WARNING-NEW ILLNESS
Not yet named, this disease is extremely contagious, is often found in the depth of session pubs, symptoms included sore hands and trips to music shops to fix broken cases.
If you are suffering from any of these please consult your docter immediately.
Not a rhythm player myself, I often lend my mandolin case to somebody else when I'm gagging for a tune but am the only person with an instrument to hand (Some people leave their homes sometimes without taking an instrument with them. I never have the courage.)
As a former snare drummer, I can tell you that EVERYTHING is a percussion instrument . . . legs, feet, window sills, the stove, a head (preferably someone else's), etc. etc.
Does it not depend who and how many are sitting on it, how cushioned or bony they are and whereabouts they sit?
I discovered in one session that blowing over the top of an empty Britvic orange juice bottle gives a perfect concert pitch D. I subsequently realised that it must have come from a freak batch, as I've never found another one like it, most of them being closer to E-flat.
Colanders and wooden spoons are for us when we have a bash in the kitchen here in Suffolk, England. Really. My husband swears by the plastic colander and the wooden spoon.
My kitchen has no colander without a craic(sorry) crack in it! No spoon with a handle.
I used to use my (elderly cantankerous siamese) cat for percussion. Thumping gently on her ribs while she was meowing or purring yielded a lovely syncopated rhythm. Especially when she was complaining about something --- nice long meows to riff during. The only problem was that she kept wandering up and down the scale. Couldn't carry a tune at all.
I suppose I could try my fiddle case but it doesn't meow. I'd be lost.
In my early days I didn't have my own bodhran, but used to borrow the session bodhran-player's for a few tunes. He was a mate. Also a woodworker. He turned me my own tipper. I used to borrow a case from one of our melodeon-players and play it with my tipper if the bodhran-player wasn't there some nights. And I used to tape these sessions to learn the tunes. I also heard my own playing. Learned tipper-craft that way! I used to practice at home with the tapes, playing an ancient Rupert Annual (1976, I think, had the best tone but it wasn't as good as the box-case)[I'm not making this up!]
Eventually, the other melodeon-player (who also played bodhran occassionally and on whose bodhran I'd first discovered I had an affinity with The Beast. Are you paying attention?) took me to a bodhran-maker and I got my first drum. At a later point in my career got me a Malakey Kearns.
I now play an O'Kane. It beats the Rupert Annual and the box-case. But I'd never have got where I am today etc etc
Instrument cases as percussion
Instrument cases as percussion
Does anyone use their instrument case as a drum other than me, and what works best. Comments do not have to be serious
# Posted on October 19th 2004 by snowyowl
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
WARNING-NEW ILLNESS
Not yet named, this disease is extremely contagious, is often found in the depth of session pubs, symptoms included sore hands and trips to music shops to fix broken cases.
If you are suffering from any of these please consult your docter immediately.
# Posted on October 19th 2004 by Folkie Junkie
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
I don't hit it too hard
# Posted on October 19th 2004 by snowyowl
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
Not a rhythm player myself, I often lend my mandolin case to somebody else when I'm gagging for a tune but am the only person with an instrument to hand (Some people leave their homes sometimes without taking an instrument with them. I never have the courage.)
# Posted on October 19th 2004 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
prsonally i like the subtle yet comforting sound of a bodhran bein smashed over a banjo players head :P
# Posted on October 19th 2004 by UglyBoyJoe
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
I used to use the bellows of my accordian, but got skins are easier to replace
# Posted on October 19th 2004 by The Cat
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
As a former snare drummer, I can tell you that EVERYTHING is a percussion instrument . . . legs, feet, window sills, the stove, a head (preferably someone else's), etc. etc.
# Posted on October 19th 2004 by justwhistle
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
One of the benches in our pub is in E-flat, and one of the tables is in A, if no one is leaning on it.
# Posted on October 20th 2004 by showaddydadito
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
Joe, you want to smash the banjo over its owners head then you get rid of twice the problem
# Posted on October 20th 2004 by snowyowl
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
"One of the benches in our pub is in E-flat..."
Does it not depend who and how many are sitting on it, how cushioned or bony they are and whereabouts they sit?
I discovered in one session that blowing over the top of an empty Britvic orange juice bottle gives a perfect concert pitch D. I subsequently realised that it must have come from a freak batch, as I've never found another one like it, most of them being closer to E-flat.
# Posted on October 20th 2004 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
Colanders and wooden spoons are for us when we have a bash in the kitchen here in Suffolk, England. Really. My husband swears by the plastic colander and the wooden spoon.
My kitchen has no colander without a craic(sorry) crack in it! No spoon with a handle.
Sue
# Posted on October 20th 2004 by Fiiddle R
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
Bodhran cases (preferably soft cases) make excellent percussion instruments, providing the bodhran is inside it.
Hit the case hard - very hard.
# Posted on October 20th 2004 by geoffwright
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
I used to use my (elderly cantankerous siamese) cat for percussion. Thumping gently on her ribs while she was meowing or purring yielded a lovely syncopated rhythm. Especially when she was complaining about something --- nice long meows to riff during. The only problem was that she kept wandering up and down the scale. Couldn't carry a tune at all.
I suppose I could try my fiddle case but it doesn't meow. I'd be lost.
# Posted on October 20th 2004 by sara g
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
David, how can you be sure that it wasn't you and not the bottle?
# Posted on October 21st 2004 by snowyowl
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
Far better to chop banjo strings
# Posted on October 21st 2004 by snowyowl
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
Or I could bash your banjo over your head thus eliminating serveral problems at once
# Posted on October 21st 2004 by snowyowl
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
Apparentley Hiscox cases make good percussion according to my dad
# Posted on October 21st 2004 by snowyowl
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
Arf arf!
In my early days I didn't have my own bodhran, but used to borrow the session bodhran-player's for a few tunes. He was a mate. Also a woodworker. He turned me my own tipper. I used to borrow a case from one of our melodeon-players and play it with my tipper if the bodhran-player wasn't there some nights. And I used to tape these sessions to learn the tunes. I also heard my own playing. Learned tipper-craft that way! I used to practice at home with the tapes, playing an ancient Rupert Annual (1976, I think, had the best tone but it wasn't as good as the box-case)[I'm not making this up!]
Eventually, the other melodeon-player (who also played bodhran occassionally and on whose bodhran I'd first discovered I had an affinity with The Beast. Are you paying attention?) took me to a bodhran-maker and I got my first drum. At a later point in my career got me a Malakey Kearns.
I now play an O'Kane. It beats the Rupert Annual and the box-case. But I'd never have got where I am today etc etc
\())
# Posted on October 21st 2004 by greenman
Re: Instrument cases as percussion
hey now!! my bodhran is very sensitive. he almost started crying, reading this thread!
;)
# Posted on October 23rd 2004 by Bard