An introduction...and looking for drum buying advice

[Subtitles]

Since it is my first post here, I thought I'd make this an introduction thread as well.

HI! My name is Laura, I'm a 19 year old fitness and health student from Ontario. My Uncle is one of those musicians us 'normal' people are envious of (you know the type...can pick up any instrument and play it like an expert) who keeps me inspired. Well...usually!
I play piano, guitar, and about 6 months ago started playing the djembe. I took music and society as my first year college elective, when my teacher decided to start up a drum circle. I was immediatly hooked! All instruments took a back seat after that (I really should give them a good dusting soon).

He lent me a djembe so I can practice, however I'll be moving in September and will have to give him his drum back.

I can't POSSIBLY go without a djembe (I'm sure all you hand-slammers can agree)! But I'm also on a veryvery (as in, non existant....but who needs groceries anyway?) tight budget. So what would you pro's suggest? Any ideas bongobro? I'm not gonna lie, I've been stalking your posts for awhile now (I swear, it's not as creepy as it sounds). You have so much information!

I'd love a ghana djembe, but the cheapest I can find will cost me about $200 for one that is 11.5" or bigger. I've looked all over the web for used, but have only come across ONE and the owner hasn't got back to me.

I look forward to 'meeting' you all!

[2slow]

Welcome to Drumchat Subtitles. Kick back and stay awhile !

[pastor_bob]

Welcome to Drum Chat Laura! It's always good to have another hand slammer in the mix!

I'm afraid that I can't be much help to you in your search for a dejembe. I admit that my hand drums take a backseat to my kit, even though I enjoy it. I am sure that some of our other hand slammers will have some thoughts for you.

Again, welcome.

[midgard]

Welcome to drum chat!

Craigslist is about the best place to look for a used djembe. You could also expand your search by including ashiko. They are very similar to a djembe in tonal quality, but are typically cheaper because they are stave constructed and easy to make.

Good luck in your search.

-Ken

[Gretschhead]

Welcome to the board Laura! The best djembes come from Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal, or Burkina Faso. Unfortunately the majority of used djembes on the market will not have the place of origin in their description, and without a good bit of knowledge of the instrument you won't be able to tell what it is. Look for 1 piece solid shells, heavy gauge rope, and goat skin, it should be 24" tall and the head should be 13"-14". Typically the ones that are all carved and pretty looking are cheap tourist knockoffs.

There are plenty of more affordable djembes that you might look at to atleast hold you over until you find a better quality drum. Brands like LP, Remo, Toca, etc have some mechanically tuned drums for pretty cheap, though they aren't even close to the same thing sound wise in my opinion. But atleast it will be something to play on and keep your chops up. Good luck, let us know what you find!

[pastor_bob]

Laura, the deal about the links is that the posting of commercial links causes an increase of spammers trying to get in here for the sole purpose of getting traffic to their sites. The administration of Drum Chat works very hard to keep spammers out so that Drum Chat remains a site for people to simply exchange information, and enjoy chatting about drums.

OK, with that said, pics and descriptions are OK, as long that there is nothing to indentify the site from which it came (some sites will embed the site address in the pic), and that it is not copywrited material.

Hope that helps Laura.

[dave0549jv]

you can still send commercial links in private messages. this forum is run by drumbum, so of course they dont want the site plastered with links to competitors' sites.

[Subtitles]

Is posts needing to be approved with pictures a thing for new members?

[pastor_bob]

Not a big deal Laura. The first few picture posts of new members are sometimes held for approval. It usually lasts only a short time. I see your pics, and you did a very nice job of understanding the Forum Rules. Thank you.

[Riouel]

welcome to drumchat Subtitles
sister of canada
i can't help you much in this thread but good luck

[Subtitles]

I'm not gonan lie, it would be nice if we could post links. But I can understand 100% as this is run by another company.

How long until my post gets approved though? I swear I'm not ignoring everyone!

[pastor_bob]

Laura, I'm not sure what you mean about the approval of your posts. Usually, if a thread has unapproved posts, a moderator will simply evaluate the posts, and approve them or not, based on the content. Although there might have been a delay in your first pictures coming through (that can happen, but usually only within the first 10 posts), I haven't seen that your posts were needing approval. Have I missed something?

[Subtitles]

Hmm I wrote out a reply that said it was waiting approval (had a few pictures in it). Thankfully I saved it, so I will try again.

[Subtitles]

Thanks for explaining the links.

I never even thought about the pawn shops! There are plenty near me, so I may take a look there next week.

If I have a bit more money in the Fall, and can't find a good used one, then these are two I have in mind (both will cost me about $200).

My teacher who got me into drumming has two drums from this seller. He is completly in love with them. I played one of his, and though it wasn't bad I wasn't impressed either (it was also the first furred head I had played, so maybe that made a difference). I remember not liking something about the wood?
Here is one he has available right now:

Beautiful djembe drum with CARRYING BAG from Ghana. HEIGHT: 24 1/2" ( 62 cm ) FACE: DIAMETER 14 1/2'' ( 36 cm ) Active playing head 12 1/2" , ( 31.5 cm )

The bottom and top part of this djembe is carved with African symbols.

Please select the bag that you like from the photo in the auction.

We are direct exporters/retailers (no middlemen) from a single piece to full container of Djembe drums !!!!!!!!!!!!!

All our drums are new and fully tested before shipment.

