Rhythm Instruments III: Drums I have made from scratch

 Tongue drums are musical instruments typically carved from wood. The tongues can be formed using a jigsaw. My version is made from clay. Unfortunately, clay is probably not the best medium for something like this. Striking the top of the drum with too much force can damage the instrument. Oh well. So much for that idea.

 Here's a simple tongue drum made from bamboo. This material is much more durable than clay when it comes to striking a firm surface.

Tongue drums are usually box shaped, whether square or rectangular. I made my version from a piece of bamboo. This model resembles the African slit drum, itself often made from a hollowed out log. Tongue drums are common to Central America.

 Okay, so this is another plastic drinking bottle. I just posted this video to be sure I had tested the limits of sound possibilities for this quasi-instrument.

This is a tubular drum made in the style of the Nigerian udu drum. The tube is open at the top and has a hole on one side. Partially or completely covering the side hole and striking the open top produces a variety of interesting sounds.

An inkwell is not really an instrument per se but I found the sound potential for this one quite interesting. I treated this object as if it was an udu drum and struck the open top with the palm of one hand. Note the "ploit" sound.

 Here's a sort of udu drum made from a gourd.

Here is my largest clay udu drum or udu-style drum. I had no genuine instrument on hand to study for design details. Basically I just "winged" making my own version. Even though this particular drum resembles a small pumpkin rather than a water pot with a hole on one side, I think the sounds are rather impressive.

I also made a few small udu drums. Here is one example.

Okay, another one.

 And a third. The difference in color does not do anything for differences in sound.

 Okay, this is not a drum either. It is an alarm clock. I decided to see what sounds I could find by striking the two bells. Chimes come to mind.

 Coils from a burned out heating unit can be quite useful in terms of percussion.

 Thunder tubes consist of coiled springs attached to cylindrical bodies with closed off ends. The bodies serve as resonators and amplify the sound. I haven't tried making a thunder tube yet but figured I would jangle these coils around to see what sounds I could get from them.

 Here is one way to recycle a water cooler bottle.

 And a metal coffee can with a plastic lid.

 How about a couple of plastic coffee can bongos?

I drilled a hole in the bottom of a wooden goblet and covered the top with a piece of leather. The result was a makeshift djembe.

 Here's a sort of clay doumbek.

 another one,

 Deerskin hide shrinks as it dries. That is an advantage over other kinds of leather. Here is a clay drum I made using deerskin for the drumhead.

 Here is another one.

Here is a bamboo tomtom with two drum heads. One consists of leather and the other is chamois. Leather has the advantage of being flexible enough to stretch over the frame, thus making the drum head firm, rather than loose.

 Here is yet another udu drum. This one is made from a shellac finished pumpkin gourd.

 I made this Native American frame drum from a  kit.

 I made this frame drum from scratch, using the Native American drum as inspiration. I thought the frame was wood but it turned out to be leather and cardboard. Still, the drum manages to hold its shape pretty well.

 Here is another frame drum I made from scratch. If I had had my drothers, I would choose a different design, rather than an eye or other body part.

 Some Native American frame drums are eight sided (octagonal) in shape. I tried making such a drum but miscalculated a few things in terms of design. The drum is a bit odd in shape and warped. Still, I think I managed to get some good sounds with it.

 This is a thumb piano, aka Mbira or kalimba. Thumb pianos are sometimes made from gourds or coconuts. In some instances, the tone bars consist of rake tines, as in this example. I used a cedar box instead of a coconut or gourd. Also, I modified this instrument so I could hook it up to an amplifier. The pickup is simple: a piezo disk wired to a stereo phone jack.

 Another kalimba, without the amplification.This one has hair pins for instead of rake tines for the tone bars. The instrument body is a cigar box.

 One more kalimba, featuring paper clips for the tone bars and a cigar box for the resonator.

 Finally, here is an instrument inspired by Blue Man Group. The trio builds percussion instruments out of Plumbing pipe, among other materials. My instrument is a sort of xylophone consisting of Schedule 40 Irrigation pipe and 90 degree elbows.