won't even notice the presence of the instrument. A well-played bodhran (or bass) should be noticable only by its absence.

I occasionally play bass (not in irtrad) and that rule of thumb applies to all types of music with the possible exception of trance/dance where it's more about rhythm than about music.

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Mon May 17, 2004 10:48 am

My favourite Irish music albums don't have bodhran or bass:

Tribute to Joe Coleman
Branch Line
North Wind

But if i have to choose between 2 evils

i'd go with the bass in Lunasa and the newer Chris Norman albums.

lollycross · Post by **lollycross** » Mon May 17, 2004 11:00 am

Thanks for the reply John. I've noticed now-a-days with all the bass-boosts on the players, the bass is always cranked out sooo loud.
I would rather hear it mixed in too.
Lolly

missy · Post by **missy** » Mon May 17, 2004 12:01 pm

I LOVE playing with a good bass or bodhran player (note, I said GOOD) because they help keep everyone in "beat". Even if you can't hear them, it's something you can feel, and helps pull everyone together.
Now a BAD bass or bodhran player (or any percussion player) can be totally detrimental to a group. I really hate having to try and figure out which of the numerous beats I can hear is the "real" one that we are supposed to be playing with!

Missy

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Mon May 17, 2004 12:04 pm

Lunasa is the only Irish group I spend much time listening to that has bass. Other than them, I think it's bodhran (sometimes tambourine) or nothing for most of my favorite albums. As far as I can recall, my absolute favorite (Peter Horan and Fred Finn's Music of Sligo) has no accompaniment whatsoever -- at least, I don't notice any when I listen.

Edit: Listening now. Track 2 has some kind of plucked string backing, maybe mandolin? Track 5 has bones. Track 7 has the string backing again, very quietly.

Pat Cannady · Post by **Pat Cannady** » Mon May 17, 2004 12:17 pm

Bass regulator, yes

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Mon May 17, 2004 1:07 pm

None of my fave stuff has bass, but I love bodhran. If it's good enough for The Chieftains...

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Mon May 17, 2004 1:22 pm

I should perhaps add that I'm not particularly fond of bodhran -- it's just that many of the great pure drop-y recordings I love have it. I know this goes against the received wisdom that bodhran is not very traditional, but that's the way it goes -- if it's good enough for Tom Morrison, Jim Donoghue, Joe Cooley, and Seamus Tansey, I won't argue with it.

Whitmores75087 · Post by **Whitmores75087** » Mon May 17, 2004 4:23 pm

I've said it before, here it is again:
The problem with bodhran is that some (most) players who learn the wrist action think they have it down pat at that point, and quit perfecting the art.
That's why I prefer hand drums at session. Nobody imagines that he's a drummer just because he can slap a skin with his fingers. Nobody is a big word...I should say most people.
After you've been accompanied by a really good bodhran player you become more intolerant of hacks. It's a real character builder.
What really hurts, though, is the fact that I've done it myself in the past...picked up a bodhran and thought I was contributing. Oh, the humanity!

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Mon May 17, 2004 4:32 pm

Whitmores75087 wrote:I've said it before, here it is again:
The problem with bodhran is that some (most) players who learn the wrist action think they have it down pat at that point, and quit perfecting the art.
That's why I prefer hand drums at session. Nobody imagines that he's a drummer just because he can slap a skin with his fingers. Nobody is a big word...I should say most people.
After you've been accompanied by a really good bodhran player you become more intolerant of hacks. It's a real character builder.
What really hurts, though, is the fact that I've done it myself in the past...picked up a bodhran and thought I was contributing. Oh, the humanity!

Fair comment, but the same is true of any instrument in any musical genre. There are crap guitarists, whistlers, keyboard players etc. Drummers are always the easy target whether they hold a frame drum or sit behind a kit. I'm foremost a guitar player, but in the past I was guilty of learning a few taps and thinking I was Eddie Van Halen - it's just that there aren't so many guitarist jokes as drummer jokes and whinges.

Unseen122 · Post by **Unseen122** » Mon May 17, 2004 5:38 pm

Bass all the way (says the Bass player not in ITM though my choice for Bass is Ska) why because there is nothing dumber than a Drummer

just joking but I still like Bass.

fancypiper · Post by **fancypiper** » Mon May 17, 2004 6:02 pm

buddhu wrote:I'm foremost a guitar player, but in the past I was guilty of learning a few taps and thinking I was Eddie Van Halen - it's just that there aren't so many guitarist jokes as drummer jokes and whinges.

How do you stop a guitar player stop playing?

Put a piece of sheet music in front of him...expecially if their are no chords written anywhere..

My eldest was a great fan of Eddie Van Halen and recently got a DVD of him. I watched it with him and immediately thought "this has to be a version of David Letterman's Stupid Guitar Tricks". Now I see where some of the crazy stuff that our bouzouki player occasionally throws in actually does comes from.

IMHO, an acoustic bass just barely fits a very few reels but if you need the "bottom end" that some people think you need (I hate those boom----boom-boom cars driving beside me drowning out those lovely B pipes), do it with a good goatskin bodhran (and a good bodhran player).

O'Carolan and cello go good together, though.

OutOfBreath · Post by **OutOfBreath** » Mon May 17, 2004 9:01 pm

buddhu wrote:
Whitmores75087 wrote:Drummers are always the easy target whether they hold a frame drum or sit behind a kit. I'm foremost a guitar player, but in the past I was guilty of learning a few taps and thinking I was Eddie Van Halen - it's just that there aren't so many guitarist jokes as drummer jokes and whinges.

Q: How many drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: Five, one to change the bulb and four to keep the lead guitarist from hogging all the light.

Q: Which is sadder, a run over skunk or a run over jazz guitarist?

A: The run-over skunk, he might have been on his way to a gig.

Q: How many lead guitarists does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: Bulb? Bulb?! We don't need no stinking bulb, the light shines out of my (beep)

Q: How many guitarists does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: One to change the bulb and five or six to sit around and gripe about how the light isn't as smooth as with the last bulb.

Q: How many lead guitarists does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: Just one, he'll just hold it up and wait for the world to turn around him.

Q: How do you torture a rhythm guitarist?

A: Take away his capo and make him play a 12 string acoustic in Bb.

Q: Which is better, acoustic guitar or solid-body electric?

A: That's hard to say. The acoustic guitar lights easier but the solid body burns longer.

Q: How do you make a guitarist play pianisimo?

A: Set sheet music in front of him.

Q: What's the difference between God and a lead guitarist?

A: God doesn't think he's a lead guitarist.

(BTW, lest some idiot take offense, for the record guitar and bass are my main instruments...

)

fancypiper · Post by **fancypiper** » Mon May 17, 2004 9:20 pm

When I first got on the internet and did some searches for bagpipe and kilt jokes.

I found 12 single spaced printed pages worth, no repeats. I gave it to someone and when I got home, my computer crashed and I had lost them all.

No matter how many mistakes I make on the bagpipes, I never blow it (uilleann pipe joke)

Look at him. He hasn't even played a tune and he is blowing it! (mouth blown bagpipes)

My favorite bagpipe joke.

The uilleann bagpipes are the safest instrument in the band. They have even been approved by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the non-usa people) because it is equiped with a seat belt and an airbag!