Here is a flash movie how to hold and play the
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The Bones:Simple Instructions For How I Play
By Alexander de Seton
I. Two slightly curved sticks, usually of wood (tree
bones) or bone (bone bones).
Can also be made of ivory, plastic, etc.
II.How To Play
Put convex sides together.
Put middle finger between at top; fingertip should curve over
and hold the stick next to the thumb tightly to the palm.
Other stick is held by the pressure of the knuckles of the
middle and ring finger; this stick needs to be able to move.
The stick next to the thumb is the anvil, the other is the
The hand should be perpendicular (90 degrees) from the forearm,
thumb down (pointing toward your body).
Flick hand up, thumbs describing an arc coming to the top;
sticks should click.
REMEMBER: Keep stick by thumb pressed into palm of hand; let
other stick move; keep hand perpendicular to arm. Repeat.
III. To practice, play along with music, or keep a tune running
through your head. Use the radio, or other performers. Ask
permission before playing along.
You should be able to play softly or loudly as you wish by
judging the force of your flicks and cupping your
hands. Practice. It took me about a whole day to get a consistant
This information is taken from the website www.rhythmbones.com
in the section about Bones history. It is from a disertation
by Sue E. Barber.
According to the Sachs-Von Hornbostel classification
of instraments, bones are most broadly defined as idiophones
'...the substance of the instrament itself, owing to its solidarity
and elasticity, yields the sounds... Further, bones,
numbered 111.1 in the Sachs-Von Hornbostel system
are ...concussionidiophones or clappers, two or more
complementary sonorous parts struck against each other.(Von
Hornbostel and Sachs 1961:14) Sachs adds that instraments
of this type are extensions of striking or clapping hands
or stamping feet. The two complementary sonorous parts were
originally, indeed, two pieces of bone. Later, various types
of woods were used. The two parts, held between the fingers
of the hand, strike together as the player, manipulating wrist
and arm, produces varied rhythmic patterns...
Mentions of the bones throughout available historical sources
and eras invariably associate them with the folk tradition.
Folk music grows out of and is closely tied to daily life...Bones
certainly were often associated with dance and daily life,
as this discussion will reveal. They have formed the rhythmic
underpinnings for various kinds of religious and entertainment
activities in many cultures and times.
Research reveals that bones in some form date back almost
as far as man himself. The specific origens of the instrament
are hidden in the mists of prehistory, but they were probably
among the earliest instraments made by man. Archeological
finds, while not numerous, do yield instraments made of stone
and bone which have resisted the damages of time. Clappers
made of bone have been found in graves excavated at Uychvatince
in Moldavia, dating from the second millenium BC. Thier primary
functions seem to have been to drive away evil spirits, help
cure the sick, and provide amusement for children.(Buchner
1961:10) The relieves and mosaics of Ur document the existance
of clappers in Mesopotamia. A number of centuries after Ur,
clappers appear on Egyptian relieves of the New Kingdom. Vases
to 3000 BC show female dancers playing clappers, two held
in each hand and struck against each other. These clappers
were made of metal, bone, and ivory.(Sachs 1940:88) Called
"krotals" or "krotala" in ancient Greece,
bone clappers appear on vases and amphorae dating from 500
BC. The artists of ancient Greece ...interpreting in
their art their impression of daily life... show clappers
of wood, bone, or ivory, many decorated with the head of Hathor,
goddess of heaven, joy, and death. Sachs notes that The
clapper seems to have been an instrament frequently associated
with the worship of Hathor and probably every woman had her
clapper to worship the goddess, as today every Cathothic woman
owns a rosary.(Sachs 1940:89)
After the demise of classical civilization there is a time
gap of several centuries in the knowlege of the development
of musical instraments. This turbulent period of migration
of peoples has left little specific evidence to the music
historian. Fortunately, a few scattered references to
clappers or bones remain from the Middle Ages. Jongleurs in
the Sixth Century, using instraments and airs from Rome, wandered
around Europe, singing and dancing, using tambourines and
clappers. (Their rambling, desolate life style led to public
censure by the church in 554 AD.) (Edgerly 1942:365) The Bible
of Charles the Bald, which dates from the Ninth Century, shows
players with horn, clappers, harp, and lyre. The Anglo-Saxon
Psalter of the Eleventh Century shows harp, rote, crowd, panpipes,
and clappers. A
Fourteenth Century book illustration shows fiddle, psaltry,lute,
tambourine, portative, clappers,bagpipe, shawm, drums, and
trumpets. (Marcuse 1964:105)
By the 1500s the bones seem to have centered themselves
north of the English Channel. Shakespere mentioned them in
Act IV, Scene I of A Midsummer Nights Dream.
Nick Bottom says,I have a reasonable good ear in music.
Lets have the tongs and bones. By the Seventeenth
Century the bones were
commonly called knicky-knackers in England and
are represented in Inigo Jones designs for court
masques. (Galpin 1910:190)...
Bones are made of various materials; differnt materials allow
different tone colors. Bones were originally, by definition
and nomenclature, bones. Homemade bones can be either crude
and unfinished or highly refined, depending on the care taken
by the maker. Shin and rib bones are the most
commonly used because they are naturally of the proper size
and shape. They must be allowed to dry thoroughly before they
will produce their characteristic hollow click. Wood sticks
also make acceptable bones. Different kinds of woods give
different sounds. Bones of rosewood or teak emit a piercing,
shrill click that literally make a listeners ears ring. The
sound of teak bones could cut through that of a large orchestra
in the same way as a picolo does. Balsa wood bones produce
a muted effect. Their lilting shuffle is characteristic of
a soft shoe dance. White pine bones have a sound between teak
and balsa. They are solid and authoritative without being
ear-splitters. Bones, like everything else these days, come
in plastic models. They are commercially available in some
stores and by catalogue order. Their sound is quite similar
to bones made of bone....
