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The Laura Dowling Experience
World Bodhrán Champion on Music, Belonging and Motherhood with Aimée Farrell-Courtney #186
Ep. 186
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Aimée Farrell-Courtney was six years old when she saw three girls playing the bodhrán in her school yard, the sun behind them and the sound going round the walls. She went home and announced she wanted to learn. Her mother's reply - "Oh my God, smelly pub" - is the first clue that this instrument arrived with a reputation attached, and with assumptions about who gets to hold one.
She learned anyway, was helping to teach by the age of twelve, and in 2010 won the World Bodhrán Championship. What she has spent the years since doing is quieter and, in its way, harder: asking why so many women take up the drum and so few are ever seen playing it.
She and Laura go from goat skin and tuning systems to the survey Aimée ran into women's experiences of trad sessions - the player left standing at the bar while everyone else is asked what they're drinking.
She talks about being told she only got a Royal Albert Hall booking because she could wear a dress, about designing a drum that fits the body holding it, and about the two communities she has built for people who want music without the judgement.
She was six, and three girls in a schoolyard decided it
Aimée watched them rehearsing with the sun behind them and thought they looked like superwomen - with no idea yet that the bodhrán was a male-dominated instrument.
"My youngest student is four, my eldest student is 94"
The bodhrán is unusually easy to start, which Aimée sees as its gift and also the reason some people dismiss it without ever learning it properly.
A survey put evidence behind what women already knew
Working with a UK researcher, Aimée surveyed bodhrán players worldwide and found most women reported poor experiences bringing their drum to sessions.
"You only got that because you could wear a dress"
After a 2014 gig at the Royal Albert Hall, a peer told her the booking had nothing to do with how she played.
Male players are described by technique, women by appearance
Read how the two are written about online, Aimée says, and the difference is immediate.
The instrument was never designed around the body playing it
Smaller drums with deeper frames chase a sound, not a posture, so Aimée has been designing a bodhrán that works with the body rather than against it.
Music can be used, not only performed
Trained as a sound therapist, she works with frame drum, gong and singing bowls — and says three minutes of a slow, steady rhythm is enough to settle yourself at home.
Trad Drum and Drummy Mummy exist to take the judgement out of it
Trad Drum grew out of lockdown check-ins with her students; Drummy Mummy, launching shortly, is a drumming space for mothers — no children, no competition, nobody marking you.
Bodhrán lessons, workshops and Traddrum Productions.
Campaigning for gender balance in Irish traditional and folk music.
The Australian drumming programme for social and emotional development Aimée is certified in.
The Irish scheme behind the conversation about supporting artists.
02:30 — Three girls in a schoolyard
03:24 — "Oh my God, smelly pub"
08:02 — "It's just a frame drum, essentially"
10:32 — Designing a drum that fits the body
15:23 — Winning the world championship in 2010
17:32 — The survey into women and the bodhrán
18:50 — "My youngest student is four, my eldest is 94"
24:39 — "You only got that because you could wear a dress"
27:04 — Sound therapy, and what entrainment does
41:08 — Trad Drum, and the new Drummy Mummy
51:00 — The woman nobody spoke to at the session
01:01:44 — Trust yourself
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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