Post by MikeHello,
I am endeavouring to make a tongue drum or two (or three or six...)
and I was wondering if anyone here has had any experience with making
them. I have read about the basic construction which is simple
enough, however I have yet to come across anything that deals with
1. Is the pitch influenced mainly by tongue length, or is width a
factor as well?
2. I understand that shortening a tongue will raise the pitch, and
hollowing out the tongue will lower the pitch -- but are there any
basic guidlines (tongue area calculations) for attaining any specific
pitches? Or at least getting as close as possible before having to
"fine tune" the tongue (which I assume is inevitable)??
3. Any suggestions as far as which wood to use? What are the virtues
of cherry vs maple etc...?
Many, many thanks in advance to anyone who can help, or point me in
the directin to find more help.
Yes, I know just about all there is to know about building tongue
drums, however, it is very difficult to explain the process in words
with no visual examples. I was on a quest to discover the "secret",
too, in 1995. I finally had to buy a very nice, EXPENSIVE example of
one and used dental mirrors to see exactly what was happening on the
inside. The "secret" was easy to see, but, but when I went to build
one, I soon realized that there was a certain order of operations that
had to happen if the drum was to be in tune when all the clamps were
finally taken off. These drums are extremely difficult to do
correctly. The are rather easier to do incorrectly.
Tuning the drums is tedious to say the least! The ends, top and bottom
must be assembled first -glued tight, but the sides are left off until
the tuning is completed. This is essential.
The ends must be twice the thickness as the top. I sandwiched two
pieces of wood for the ends to achieve this.
The top board (the one with the tongues cut into it) must run the full
length of the box so that the end-grain of the top is visible....in
other words, the top "caps" the ends.
The shape and width of the tongues, themselves, is not so important
-you mainly just want to make them different lengths. The major potion
of the tuning happens on the underside of the tongues by removing wood
at the fulcrum point.
With the top, ends and bottom glued into place (precision joinery is
essential -no gaps), you will see, on the inside, the fulcrum point.
Each tongue has a separate fulcrum point. Wood is removed a little at
a time from the underside of the tongue, near where it abutts the
ends, so that it can become "springier", if you will. The wood is
removed with a very sharp chisel.
Each time you take some of the wood away from the underside, you must
temporarily clamp the sides in place and check the pitch, take the
sides back off the box and remove the wood until it reaches the
correct, desired note. Keep in mind, you can remove just a shaving too
much and ruin the note. It's very important to go slow and remove a
small amount of wood each time -especially when you start hearing the
note getting close to the right note.
The basic idea is to have the front of the tongue be more massive than
it is at its fulcrum so that the notes can sustain. Low pitches
require a long tongue with a fair amount of wood removed from the
underside of the tongue near the fulcrum. Higher piutches require a
shorter tongue with less wood removed.
Once you have all the notes tuned, then the sides can be glued in
place and final finishing can be done. Keep in mind, though, you will
want to do all the construction as meticulously as possible so that
you avoid having to sand too much of the wood away during the
finishing process -as this will change the pitch. After the box is
glued up, there is no turning back for pitch adjustments.
You can fumble with all the algebraic formulas in the world, but you
are dealing with an organic material and that makes any kind of
predetermined calculation pointless. Use you ears and tune the drum to
an electronic keyboard or some type of pitch generator that can give
you an A=440. It's a process of tedious trial and error.
The best woods to use for tops are:
Paduak, Canarywood and Wenge.
You can use cherry, maple, walnut, etc for the ends and sides. Don't
use anything really soft, though as this will have a muting effect.
Use woods with straight grains for the tops, i.e., no burls, etc. You
will find that, sometimes, when you are cutting the shapes of the
tongues, it may release the wood from some of its internal pressure
and the tongues may spring up or down on their own. Using stable,
straight-grained pieces will alleviate most of this tendency.
Good luck! You will need it. It's easy to make an "okay" tongue
drum...It's VERY difficult to make one that plays in tune with
resonant tonality and notes that have bell-like sustain.