Buchner, Alexander. Musical Instraments Through The
Ages, London:Batchworth Press Limited, 1961
Edgerly, Beatrice. From The Hunters Bow,
New York: G.P.Putnam and Sons, 1942
Galpin, Canon Francis W. Old English Instraments Of
Music, London:Methuen and Co. Limited, 1910
Marcuse, Sybil. Musical Instraments, A Comprehensive
Directory, Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday and Co, 1964
Sachs, Curt. The History Of Musical Instraments,
N.Y, W.W.Norton, 1940
Von Hornbostel, Eric, and Sachs, Curt. The Classification
Of Musical Instraments, Galpin Society Journal, #14,
The Bodhran: Simple Instructions For How I Play It
by Alexander de Seton
I. A frame drum played with one hand, usually distinguished
from a tom-tom by method of play and a brace on
the back (wood for bodhran, rawhide for tom-tom).
II. Spelled/pronounced differently from glen to glen. Makes
no difference. (bodhron, bodhran, bodron, bodran, boron)(Classically
pronounced Bow-Rahn, like Cow-Rahn)
Stick is called cipen (key-peen),
tipper or stick.
III. DO NOT PUT WATER ON LEATHER DRUMHEAD. Use skin care product
containing lanolin or aloe. I use Vasaline Intensive Care
without perfume. You could use lanolin but its expensive and
smells like a wet sheep. You could use unwashed
Synthetic heads need little care other than keeping free from
abrasion or puncture (also not good for leather).
Put hand care product on >back< of drum to keep playing
surface clean and free from dirt (which would stick to the
lotion and abraid the playing surface).
Apply a little at a time until the leather will accept no
more. Repeat periodically when head seems to tight (high pitch).
If head is too loose, warm or dry head by placing in sun,
warming by fire (take care not to scorch!), or by friction
IV. I do not use mechanical head tighteners - I use my hand
on the back of the drum, braced against the cross-bracing.
V. TO PLAY
First, lay stick aside. Hold arm vertically, hand at rest
and as flexible as it can be.
Shake hand back-and-forth - watch as knuckles behind fingernails
describe an arc.
Hold drum in other hand agaionst and perpendicular to the
body. Bring the arc described by the knuckles to intersect
the plane described by the drumhead. Repeat. Now you are playing
Strike drumhead with an up-and-down motion.
When you are comfortable with this, pick up the stick and
as you would a pencil, then curve your wrist so the pencil
point points at your body. Move hand as before, bringing
stick to contact drum. The pencil point of the
stick should be stiking the drum in an up-and-down motion.
Triplets will come as you learn and as your wrist
Both your wrist and arms will hurt before you learn how
to do either Bones or Bodhron. Feel the burn.
I have been attempting to research the history of the frame
drum known as the bodhran, and I am finding a
certain derth of information. There are some suppositions,
conjectures, presumptions, and theories, but precious little
documentable fact, as far as I can tell.
Some allegations include...
*Musically, the bodhran evolved frrom the tambourine
*The drum originated in Africa, and came to Ireland by way
*The drum originated in central Asia, and was brought to Ireland
by Celtic migrants
*The drum originated in rural Ireland and evolved from a work
implement to its present musical status
*The bodhran began as a skin tray used for drawing turf (peat)
on the bogs
*The bodhran apparently served double duty as a husk sifter
and grain tray
I read that the Irish (Gaelic) word Bodhar means
deaf or haunting.
I read that the goatskins used for drumheads are treated
in hydrated lime mixed with ingredients that are a closely
guarded secret of every bodhran maker. They are soaked for
7-10 days in a solution of lime sulphide which softens the
skin and de-hairs it and dissolves the fatty tissue.Sometimes
the skin is buried in manure. It is finally steached under
tension onto a birch frame. It is also glued on. It thus cannot
rip off at the tack, traditionally the weakest
part of the bodhran.
I have played percussion instraments with bands and alone
since about 1965. I have played a bodhran for over a decade,
and it is upon my experiences, and the experience of bodhran
makers that I make my comments and opinions. Much of my playing
is done outdoors at Renaissance Faires and
It seems to me that the frame drum was developed by disparate
peoples in widely seperated places: from the Inuit of the
far north to the desert tribes of the American southwest to
the Asian nomads and the African tribes. The
frame drum, with one or two heads, is played by beating with
hand or hands, or with one or more sticks of various compsition.
To me, it does not matter where it was developed, but only
that it was used across the world by early man and its use
has come down to the present from our ancestors.
I recommend >against< using water on your drumhead.
You dont use water to re-hydrate and make supple your
hands or lips when they are parched; you should not use water
on your leather (skin) drumhead. Continued water use will
warp the skin and cause cracks in it.
I recommend against using waterproofing your drumhead with
waterproofing agents such as neetsfoot oil or dubbin.
I do recommend using skin treatments such as aloe or lanolin
to keep the skin supple and soft. I recommend applying this
treatment (like Vaseline Intensive Care) to the
back of the drumhead, so the lotion will not put dirt on the
striking part of the drumhead, thus deminishing its life by
I tune my drum by hand, depending on the sound that is required.
I find that tunable drums take a long time to
tune correctly, and if the humidity changes, you have to tune
again. My drum started out as a tunable but I
took the tuning points off, tacked down the skin, and played
on, using my hand and heat to tighten the head when it needed
tightening, using lotion when it needed loostening.