Senegalese Style Drums

How to make an original drum - Senegalese Style

I visited a local drum factory in Dakar, Senegal. I made this instructable of the process that I saw.

However, this is not a step by step instructable but it will give you a general idea and almost all the steps to make a drum as they do in Senegal.

Materials:
wood
Razor
carving tools
ink
leather
rope
fabric
some welding required
wood sanding tools
varnish ( lighter and darker preferred)

Step 1: Cut a piece of wood

this should not be done without supervision of an adult.

Comments

[weaver_rage]

 woah a djembe.. i have been playing these drums a lot.. well if i am not mistaken natives use goatskin.. the side where the fur used to be must be facing up, however you can find sinthetic leather to put on but you need to put it on using bolts and stuff much like a drum.

if i may add, there is a type of weaving of the chord that augments the tension of the leather wich i do not see in the pictures, it's about using another piece of chord to cross the others and make them overlap, i cannot explain it further without  images but you may find something on the net.. also warming the skin on a flame ( froma  distance, you do not want to set your djembe on fire ) can improve the sound significantly..
sorry i was a bit lenghty but i love the drum.. thought it would be useful to some of you..

[shmuki]

Just a couple things. Don't use leather, use rawhide. Leather has been cured in some way, adding chemicals and such. Rawhide is exactly what it sounds like, uncured hide. And if you live in the U.S. you could use deer hide. The natives have been using it forever. it gives a nice light sound.

[jalakere]

 very nice instructable  have been searching for this for quite some time. I have one thing to add to the question about skin to use, many African drums (not djembes though) uses cowskin but that gives pretty much just one sound not the two or three you can get from a djembe. If you live up in the north (like Finland or Sweden) it is hard to come across fresh goatskin, if that is the case i have been recommended reindeer skin, it gives pretty much the same sound as goatskin and in some places it is much easier to get.

[itak365]

I wonder if anyone's made a taiko drum: that would be amazing

[Clayton H.]

My brother got one of these for christmas this year and they sound nice and low.

[pyro222]

Beautiful work my friend. 5 *'s

[Sgt.Waffles]

Sweet ible. These are called "djembes". I have 2 that were made in Africa, and 1 that I made myself.

[homba]

These are a lot of work, but very satisfying when complete. I've made several and use these instructions as a reference.

BTW the hair side ends up facing up. You don't want to play the inside of the skin - it's a little yucky (fat and veins - ugh!) ... smells great when wet - kind of like a dog's rawhide chew toy (pretty much the same material).

Were you on a holiday when you took the photos? In Senegal, perhaps? Cool stuff!

[artdaniela]

Those are nice instructions. Thank you. and yes skin side faces up! oops, but remember that if you are brave enough you can still play around with it to get different sounds. My sister lives there so it makes it easy to wonder around.

[nerdologist]

That's neat that you got to tour a factory. What kind of wood and skins were used to get the best sound?

[artdaniela]

They were using goat and sheep skins. Goat makes a deeper sounds than sheep.

[sciamannikoo]

Maybe you can could it with his real name "Djembé", instead of Senegalese-Style Drum :) However, assembling a Djembé is one of the worse jobs ever though by a human being! :D It's takes forever, is dirty (skin cleaning) and fu*ing tiring (carving and roping). Good job anyway! Very detailed!

[omnibot]

Thanx for the original name, useful when I blog this. Great instructable!!

[silood]

excellent detail .. very nice work indeed .

[nagutron]

Nice photos. Like you said, it's not a complete insructable, but I love seeing how things are made, even if the descriptions aren't fleshed out completely. One comment: "razor," not "racer." Nice work!