I spent several weekends over the last six weeks building, tuning and playing African Djembe drums.  Now, when I say building, that really just entails putting the drum head on, but believe me, this is no simple task.  It’s a series of many tasks, and each one has its own challenges and ways to mess up.  I’ve only got 2 drums but I’ve put heads on 5 times and will probably do one more re-heading on one of the drums.

During this, I had great guidance from Kevin Brown of Rhythm House Drums in Matthews, NC.  The first drum I built was at one of his workshops; the attendees learned and laughed way more than we expected.

It was surprisingly hard for me to find very detailed information on the internet about heading Djembes.  There are many sites, but it seems that most are either stores, or cover just the basic steps.  There are a few gems that get into lots of juicy detail, and I’ll link to them.  But I wanted to share some of my hard-won lessons to help fill in some of the gaps.

My new big djembe and refurbished small Toca

Wendy had bought me the Toca drum a year ago as a gift.  I noodled around on it every week or so, then started hooking up with some local drumming groups.  Once I started learning and jamming, I wanted to get a bit larger drum to fit my hands better and to complement the first one, which I still play.  So instead of buying a new drum, I went through the adventure of learning to build one.  In the bargain, I re-headed the Toca with a Senegal goatskin instead of the factory hide and it ended up looking and sounding much better too.

Finishing the shell

I had a hard time getting a shape on the lip that I liked. I know about the rule to make it look like a profile of your thumb sticking up, with your thumbnail representing the inside of the bowl. But I wanted a larger flat edge on top because I'm hoping it will help the slaps come crisp, but that reduces the amount of rounding you can put on the outside for comfortable playing. I think my big drum's outer lip is too sharp and I'm not sure why my hours of attention to that prior to heading didn't come out the way I wanted.

Speaking of a flat edge on the top lip, when I got the factory head off that small Toca, I found it was tapered almost to a point... no edge at all. So I spent some time with the rasp on that and got a nice shape to it. BTW, the old dry drum head makes a FANTASTIC indoor frisbee... just floats like magic.

Found a website where someone talked about gluing 4 sheets of 80-grit paper to a board so they could get a uniformly flat top edge. I liked this idea and it worked very well. My drum's Iroko wood, though, which is pretty soft compared to the Hare and Lemke, so I don't know if it would take forever on those.

It's really important to make sure your rings are sized right. I think my big drum's rings might be a tad too small, because I couldn't get them to go down as far as I wanted. With the double-layer of skin plus the wrap and top knots, it wouldn't really slide down past a certain point. I like the skin to come down pretty far on the top so my palms are not striking the top ring & knots, which hurts. I know, technique can fix this too.

Kevin used a mixture of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits to finish the wood. I thought this was great and wanted to make my own but I had forgotten to ask him the ratios! After some googling I decided 1 part linseed oil to 2 parts mineral spirits was the common recipe for wood finishing. Actually most fine woodworkers say 1 linseed oil, 1 mineral spirits and 1 shellac, varnish or tung oil. But I didn't want to varnish the thing. I resisted making my own ratio thinking "more linseed oil must be good" because many sites warned that pure linseed oil can take weeks or months to cure. You gotta cut it 2:1 to make sure you don't have a tacky drum! Kevin had us apply this to the inside of the drum as well, and now I'm wondering if it would be better not to, to prevent sealing up any of the inside surface that might contribute to the drum's coveted "dry" sound. I really don't know... probably matters like around 1% or something, especially since this finish doesn't change the raw texture of the wood that much.

Skins

I like the skins that come already shaved; not a personal fan of the hairy edged drums... they're ok for others and I think they look cool, but they're just not for me. Anyway you're still supposed to shave these "hairless" heads and sand them (400 grit & 600 grit paper) just after heading. I did this on the first drum I built and was able to sand off all the dark pigment to get the top mostly white. And it sure was smooth! But I didn't shave or sand the two new drums yet, I'm just waiting to see how the heads develop without that and save this step for later, if ever. The roughness doesn't bother me and I want to see if they get a bit naturally smoother after use.

How long to soak the goatskins? I don't think it matters much... Kevin did it for about 2 hours, I saw a website that said 15 minutes, and another guy likes to soak them overnight! I went for about 5 hours because I was waiting for my son to get back from an event so he could help me lace the small drum. I think they're better soaked long... nice & pliable and don't dry too fast.

