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            HOW TO MAKE AN AFRICAN DRUM

Do you like drums? Do you like the rhythmic sound of a beating drum? Have you ever heard or played the indigenous African drum? Do you wish to own one? The African drum has been used since sound became known to mankind.

Originally from Africa over 3,000 years ago, drums were first used in tribal ceremonies. Long before cellular phones and text messages were invented, drums functioned as a way to communicate between people and tribes with great distances between them.

Each drum is meticulously hand-carved from a solid piece of softwood with inner and outside curving that produces a wide range of tones. African drums like Djembe, gongon etc. are popular worldwide can be made easily.

The idea of making the African drum is still practiced today. Working with cutting tools like a chainsaw, machetes, an axe, curving tools like chisel, hammer, compass, pencil, rasp makes work tedious but with techniques passed down from a master craftsman, I hope to impart this idea to an apprentice.

The making of an indigenous drum involves a lot of time and patience. Before you start, the most important thing is the wood, wire thread, tuners, and animal skin (cattle, antelope, camel) including the tools mentioned above.

The type of wood used for the drum is a Mahogany tree. But in Ghana the known tree is “TWENEBOA”.  The central part of the Mahogany wood is very soft and it makes curving and digging easy.

In a traditional process, the chainsaw is used to cut the mahogany tree and then chopped into sizable logs. Choose a fine shaped log for the drum. The log has to be erected vertically to allow the fluid in the log to come out. This way, the log reduces its weight. 

After a day, use an axe to peel the back side off. Make sure your axe does not damage the log.

In a traditional African way, a professional will patiently and methodically shave off the bark with a machete. But for a starter you need assistance from someone working with machines at the sawmills to smooth the back of the log into a required shape and have the size of drum you want.

In a traditional way you could use a rasp or sandpaper to file the carved log to have a smooth cover.  At this point once the exterior is sanded clean, you get a distinctive goblet form. It gives the drum its strong base note.

Therefore it is important that you get it perfect. Too small, the basis is too high-pitched, too big and it will be extremely hard to hear distinctions in tone.

Fix the pencil into the compass and make a circle on the surface of the log and dig. Leave a one-inch space from the circle to the circumference. Dig the inside as well as thinning the walls employing a long, gouge, of the inside obtaining a cylindrical shape to the end of the log.

In case you cannot dig the inside of the log, a drilling tool can make an interior hole and your work easier. 

Making holes with a digging tool makes work difficult. 

It is advisable to make sure that your tools are sharp, especially with the chisel, since a dull chisel is a dangerous chisel. A fine grip on the digging tool is all that you require. This type of digging tool acts as an axe and it helps in making holes into the drum.

When this is done use a hammer with the chisel to make circular holes at the back of the log. Fix the tuners to measure the size of the hole as you bore the holes. 

The tuners should perfectly fit into your holes.

The distance from the hole to the edge should be 4-6cm depending on the size of the drum you are making. The space of the hole has to be at equal distance.

The traditional drums are in different shapes and sizes.  Some take the shape of an egg whiles others are goblet-shaped drums with authentic goat skin or cattle skin playing surface affixed with rope runners. 

 


 
 

 Cover the surface of the drum with an animal skin by obtaining some from the abattoir. Put the skin in the sun for days to dry, making the animal skin hard and last longer.

 After the process is done, put the dried skin in water to soften it. Remove the skin and wrap it around the surface of the drum.

 Wrap a length of wire thread around the tuners and stitch it through the animal skin and pull it back to the tuner and tie it very hard to make it firm. Do same to the rest of the tuners.

 You should have a complete drum at this stage. 

 

Enjoy the full blast of the drum by slapping your palm on the surface of the animal skin. 

  

Article by……………………Patrick Ansu