Beyond the Basics

One hand or two?

• Irish style is usually one-handed, more understated, and often played seated. American style (minstrel, old-time, bluegrass) is usually two-handed and more flamboyant, with syncopation and tonal color between the hands. Neither is "correct." - RBS What Are Rhythm Bones; RBP V19N2; Bone Dry FAQ
• One pair (two bones) is one hand's worth. Two pairs let you play both hands. - Bone Dry FAQ
• Teachers disagree on order: Driver and Watkins say to train both hands from the start, while most Irish players never add the second hand. Mel Mercier, who learned two-handed later, described it as feeling like a different instrument. - Driver extract; RBP V19N2
• Two-handed practice tip: play each hand alone, then both together, then alternate. - Bone Dry FAQ

Step 1: Hold the bones

1. Turn the two bones so their curves bow toward each other, like two parentheses facing in: ( ). Only a small spot touches, which makes the click.
2. Slide the first bone, thin end up, between your index and middle fingers, with the outside of its curve facing away from your thumb. Press it into the heel of your hand and wrap your middle finger over it. This bone stays still.
3. Slide the second bone, thin end up, between your middle and ring fingers, curve toward your thumb. Rest your ring finger lightly on it. This bone swings.
4. Hold the still bone firmly and the swinging bone loosely. Too loose and it falls out of line; too tight and it cannot move.
5. Let the heavier, thicker ends hang down. The weight at the bottom helps the swing. - Alternate "Celtic" grip: the still bone goes between the thumb and index finger instead. Driver teaches this version. - RBP V19N2; Driver extract

Step 2: The tap (single click)

1. Hold your forearm up with the bones pointing straight up and down.
2. Rotate your forearm outward, then stop. The swinging bone falls away and comes back against the still bone: one click.
3. The motion comes from the forearm, like ringing a hand bell, not from rattling the fingers or twitching the wrist. Bones are "swung together like a bell and clapper." - RBP V19N2; RBP V8N2; World Beats

Step 3: The double (duplet)

Start a tap, but instead of stopping, bring your arm straight back to vertical. You get two clicks. - RBP V19N2

Step 4: The triplet and the roll

1. Make the same out-and-back motion as the double, but let your arm dip slightly downward as it returns. Momentum gives a third click: three evenly spaced clicks. This is the sound unique to bones.
2. Let momentum do the work; do not force the bones together. Squeezing a little harder kills the third click and gives you a double.
3. Repeat triplets without stopping and you have the roll. RBS notes that continuous triplets are easier than a single clean one, and Driver says fast rolls are easier than slow ones at first, so do not worry about going slowly yet.
4. When your first roll appears, notice the exact flick you used and repeat it. Watkins compares it to riding a bicycle: once it happens, you keep it. - RBP V19N2; Wikipedia; Driver extract; RBP V8N2

Step 5: Volume control

Make the motion smaller and the snap gentler to play quietly. Learn to play both quietly and loudly. - RBP V19N2; Bone Dry FAQ

Troubleshooting

• Bones slipping out: grip a little tighter, dry your hands, or rub a little rosin on the edges. - RBP V19N2
• Swinging bone will not move: the first finger may be clamping so hard the ring finger cannot stay loose. - RBP V19N2
• Practice with recordings or a phone metronome; timing comes from repetition. - RBS When to Play

Rhythms for Irish tunes

• Know the tune type. Reels are in 4/4 with an even, driving pulse ("Black and Decker"); jigs are in 6/8 with a bouncy, three-part lilt ("clippity cloppity"); slip jigs are 9/8; hornpipes are 4/4 with a swung, dotted feel; polkas are 2/4. - McNeela, Five Main Types of Irish Tunes
• Reels: A roll (triplet) plus one tap fills one beat with four even clicks. Repeating "roll-tap" gives a steady run of sixteenth notes that sits under a reel. - World Beats; RBS also notes that the tap-plus-triplet "quadruplet" fits 2/4 and 4/4 music. - RBP V19N2
• Jigs: Driver says a roll will not fit some sections of jigs and teaches a single sharp "whip crack" for those spots: flick the wrist away from the body and stop abruptly so the bones snap together once. He also uses whip cracks to punctuate the end of a phrase. - Driver extract
• Phrase endings: Accent the end of a phrase with tap, roll, tap. - RBP V8N3

