Many people have wasted valuable money buying what they think are good drums yet they are ones made for the tourist market so not really playable. Our tips here bellow might help you avoid wasting your cash when you get to buy a drum.
Tips on what African drums to buy:
Choice of which drum you need for you,your school or group depends on the type of drumming you wish to do, but we have drums and instrumets that can help you mix both East and West African drumming.
The most common type of African drum and also most widely used is the djembe which is traditionally played with the dun duns which are lead drums played wit sticks, bells and other percussive instruments.
Allot of groups and Schools use these but we are trying to introduce and promote the Ugandan Ngoma drums which can be playedindependently ot together with djembes.
Here are the commonest West African drums:
Djembe – These are Goblet shape drums played by hand made out of wood and goat skin htough some times cow and Antelope skin can be used too. These have a variety of sounds like bass, tones and sharp slaps.
Bougarabou – These look like djembe drums but taller, they are made of wood and cow or antelope skin.
Dunun – These have a barrel shape and are made with cow skin each end. They are played with a sticks to produce a low bass sound.
Kpanlogo – They have a barrel shape too with antelope skin held on to the wood by pegs and they produce nice tones sounds
Ewe drum - These are very much like the kpanlogo above but come in a range of sizes and played with sticks but some times the drummers use stick and hand
Goumbe – These look like a conga, they have a barrel shape too and have cow or antelope skin. They mainly produce deep base sound
Tips on buying a good african drum
Check for good wood – traditional jembes and Ngoma drums if made by artisans in Africa are carved out of a single piece of hardwood. Before you buy check the drum shell and dont buy the drum with any cracks or chips on the wood.
check the Rope – check for weak areas in the binding rope or string in case of Ngoma drums from Uganda. If the string is loose or weak dont buy the drum because restringing a drum can be a hard job and eparts arenot easy to come by in Europe.
Check the drum skin - Most goat or cow drum skins for Ngoma and even djembe are mostly shaved with a razor or some times very haro knives. Some times can damage the skin if not done carefully. If you are buying a djembe Turn the drum upside down so you can look inside it and hold it up towards the light to check the drum skin for possible problems. Thinner parst of the skin will let more light through and will appear lighter and if the skin looks very thin those points will easily tear easily. The Ngoma drums from Uganda are not easy to examine like this because you have cow skin all around them but examine the top of the drum.
Check fr wood insects – Small insects in wood could destroy your drum in no time, so check for tiny holes in the wood and give the drum a bit of a knock to see if it’s shedding sawdust. You might need to spry the drum with disinfectant when you get it just incase.
Drum skin should be nice and tight – Newly skinned drums weather Ngoma from Uganda or Djembe from West Africa can’t be tightened too much at first for risk of breaking but a good djembe skin should be alsmost as tight as a rock . If you press your thumb into the middle of the drum and you get quite a bit of movement, it could probably be tightened so ask them to make it tighter for you else dont buy becaus eit will get loose once you have had it a few months.
Check for sound. It’s difficult to know what sound to listen for if you’re a new drummer, but take time to listen carefully before you buy. If what you wnat is a deep bass (lower) sounding drum in case of djembe, look for a drum with heavy wood, a large face and a thick drum skin.
Tight Djembe (higher sound) thse are generally smaller, lighter and some times have thinner drum skin. But even then the drum should have a strong even resonance, but not ringy when you play it.
Standing - Check that your drum stands straight and is symmetrical when resting on flat ground.
Check that the metal rings are on straight. It is nice for the wood to have a nice colour .
Weight : Dont buy buy a very heavy or large drum if you want to take it to placesbut if you also buy a small decorative djembe it may not be playable at all or harder to get the variety of osunds needed .
Get A Strap: There are various djembe straps available made of nylon or canvas.
Buy a djembe Bag: You can buy bags for drums of any size from us or any other online stores. Durable designs are made of multiple layers of canvas with padded linings with shoulder straps, zips and pouches. There are bags made in Africa of simple cloth with double-stitching to help withstand the weight of the drum on the straps.
We can help get you any od th ebove mentioned items including the drums should you need them. We can handle bult orders or just single indidual ones in the UK.
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