St Paul’s Masterclass: Bodhrán for beginners

An opportunity to learn how to play the bodhrán in 6 weeks!

Join in a series of workshops, specifically for the St Paul’s Community, covering the essential musical and technical skills needed to play the bodhrán, led by award winning percussionist, and St Paul’s Visiting Music Teacher, Ruairi Glasheen.

The course covers a range of musical styles as well as providing an opportunity to improve your general musicianship. Ruairi specialises in innovative and interactive experiences working with organisations including the BBC, LSO Discovery, Southbank Centre, and the Royal College of Music as well as having presented the Introduction sessions for the BBC Proms 2016-2019 and creating a documentary series, Hidden Drummers. Some may know Ruairi from his drum kit and percussion lessons at SPS and SPJ or have seen him lead the SPJ Drumlines.  Outside of teaching, Ruairi has an active performing and composing career working with artists such as Dame Evelyn Glennie and performing in the West End production of Come From Away.

What will I learn?

• Technique: how to hold your Bodhrán, tipper, development of different strokes and exploration of various playing positions with the tonal hand.
• Styles: Jigs, reels, hornpipes, slip jigs, polkas syncopated patterns and irregular time signatures. Patterns will be taught with a beginner, intermediate and advanced options.
• Musicianship: Building internal pulse, making a great sound from your drum, listening skills and ensemble playing, looking after your bodhrán. Optional weekly homework with listening list and practice patterns to work on during the week.

How will it work?

• £55 for a 6 week Masterclass
• 6 x 1.5 hour online sessions
• Weekly homework tasks and optional practice exercises
• Additional one to one support over email in between sessions
• Sessions are live, and not available in a recorded format at the moment for GDPR reasons

Course duration

This Masterclass will run for 6 weeks from 7pm-8.30pm, on the following dates:

• Monday 22 March
• Monday 29 March
• Monday 12 April
• Monday 19 April
• Monday 26 April
• Monday 10 May

Please note, there will be no sessions on Monday 5 April or Monday 3 May due to the bank holidays.

Equipment

You will need a Bodhrán and Tipper for this Masterclass.  If you don’t have a bodhrán you can either purchase one here or please contact Karenne Mills on kmm@stpaulsschool.org.uk to arrange a loan of a Bodhrán for the duration of the course.

Places on this Masterclass are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.  However, please note, there must be a minimum of 20 participants for the course to go ahead.

Zoom login details will be sent to participants closer to the event.

Please note, whilst we endeavour to provide our Virtual Events programme on a complimentary basis, this course is being provided by a Visiting Music Teacher as an external provider and therefore it is necessary to charge a small fee for the Masterclass.

Find out more about St Paul’s Talks and Masterclasses HERE.