Jigs and Reels, need help to get started...

I have a Remo 14" x 4" with a synthetic head so I don't have tuning problems when it's humid out down here in Florida. Lots of size/head/depth combinations out there, both fixed and tuneable. There are some tutorials on YouTube on how to tape the head of an inexpensive bodhran and make it sound like a higher quality drum. Some players get remo heads for their cheap imports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euUSfb8LfMw

Thanks for the link. Kinda funny since I use either electrical tape or duct tape for damn near anything where I can't use zip ties, but I never would have thought to use it on a drum this way.

Also, how do you pronouce 'bodhran', is the D silent?

Also, I have an old, but very nice Ludwig 14" snare drum on which the snares are shot. I wonder if I remove the bottom drum head, could I use it as a makeshift bodhran? The drum's shell is at least 3 or 4" deep...The reason I kept it was because it also has a nice molded hard plastic case from when I bought it.

I kinda like the idea of repurposing this snare because I could also 'tune' the head, as well as replace it with a standard sized head if need be (which I already have a few Remo pinstripe blackline heads) with a standard drum key instead of using tacks or staples to replace the head on a more traditional bodhran.

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If I dont use the snare for a bodhran, I've been toying with the idea of getting a neck for a 4-string Irish Tenor or 'plectrum' banjo, and doing a DIY banjo either with parts from StewMac, LMII, BanjoHangout/Banjoteacher, or just getting a premade 4-string cigar-box guitar neck off ebay and using that as the neck, since I can set my own scale length (maybe 22") and will then have to fret it myself, which should not be too hard.

Lots of 36" long necks can be had for ~$25 or so, and at that length I can do a neck-through-the-drum instead of the dowel-rod-and-bolt-on method.

I want to try and make it with nylon/fluorocarbon strings, since metal strings will just wreck the nails on my right hand (fingerpicks are not an option because it ruins my feeling of the strings and playing relationship with the instrument), but right now this is all in the 'ideas' phase...
 
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Booli if you want to get a reel feel for all sorts of Celtic music you needs must immerse yourself in it. One of the best ways I know to do this for celtic music is Foina Ritchie's Thistle and Shamrock Radio program. The link is for the T&S archive recordings.

immersion, yes full immersion is necessary. Thanks for the link, as I'm going to pull these down via iTunes now.

Lots of 'study' ahead. :)
 
I recommend the early albums of The Chieftains...

[snipped out lots of text to make this easier to read]

I'd also recommend Robin Williamson's The Penny Whistle Book, since the most common tinwhistles are in C and D, so these tunes should fit well in the range of the uke. All the music is in standard notation (not some weird tab) with chord symbols underneath.

Thanks for the helpful info. I will definitely add all of that to my listen/study list. :)
 
I've heard it pronounced two ways, even among the Irish. One is bowron as in bow and arrow and the other as in bow down

Are you perhaps mistaking a single-flapped R sound for a D sound (which might also be flapped, as it often is in English)? The "dh" combination does not sound like a D, but (when pronounced) rather like a voiced or devoiced gutteral akin to the "ch" in "loch" or as Y. While "dh" might be reduced away, the R would not.

I'm still confused. Is there no phonetic 'english'-language equivalent way to pronounce this that is definitive?

I know nothing of the phonemes in Celtic or Gaelic languages, other than the rhythm of the speech often sounds musical in and of itself to my ear.
 
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