bodhrán
Dave has been playing and teaching bodhrán [Irish frame drum] for over 40 years - learning his craft and tunes in many hundreds of traditional sessions throughout Ireland and Scotland. He has toured and recorded with North Atlantic Trio, and played with many notable traditional musicians - Luke Plumb, Ashley MacIsaac, Angus R Grant, Ross Ainslie, Isaac Muller and Siard De Jong, among others.
Beyond traditional music, he has a particular interest in the place of bodhrán as a part of the wider family of frame drums and how it relates particularly to the Italian tamburello, South Indian Kanjra, North African Bendir and Persian Daf. He has studied with master drummers Zohar Fresco, Andrea Piccioni, Ganesh Kumar, Salim Belitane and Mohsen Taherzadeh and performs and teaches regularly at Tamburi Mundi Frame Drum festival sharing the stage with Glen Velez, Pete Lockett, Khayrullo Dadoboev, and many others.
He brings this diverse experience to his solo work which focusses on the bodhrán as a discreet instrument and composition tool outside of its usual place as accompaniment in the Irish tradition. This integrates Middle Eastern and Indian influences with electronica and live processing, and the development of a new hybrid version of the drum in incorporating sensors and triggers.
One to One Lessons via Skype, Zoom, or FaceTime can be arranged
‘an Irish percussive magician wielding the bodhrán’
folking.com
‘Boyd is hugely supportive without being intrusive, effective to the Nth and no hint of over-playing… I’m convinced that if his tracks were removed, the remainder of whole would suffer.
Tasteful is probably the word I’m looking for’
Songlines Magazine
learning
'My work with the bodhrán focuses on it's emerging role as an expressive and versatile instrument in many different genres and how the technical challenges of adapting rhythms from other cultures can greatly improve students technique and musicality. I have hosted a huge range of workshop with guest artistes from around the world '
workshop library
improvisation
odd time masterclass
mastering fast tempos
hand styles
mediterranean rhythms
carnatic rhythms with Sukkanya Ramgopal
persian rhythms with Maryam Hatef
north african rhythms with Salim Beltitane
tamburello rhythms with Andrea Piccioni
flamenco rhythms with Bettina Castaño
musicality and the tone hand
americana and bluegrass
bodywork
funk grooves
brazilian rhythms
odd time signatures 15 & 17
latin rhythms
odd time signatures 13
world rhythms in 7
odd time signatures 5 & 10
world rhythms in 9
west african polyrhythms
odd time signatures 11
shuffle and swing
looping
mixing
advanced looping
electronics and processing
The Scotsman
"With performers of such a high standard, it's natural to expect quality. What you don't expect is the friendliness - the warmth shown to the audience throughout the show. Boyd is a natural crowd-pleaser"