Building - Methods Seamus O'Kane Employs to Constuct his Bódhrans

Curing the Skins

Seamus O'Kane was initially influenced by Charlie Byrne's methods of curing skins. But Seamus has also been influenced by Lambeg Drum makers and his skins are indeed so thin that his instruments constitute something like a cross-over between Lambegs and Bodhráns. His instruments are much sought after by musicians who perform in front of microphones, as the thin skins are regarded as more responsive for fine ornamentation and are very well suited for sound amplification.

Seamus seldom uses lime to cure skins. One material he does use for curing skins is oak bark, which is left for one or two days in water and in which the skins are then steeped for eight to ten days. Another material he uses for curing skins is tallow, which makes the skin look white and fatty, and indeed emits drops of fat. But Seamus also has a drum on which he used the tallow first, then lime, and then tallow again.

Seamus and Gino Lupari (Four Men & a Dog) together developed a high-pitched sound in bodhráns by using chemically cured Lambeg skins (Hobson skins).

Cured and dried skins can be stored until they are reqired for making a bodhrán. After checking the size of a skin and the frame in relation to each other, the skin is immersed in water for a short period, before it is stretched onto the frame.

However, learning how different curing methods affect the sounds of the drums did not come easy to him. Seamus tells a story from his early days of bodhrán making, around 1969 during his first year of working as a teacher in a local school. Seamus had heard about a great method of curing skins to acheive particularly good sound qualities:

"I was reading this article in an Irish music magazine. It said they were burying the skin in the bog to give it particular qualities. But that wasn't right. They were burying it in the bog to keep away the worms, because there's no worms in the bog, so that no worms will attack the skin. That will allow them to keep it buried for about ten days, and then it decomposes a certain amount, and the follicle allows the hairs to pull out. I did it that way once and there's an awful awful smell. I couldn't get rid of the smell for a good few days. But once I got the skin I was so eager to get the bodhrán made that I took it to work with me, and I just had to have it done there and then. But the Headmaster had a very sensitive sense of smell. He was away at the far end of the building, talking to a teacher, and he said; 'What's that terrible smell?' I had the bódhran hung on the window of the classroom to dry you see, and the wind was carrying the smell up the corridor ane the Headmaster followed his nose right around the school and came to my room. He saw the drum and he said: 'You better get it out of here as quickly as possible!' "

Heads and Frames

Seamus O'Kane's bodhrán heads are slightly smaller (approx. 15½ inches) in diameter than the average heads, but his frames are about 6 inches wide, a good bit wider than most bodhráns nowadays. This puts his drums close to being cylindrical drums. Technically speaking a drum is considered to be a frame drum when it's rim is narrower than half the diameter of it's head. When the rim grows wider the instrument becomes a cylindrical drum; and with this, it's body becomes more influential in it's sound amplification. Seamus always decorates his frames with dark wood dye and he uses no decoration on his skins. If he attatches a cross-bar, it is a single cross piece.

Another of his unique features is the addition of a few layers of tape around the outher edges of the drum head. According to Seamus this idea comes from Peadar Mercier, and it is said to make the instrument 'more contortable'. Seamus also describes Peadar Mercier as an early influence in the development of his tuning system. (*See Tuning Link at top of page)

Back to Top..^