I originally posted these instructions on how to make your own simple yet workable tongue drum on the now deceased Purple Bear's Web intending them to be usable, involving and fun. They proved to be all that and very popular all over the world. I have yet to add the accompanying construction drawings.
As a maker it wasn’t long before the Bear tried his hand at making instruments of one kind or another.
The first was possibly a little too adventurous - based upon the African kalimba or thumb-piano and using electric guitar pickups with sprung steel keys, slightly tatty wiring and dubious sound quality. The eventual instrument was an exciting design & build project but not really worth the trouble musically or as a noise making machine.
So it was back to basics on instrument making when I discovered a book called ‘Sound Designs’ which is a totally brilliant source of inspiration for the aspiring home-made instrument maker.
A Tongue Drum was my first project. Really successful and thoroughly satisfying to make and play. It has been busking, kids love its simplicity and loudness, it always excites comment and delight. So far I have successfully made three tongue drums with varying degrees of sound success.
The Tongue-Drum or slit-drum is traditionally an African instrument made using a hollowed out log with a slit in the top and hit with stick beaters. The plans here are for a wooden box of a handleable size with a series of slits cut in one side and hit with superball beaters.
MATERIALS
* 6 Pieces of wood as below.
* Nails, wood glue and a hammer.
* Pencil, tape measure, straight edge.
* Electric Jigsaw.
* Wood drill and various bits.
* 2 Superballs.
* 2 pieces of wooden dowel - approx. 18” by 3/8”
* ‘Araldite’ glue or similar.
CONSTRUCTION
Let’s make the Slit-Drum about 24”long by 8”wide by 6”high - the sides, ends and bottom can be any old wood as long as it’s fairly thick (about 1/2” to 3/4”); the top is best made using a piece of hardwood bought from your local wood yard and cut and planed by them; you just can’t do it as well as them or as cheaply or as painlessly.
[*Yes I’m old enough and cantankerous enough to like feet and inches. I like anything that has a historical reason and relates to people instead of purely to ideas which are rational constructs no matter how sensible. I like the fact that I carry with me at all time a simple, reasonably accurate way of estimating distance.]
Glue and nail the pieces together so that you have a box with no openings. The hard wood piece is the top.
Now you need to decide what size your keys are going to be. Let’s start with making one each of 5” 6” 7” 8” 9” long. That’s five keys which need combining in an elegant, simple way into the top of our box. They wont match any particular notes but will be melodic when struck.
Longest and shortest go together, 9+5 = 14”, then the next two, 6+8 = 14”, leaving the 7” on its own.
Mark out three 14” lines and one 7” line on the hardwood top as shown. Leave around one and a half inches between lines. Where the curved lines are shown, mark these using something round of about the right diameter. Make sweeping curves as your workmanship will be on show.
You can find references to work out a rough tuning for notes and keys, some are in Sound Designs, but life is too short - the first drum you make will sound the best anyway no matter how little thought you put into it! Beginners luck or the fates giving you a chance with a new endeavour in order to spark your imagination.
Once marked, drill pilot holes, 4 at one end and 3 at the other at the end of the lines. You only need one pilot hole for the 7” line at its outside end, the other end is jig sawed & curved into the adjoining 14” line.
Slowly but surely jigsaw the lines as shown. Wait for the saw to stop jigging before withdrawing it from the cut, if you don’t this can make a right mess of the top smooth surface.
AAaaghh, what did I say! Sand if needed.
Paint the sides brightly. Linseed oil the top playing surface ‘cos it looks good and smells delicious. Embellish and decorate to your hearts content.
BEATERS.
Visit a toy shop. Even if you are only reading this for interest visit a toy shop, they are fun. Buy a kite while there or look at my plans for building one. But I digress.
You are looking for what are called ‘SUPERBALLS’ or 'POWERBALLS'. They are brightly coloured, hard and incredibly bouncy. Buy a few different sizes to experiment with.
You will also need two pieces of wooden dowel about 18” long by 3/8” diam. and a hand drill of about that diam.
Pick your two favourite Superballs, support gently in a vice or the jaws of your workmate, and VERY VERY SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY drill one hole in each, centred and going about 2/3rds of the way into the ball. Superballs have a great aversion to being drilled, they will split and crack the moment your concentration slips. Just go easy.
Round off one end of the dowels - the hand end - and slightly point the other end - the superball end. Mix up some ‘Araldite’ two part glue or similar and put as much glue into the hole in each superball as possible.
Insert the slightly pointy and by now gluey end of the dowel into the hole, easing it in, twisting and turning slowly. The Superball may still split at this point, go easy.
Give the glue time to set; twenty minutes should do it - and play. Enjoy.
Slit Drums make great presents for children, godchildren, friends. Magic.
Two great sites to visit if you enjoy making sound in all its aspects are
ODDMUSIC and Experimental Musical Instruments and Circuit Benders.
Here's a quote I like:
“Deep inside I know that trying to fathom things out leads to blindness, that the desire to understand has a built-in brutality that erases what you seek to comprehend. Only experience is sensitive. But perhaps I’m both weak and brutal. I’ve never been able to resist trying.”
‘Miss Smilas Feeling for Snow.’