Our drums are double weaved and can be used for professional drumming .

The wood that we use is called TWENEBOA and in the local language means " drum wood".

The head is covered from goat skin and we use imported rope.

The finish is of high standard.

The drum is made in GHANA.



This is the second one. He custom makes ashikos. There is a sound clip of him playing the medium one and it sounds amazing (to my untrained ear), but he is also a great musician and could probably make anything sound great!:

1. You purchase this listing for your 18" ashiko drum.

2. We will communicate about how you want your drum to look. Your options to choose from are:

a) Would you like cedar(reddish brown) or hemlock(light
yellowish) wood?
Both are softer woods and make for a great sounding
drum.
b) What color material you would like on the metal rings?
Options are wide open here! Pick your favorite color.
c) Would you like a bleached or furred head on the drum?
A bleached head will be thinner and have a brighter
tone. A furred head will sound earthier and will be
shaved smooth on the playing surface.

3. I build the drum to your specifications.

4. I send the drum to you and you play and play and play...

The pictures for this listing show examples of the options. The size of drum for this listing will be approximately 18" tall with an 8" head. Your drum will be built with the details we work out together. Once I know exactly what you would like, I ask for two weeks to build the drum and get it shipped out to you. I can even send you pictures along the way of your drum being built in a step by step fashion!

A tuning and care sheet goes out with every drum. We have been making drums about ten years, love what we do and just want to spread the music.

[bongobro]

I thought my ears were burning this weekend!

Welcome aboard Subtitles! Many of the handmade, rope-tuned djembes are "tourist" models, but not all are. I purchased the djembe I play now in 2001 at a music store in a St. Louis suburb (an independent dealer who apparently knew more about djembes than I did at the time). It has a furry head and a wooden shell (which I since learned made it a fantastic scratching post for one of my cats (see "DJEMBE DAMAGE" elsewhere in this section!).

I like the way it sounds and it is "authentic" in the traditional sense of the word, but don't ask me to tune it! The larger the djembe, the deeper the sound you will get if you hit the head dead-center, but you don't want one so large that it's uncomfortable to handle and play, Only you can decide that yourself. Better yet, if you know a few djembe players in your neighborhood, talk with them (and don't hesitate to test-play them if you haven't already)!

Of the key-tuned djembes I've played, the Remo djembes sound surprisingly authentic (look in the DRUM REVIEWS segment, again, if you haven't already, for my reviews on the Remo and LP djembes). If you're playing casually, a rope-tuned djembe may be all you need, but a key-tuned model may be the model to choose if you're an active musician.

Good luck and again, welcome aboard!

[wm_crash]

Hi,

I remember Jukka Nevalainen from Nightwish tuning a hand drum by rubbing the head with alcohol. Here is the clip, the hand drum tuning is not right at the beginning though:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2fNJ18QDY4"]YouTube- Nightwish - recording in E-major studios 2007[/ame]

cheers,
wm_crash, the friendly hooligan

[Ernesto Pediangco]

Since it is my first post here, I thought I'd make this an introduction thread as well.

HI! My name is Laura, I'm a 19 year old fitness and health student from Ontario. My Uncle is one of those musicians us 'normal' people are envious of (you know the type...can pick up any instrument and play it like an expert) who keeps me inspired. Well...usually!
I play piano, guitar, and about 6 months ago started playing the djembe. I took music and society as my first year college elective, when my teacher decided to start up a drum circle. I was immediatly hooked! All instruments took a back seat after that (I really should give them a good dusting soon).

He lent me a djembe so I can practice, however I'll be moving in September and will have to give him his drum back.

I can't POSSIBLY go without a djembe (I'm sure all you hand-slammers can agree)! But I'm also on a veryvery (as in, non existant....but who needs groceries anyway?) tight budget. So what would you pro's suggest? Any ideas bongobro? I'm not gonna lie, I've been stalking your posts for awhile now (I swear, it's not as creepy as it sounds). You have so much information!

I'd love a ghana djembe, but the cheapest I can find will cost me about $200 for one that is 11.5" or bigger. I've looked all over the web for used, but have only come across ONE and the owner hasn't got back to me.

I look forward to 'meeting' you all!

I think for your mobile life style & for all paractical purposes...a mechanicaly tunned Djembe like Remo brand or Meinl will be great. The heads are easily replaceable like regular drums ( no custom skin mounting and rope weaving ) and plastic heads are weather proof, dont go out of tune etc and u can get varying head weights. Personaly...I would rather have a Peruvian Cajon ~ ( wood box drum ) that plays more styles of music more easily. It replicates the tonal range of a drum set from the snare to the toms to the bass tones. Latin, Brazilian, African, and contemporary rhythms are all posible & its a more appropriate drum for accompanyment of non ethnic music ensembles. I use mine alot in latin & jazz trios to 5 piece combos. Djembes are more limited to African perc & music ensembles & sound more like hand played timbales w/ a bass drum tone added. Its not as fundamental and universal as the Peruvian Cajon. Give it a try ? Listen to REAL Cajon players...not just people who own one & mess around on it. For a sample...check You Tube for the music of Susana Baca , Eva Ayllon ( both are divas of Afro Peruvian music & Peruvian Criolla music ) It was the famed Flamenco Guitarist " Paco de Lucia " who brought the Peruvian cajon to Spain & now it is a popular Flamenco acompaniment !