Speaking of drying too fast... need to take a break because lacing taking a long time from adjustments & such? Wrap the head in a kitchen garbage bag so it doesn't dry out while you're away.  This is also a good trick if you’re going to be foolish enough to take the head off for some stupid reason and put it back on without re-doing the skin/ring setup… first, cut a couple large circles out of a bathroom towel to fit the top of the drum and the skin over the edge (but not the rings). Soak them in water, wring them out just so they’re not dripping, put them on the drum then cover with kitchen garbage bag.  Then go eat some dinner or something.  When you get back the skin will be flexible again and ready for pulling over a new shape.  Watch that the skin’s edge stays well above the rings when you put it back on!

Lacing

Man, I started the ropes on the "wrong side" of the drum because I was looking at a knot that happens later in the process and got confused. Not a huge deal, except now the "break" in the weave faces forward. These drums are so much work that you want to get them perfect... but then if you realize a mistake that's going to take an hour to back out of, especially when that skin is drying, you don't want to stop. Make sure you've got it all down pat ahead of time. And remember, start lacing in the middle of your long rope, on the outside-facing side of the drum... which is the side opposite the final knot in the ring weave. Then line up that final ring weave knot with the skin spine, towards the back of the goat. Those will face you as you play. As you bring the lacing around from where you started in the front, each half will meet in the back, under the final ring weave knot and all your messy rope ends will be in one spot.

For me, it's really hard to get that head on straight. Even taking hours to go round gently on the ropes, checking and re-checking, the rings come out crooked and the spine not centered. What a pain! If the rings are only a little crooked it shouldn't matter to the sound.

Also saw a technique where someone used a blunt tool to tuck the skin down behind the top ring after heading, while it's still wet and pliable. I think this makes for a very neat presentation and I did it on my big drum... looks extra sharp! But I chose not to do it on the small one just because I thought the "personality" of the skin edge that we see on many drums fit this one better.

Tucked edge (looks good) versus natural edge (works better)

Follow-up warning: There's a serious drawback to the tucked edge. Having the edge come up above the top ring is important to help keep the skin from sliding out between the rings under the high tension needed on the drum head. I'm now looking at using glue to help deal with this!

Tightening

How long do you wait till bringing the head to full tightness? I'm still afraid to set full tightness while it's still wet. A good skin can stand the tension at this stage, but if it's too pliable it'll be too easy to slide out from between the rings if you try to tension them all the way at this point. I feel like it should be around 90% of full tightness when wet, then 24 hours later try to get to your first full tightening.
Also, I noted that playing the drum is an important part of the tightening process. I guess this is what "breaking it in" is all about. So, the day after getting that wet head on, I want to start playing it for 30 minutes at a time. Sometimes can hear the tone noticeably deepen while playing the first or second sessions.

How tight is full tightness? This is a "learn by feel" technique. My experience is that two adjacent vertical laces should be very difficult or impossible to squeeze together using your fingers. If you can squeeze them together with your fingers, then you should go around with one row of a Mali weave.
A week or two after getting that new head tightened to your liking, it will be probably ready for a Mali weave to tighten it up again. This, for me, is when the slaps really start to sound good. I know, a lot of it's my technique and I admit it needs work. But I knew it wasn't all me when I tried out some other drums at our circles and found some much easier than mine.

Kevin's home-built drum-tightening device (aka "The Cincher") is a miracle for boosting drum building speed. This can really get you far down the path to a sufficiently tight head. I wanted to go old school so I used a broomstick-sized dowel. That worked but doesn't get it quite as tight... just means I'll need my Mali weave to go up higher, which can be pretty. Plus it was hell on my back and hands. The Cincher makes it all look more professional.

Rebuilding

A week after building the big djembe, the head was not tightening up as I had expected... booming tones everywhere, no slaps. Since I still cursed myself for three mistakes putting the head on--rim too sharp, top too short and lacing backwards--I decided to bite the bullet and re-head it... with the same skin. (By top too short, I mean the rings are very near the drum head, making it uncomfortable to play).
So I unlaced the whole thing and took the head off, but left both rings wrapped up in the skin, thinking this would improve my chance of success. This I put upside down into 1/4" of water in a shallow pan, and poured another 1/4" water into the upside down head.

