I've been playing bodhrán since 1989 when my husband and son gave me my first drum for Christmas.  I had no idea how to play the thing, and there weren't any websites devoted to it back then.

But I lucked out because I heard of a small group of sessiun musicians who played regularly at McDuff's Irish Pub in downtown Atlanta.  A kind, patient, dedicated bodhrán player named Peter Blaney* took me under his wing and taught me how to:

• Pronounce the name of this drum
• Care for my drum
• Hold the drum
• Hear and create the different tones of the drum
• Mute and push the sound
• Pick out a better one (Yes!  There will be more drums in your life...)
  • Different types of bodhráns
  • Different types of tippers
  • Where to find a good bodhrán
• Behave in an Irish sessiun and not get pegged for an amateurish lout (or worse, a sessiun hog)
• Listen to some and ignore others

This page is going to cover many of those same topics in the course of it's development.

* Peter Blaney went on to win the U.S. Western Division Bodhrán Championship of the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireánn and traveled to Ireland for the International Competition.  He later married a lovely Irish woman and moved to Ireland where he's still perfecting his bodhrán skills.