Drumming advice....
 

Blessings :smile:

I have been on quite a spiritual journey these past few years and had lost my love of drumming for a while. :icon_frown:

Happy to say now, my yearning for my drum has started to happen again and I am keen to start playing it again. I took it out tonight for the first time in a long time and starting playing it. Something is wrong though. I connect with her first. The skin feels tight (so the weather has not affected it at all), but there was a vibrating sound coming from the hoop. It was strange and I don't know if I like it. Usually the sound that would come from my drum would be amazing. It would never fail to put me in a trance and the drumming could continue for ages.

I am unsure what to do. Should I smudge it again? Will it get better the more I play it again, or do they just 'change their sound' sometimes:confused:

I would appreciate any help.

Thank so much:smile:

First of all what type of drum have you got and how is the skin fixed?
If it’s a Rawhide drum it may well need tightening by re lacing it or the rawhide may be damp. This can effect how it plays so drying it out and warming it up before use is always advisable.

If it’s just a plain hide drum it may need refitting to the ring or again depending on how damp it is it may need drying out. The other thing is that the ring could have warped if it wasn’t stored properly.

I have two drum my traditional NDN (Native American) rawhide drum and an Irish Bodhrán, both can be affected by the damp climate where I live as the old stone house I live in can cause some interesting and challenging conditions and temperatures.

My drums are stored in proper drum cases and hung on the wall. The rawhide one still needs re lacing from time to time depending on the conditions, humidity and temperature, especially if it gets used in the lodge. They also get a leather feed rubbed in to them every few months on the inside of the hide, this helps keep the leather and rawhide slightly more damp proof and stops cracking if the drums get to dry.

Before playing it’s always best to make sure that the drums are warm and dry and I always smudge my drums before use and treat them respectfully but that’s the traditions I grew up with.

Makoiyi

Hi Makoiyi,

I should have been more specific, sorry about that. It is a Native American medicine drum, deer rawhide.

It seems that the skin is still quite tight, although today not so much due to the rain. It was playing nicely except for the strange vibrating/buzzing type of noise. It almost sounded as if a bug was stuck between the skin and the hoop. Sounds weird I know that's all I can think of to describe it. It is only in one section too, not around the whole hoop.

I made a drum bag for it, and I store it in that in my walk-in-robe, so a bit of ventilation in there, I guess. I never store it face down/up, always standing up, as I was taught this is to respect the drum. :smile:

It has been a while since I have smudged it, so will try this, and also heating it up a little - a hair dryer is good for this isn't it? I also have never put a leather treatment on it, so could try this too. Maybe it was a little bit dry.:confused: I have another drum that I need to re-lace, but am a little scared to attempt this on my favourite drum. THe sound of this one was always so perfet, so don't want to risk it.

Thanks for all the suggestions, a few things I can try....to get her sounding beautiful again.:smile:

Blessings.