Rhythms for old-time, bluegrass and country

• Starter patterns from the Rudiments article: continuous triplet roll in one hand (what most people learn first); the seven-beat roll (two triplets followed by a tap); flams (one hand taps slightly before and softer than the other); and tap-triplet quadruplets for 2/4 and 4/4 tunes. - RBP V19N2
• Russ Myers' signature pattern: two triplets followed by two doubles. - RBS When to Play
• Two-hand "keep time" groove: light taps in your strong hand with an occasional syncopated tap in the other, used when backing a band rather than featuring. - RBP V8N3
• Hungry Monk's course moves from singles and triplets into two-handed basics using old-time tunes such as "Angeline the Baker," "Hunting the Buffalo" and "Snow Deer." - Hungry Monk course

Session and jam etiquette

1. Practice alone or with recordings until you can hold a steady tempo. - RBP V8N3
2. Ask first. Never pull out bones and play along from the audience; offer to try one tune and see if you fit. - RBS When to Play; RBP V8N3
3. At Irish sessions, play only on tunes you really know. - RBS When to Play
4. Sit out often. One session player says bones, spoons and rim playing should be used "sparingly," and another on The Session suggests a bones player sit out "at least half the time" in a pub session. - Session Etiquette podcast; The Session
5. Match the volume: loud when the music is up, soft when it is down. Softer woods, natural bone, or a crossed-bone technique reduce volume. - RBP V8N3; The Session
6. Do not play while people are singing unless you are sure it helps. - RBP V8N3
7. Only one bones player leads at a time; experienced players pass the lead with a nod. - RBP V8N3
8. Keep time above everything. Paddy "Sport" Murphy, the first All-Ireland champion, said what he looks for in a player is "Time!" - RBS profile, Paddy Murphy

A short history

• Ancient and worldwide: Bone and wood clappers appear in prehistoric Mesopotamia and Egypt, Greek pottery, Rome and ancient China, and have names in dozens of languages (crotala in Rome, cnámha in Irish Gaelic, Klepperle in German). Shakespeare mentions them in A Midsummer Night's Dream. - Birthplace of Country Music; RBS History; RBP V19N2
• Ireland and Britain to America: Irish and English immigrants brought bones to North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, where they kept time for jigs and reels. - Birthplace of Country Music
• African American musicians and the minstrel era: Black musicians played bones widely. Because of that, bones became a fixture of 19th-century minstrel shows, in which white performers in blackface caricatured Black Americans; Black entertainers later performed in minstrel shows too. Frank Brower's 1841 performance in Virginia is among the first documented, and in 1843 the Virginia Minstrels made bones one of the four core minstrel instruments with banjo, fiddle and tambourine. Minstrelsy spread bones worldwide, and their popularity faded with it. - Birthplace of Country Music; RBP V19N2
• El Watson at the 1927 Bristol Sessions: Black musician El Watson played bones with the Johnson Brothers on "Two Brothers Are We" and "I Want to See My Mother (Ten Thousand Miles Away)," played harmonica on their "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy," and recorded his own "Pot Licker Blues" and "Narrow Gauge Blues" with Charles Johnson on guitar. The Birthplace of Country Music Museum calls these some of the earliest integrated country and blues recordings. Bristol is about 150 miles from Roanoke. - Birthplace of Country Music
• 20th century: Joe Birl's patented grooved bones (1945) sold in the hundreds of thousands; Brother Bones recorded in the 1940s and 1950s; DeFord Bailey, the Grand Ole Opry harmonica star, also played bones; Peadar Mercier brought bones onto international stages with the Chieftains. - Birthplace of Country Music; RBP V19N2
• Revival: Percy Danforth kept bones alive through workshops and his video in the late 20th century; in 1999 players founded the Rhythm Bones Society at Bones Fest III in Brightwood, Virginia; Ireland launched its All-Ireland championship in 1997; Dom Flemons and the Carolina Chocolate Drops brought bones to a new generation while openly reckoning with the instrument's minstrel history. - RBP V19N2; RBS profile, Russ Myers; RBS profile, Paddy Murphy; Wikipedia, Dom Flemons

---

Steps paraphrase the Rhythm Bones Society's "Rudiments of Rhythm Bones," Walt Watkins' "How To Hold The Bones," and Nicholas Driver's tutor. See Resources for lessons and videos.