How To: Treat the skin on your bodhrán drum

Michelle Stewart of BodhranExpert.com demonstrates to viewers how to treat the skin on a Bodhran drum. The skin on this particular drum is made of goat skin and, much like your own skin, must be treated with a skin-conditioning treatment in order to maintain proper moisture.

She likens breaking in a new skin to breaking in a new pair of leather shoes-stiff and uncomfortable at first. The more you play the drum and break it in, the better it will sound and a conditioning treatment helps the breaking-in process along.

Michelle recommends using a product such as Arctic Dubbin, lanolin cream, grapeseed oil, or even Mary Kay emollient night cream. The treatment product will look kind of like Vaseline with the same tacky feeling. The product is sticky and if it is too stiff, just microwave it for a few seconds to loosen it up and make it easier to spread.

Scoop a small amount out of the container with your fingers and massage it into the skin using big, circular motions for about 10 or 15 minutes. Leave it on overnight to soak in. The next day, take a lint-free cloth and remove the excess product from the skin. "Buff" off until the skin is no longer tacky.

Michelle recommends treating only the outside of the skin and you should mist the inside with water while treating. By following her steps, you should remedy that "scraping" feeling of a new Bodhran skin.