Creative Processes in Irish traditional music: a bodhrán-playing perspective

Robert Brian Sheehan

This is the web-based written component of an arts practice research project carried out from May to August of 2022 as part of the MA Irish Music Studies programme at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (IWAMD) at the University of Limerick. The project set out to explore the broad topic of creativity within Irish traditional music through the embodied means of my own bodhrán playing. In particular, I set out to see to what extent the creative process of switching between ways of gripping the bodhrán stick (“grip switching”) could be embodied effectively in my bodhrán playing. As well as this written component, which contains multimedia elements such as video and music notation, this project is also presented as a thirty minute performance of traditional Irish music where I accompany an accordion player to demonstrate and explain some of the findings of my research.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the staff at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in the University of Limerick for their help and expertise throughout the course of my studies there. In particular I would like to thank my supervisor for this project, Dr. Sandra Joyce, along with Dr. Niall Keegan, Dr. Colin Quigley, Dr Oscar Mascareñas, Prof. Helen Phelan, Dr. Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain and Jim Higgins, all of whom provided me with valuable insights which informed this project.

I would like to thank Colm Murphy for his kind permission to use examples of his self-developed bodhrán notation.

I would like to thank my parents Tim and Maura for all their help and support through the years, along with my siblings Dónal, Pat and Tríona. A special thanks also to my nephew Seán Delaney for accompanying me for my final performance, as well as my other nieces and nephews whose company (and music!) I enjoy so much: thank you Cian, Caoimhe, Gormfhlaith and Amhlaoibh!

Finally, a big thanks to all the musicians who I have played with and learned from over the years.

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