How to Move Your Wrist
Notes on playing without a tipper
Roscommon Style
Strike the drum with your knuckles of the middle-joints of your fingers.
Curve your fingers inward. Bend your wrist so that the line of your middle-joint fingers is parallel to the drum head.
Clare Style
This style is just like Roscommon Style except the index finger is half extended. All other fingers remain curved in. In Clare Style one, two or three fingers may be half extended to change the tone of the drum.
Some players extend the thumb and little finger in Clare Style. This configuration mimics a tipper.
Other styles
The bodhran is a frame drum. This kind of drum is found all over the world. Playing techniques that don’t use sticks or tippers are very common. Explore the drumming techniques of musicians from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America, Caribbean Islands and other places. Both their rhythm patterns and hand techniques work on the bodhran.
Demonstration of Hand Styles on the Bodhran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0vS65n2w90
Strike the drum with your knuckles of the middle-joints of your fingers.
Curve your fingers inward. Bend your wrist so that the line of your middle-joint fingers is parallel to the drum head.
Clare Style
This style is just like Roscommon Style except the index finger is half extended. All other fingers remain curved in. In Clare Style one, two or three fingers may be half extended to change the tone of the drum.
Some players extend the thumb and little finger in Clare Style. This configuration mimics a tipper.
Other styles
The bodhran is a frame drum. This kind of drum is found all over the world. Playing techniques that don’t use sticks or tippers are very common. Explore the drumming techniques of musicians from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America, Caribbean Islands and other places. Both their rhythm patterns and hand techniques work on the bodhran.
Demonstration of Hand Styles on the Bodhran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0vS65n2w90