Skill 4: Volume Control

Controlling your volume allows you to work dynamically with a session or a small ensemble. Melody instruments carry the bulk of importance in the Irish tradition, so what the bodhrán offers is rhythmic support and enhancement to the melody. Overpowering the melody instruments you accompany can prevent other melody players from hearing the tune established by a lead in a session or prevent a sense of unity in an ensemble. Incorporating practice habits that target volume changes and control will only strengthen your ability to rise and fall in volume with the melody.

A general guideline is to play with a volume just underneath the volume of the melody instrument you accompany. This is easier to practice if you are fortunate enough to accompany a single melody player often. But you can prepare yourself well even if you don’t have such a musical partner.

Keep in mind that your first concern is to control the volume of your sticking. A second concern is to manage any inside or tone-hand volume. I’ll address the sticking volume here and address the more subtle and complex volume issues of the inside tone-hand in a later post.

Here are two suggested methods that can develop your skill in controlling your stick volume.

1. Take five to ten minutes During a practice session and focus solely on striking the skin as softly as possible without missing a beat. You may need to slow your speed down considerably. Goal: get quiet and accurate and obtain a sense of comfort and ease in executing your ‘soft touch’ sticking.

a. Adjust your tipper so that, as the tip of the stick strikes the skin, only the smallest surface area of the tipper comes in contact with the skin. You should hear a change in the texture/timbre/tone as well as the volume.

b. To increase the volume either slightly, increase the degree of the angle of the tipper so that more surface area of the tip of stick strikes the skin or move your arm slightly toward the skin to increase the force and surface area of the stick as it strikes the the skin. It is likely that the latter will change the angle a bit also. This should result in a deeper strike on the skin resulting in a louder volume.

2. Once you’ve become successful with this technique, try applying it on different areas of the drum skin. a. Added value - when you strike close to the rim of the drum, the timbre or sound quality will change, offering a different sound for you to choose when working with different instrumentation or when you need a ‘harder’, ‘crisper’, ‘edgier’ sound to add to your ensemble work. This move typically adds harmonics to the tone quality and increases the pitch a bit. b. Move your strike closer to the center (avoid the dead center unless you’re looking for that thud quality) and you’ll discover a deeper tone sound and timbre that you can use as well. This move typically adds more resonant tone and less harmonic response while dropping the pitch a bit.

Control provides a palette of sound qualities you can choose to use for specific purposes during ensemble or session work. Play around with these ideas. Develop the skill and then play with it to increase your strength and ability to apply the skill in different situations.