Spent the next two hours reshaping the rim. The first thing I noticed was the surprisingly deep indentations in the outside of the rim casued by the top ring's knots. I guessed right on why the top was so short... the rings were a tad too small for the shell. They fit over fine by themselves but with wrapping, knots and two layers of skin, they did not.

No wonder the head wasn't tightening properly... those rings weren't going any further down no matter how much weave I put in!

So, maybe we do it right this time, YA THINK? Took the shape of the edge using one of those handy-dandy moulding countour tools, drew it on paper and planned corrections to let the rings come further down, and to round the lip a lot more for comfort. With that huge flat edge on top, I still had plenty of room to reduce the outside diameter and give me some softer lip.

This time, I first rasped it out "blocky," creating planes instead of curves, like a draft-rendered 3D surface. This made it much easier to see if the shape was correct all the way around. Then I smoothed out the angles turning it into the final curve.

The lip edge looks much narrower here; I actually widened it a bit more before going to the next step... but not much.

Time for a quick thin coat of linseed oil & mineral spirits, wait a bit then rub some candle wax on the outer lip to help skin movement during tightening. Now let's get that head out of the water and see if it's compeletely fallen apart. Nope, looks like the head is nice and soft but the skin holding the rings in place is not, since that wasn't submerged. The rope & wrappings got soaked though. I hope that doesn't turn into a problem.

Putting it back on the drum, I can already get it way down past the tightest position of the previous built. Of course, some of that is due to the fact that there's less diameter to cover, but now it's clear the rings fit the drum much better.

One last change. This time when I lace it up wet, I go for 95% tightness instead of being afraid of tension at this stage, as I was during the first build. I think this'll make it easier to get the proper tightness across the head in the long run, as it dries.

My first lacing was very loose, so I could make sure not to get the head stuck on crooked. Then took my time getting it the first level of tightness, just simple pulling-down on each vertical. Then two circuits around pulling the ropes by hand. Then two full circuits with the thick oak dowel. I improved this tool a little bit by filing a groove in one side so it can hold the rope as I pull.

Ahh, much better. Now the head is on the way I wanted it in the first place! And it already sounds better than the first build.

First build short head --> Rebuilt nice 'n tall

So far, looks like a successful rebuild... I sure had my doubts! And my arms and back are letting me know it was a full day's effort! We'll see if the sound shapes up over time as it dries.

One last obstacle

Finally, several days after letting the skin dry for the third time, I saw that it was dangerously low behind the top ring, and would very likely slip out once I started to put the first weave in for final tightening.  I thought it might be foolish to try and re-head it a fourth time to reposition the skin, imagining that I might never quite get it right and end up having to get a new skin for it.  Well, if that were going to be the case, then I thought to try one last option to salvage this very promising build.  Glue.  I was going to fill the spaces between the top rings with a strong, flexible glue to make sure the skin stayed strong as I pulled those high tensions on the ropes.

E6000 adhesive.  Ever heard of it?  Been around for about 25 years, according to the website, and apparently about as versatile as duct tape.  I had a tube from when I needed to repair a leak inside my hot tub and this was what they recommended.  Well if it could stand up to that, I thought it might be fine for drum playing… plus, it lists leather as one of its target materials.

It worked!

I went around once filling in the gaps with E6000, let it dry 24 hours then went around one more time.  The next day, I put in two rows of Mali weave, and—drum roll, please—heard those elusive dry slaps that are so hard for the novice drummer to get from their drum!  Success at last! 

Had an incredibly fun time playing the drums the following Sunday at an outdoor jam in Fort Mill, SC.

I wonder how long it will last.

Happily playing with friend Caren, son Jack and a gazebo full of other drumheads

Links

The most detailed, explicit instructions I’ve found on all these steps is at http://hawkdancing.com/Wooddrum/drumhead.html.  A wealth of information. 

Glenn Huxtable has a very respectable site at http://www.amnet.net.au/~huxtable/glenn/ashiko/index.html that discusses building staved ashikos, which have many steps in common with djembe construction once you’re talking about the head.

Finally, the guy who knows a world about building hand drums of various kinds, Kevin Brown’s Rhythm House Drums got me started on the building part once I was enamored of playing and wanted to sweat over building my own.  Visit this site if you’re interested in supplies, building, or buying a fine finished drum.