Level of Difficulty: easy

Age levels: Kindergarten to elderly.

This is a brand new page, and we will be working on the next generation of this drum over the next few weeks. Check back to see updated pictures. this one was done rather hurriedly, with a goatskin, because that's what I had laying around. the next one will be calf, with the edge of the head done much more carefully. we are toying with such ideas as jingles, rivets, snares, a second head on the bottom, etc.

also, more soon on the bottles

stu

Places to get skins:

hideandfur.com

goatskins.com

mid-east.com

AfricanRhythmTraders

An alternative to chaning the hose clamps together is to use thekits that come with a trimable piece of strap and a crimp on adjusting screw assembly, allowing you to make custom length clamps with a wire cutter and a pair of pliers.

see here

 

 

 

Homemade: Stu's DjunBasket

Do you need a nice loud drum circle drum, but don't want to invest in(and lug around) a big heavy djun djun? Or perhaps you need a nice inexpensive drum to practice freehand on? The DjunBasket is for you. It's easy to make, very light in weight, and versatile enough to find a range of uses. One can play it with sticks or with hands, depending upon the situation and the tuning..

LISTEN to stu's DjunBasket
(played with sticks, as above right. Hand drumming examples to be posted soon.)

The djunbasket is one of a family of homemade drums, which we will eventually present in it's entirety, with whole sets of rhythms and practice exercises to help teachers using homemade percussion with their students.

Ingredients

1. One aluminum bushel basket - Of course, any kind of metal pail will make a drum, but for several reasons, we urge you to consider this particular type of aluminum bushel basket..

2. Approximately three radiator hose clamps, enough to encircle the basket in a connected chain.

3. One goat or calf skin, 20 to 22 inches in diameter. If you choose calf, try to get one that's not too thick. (If it is thicker than the lip around the edge of the basket, you may have some problems getting the ring to hold.)

4. A razor or X-acto knife, needle nosed pliers, screwdriver


Are you set to go? Okay, let's make the drum..

1. take the skin, and soak it in lukewarm water in the tub, until it is quite pliable, but not so long as to make it thick and flabby; about two or three hours for goat, perhaps a bit longer for calf.

2. while the head is soaking, get the rest of it ready, Join the radiator hose clamps into a circle, end to end, and tighten them down, just enough to make the ring of hose clamps about two or three inches bigger than the diameter of the basket.

3. Place the wet head on the basket and center it.

4. Place the chain of hose clamps down upon the head, and pull down around the skin and basket. Tighten slowly and carefully most of the way, allowing a bit of play for pulling on the skin. At this stage, if you have a friend to help you pull the head down on all sides as you continue to tighten, that will help. It's a little tricky, because tighening anywhere on the ring of clamps will tighten all the way around. Finally tighten it all the way down; you don't want it slipping later, when you are playing it hard with a stick. Put it up and let it dry overnight.

5. Your drum is now playable. You'll want to play it a bit before trimmming off the excess skin, test it out; when you are satisfied that you won't need to resoak and remount the head, take the razor knife and CAREFULLY trim off the excess skin.

Chris Bittner of www.drumworksbychris.com made this wise suggestion: "The skin will shrink under the clamp when it dries, so make sure and tighten it one last time when it's dry, to take up any slack." You want to make sure it doesn't loosen up under the stickwork.

6. To make this drum better next time we intend to do the following:

The hose clamp is a tiny bit wider than the space between the lip around the top edge and the handle mounting; it diidn't quite fit in there perfectly. Next time, we'll take a dremmel tool and take off just a tiny bit of the width of the hose clamp chain where it meets the handles.

Since I am planning to use it for a djun djun substitute, we'll do the next one in heavier calf. For hand use, we'd make it goat, and pull it tighter when applying the head. We may do a double headed one in goat, but I need to buy a grinder first.

We haven't mentioned decorating it, but that would help to personalize it a lot. We purposely left this one plain.

 

Anyway, please send feedback. Thanks for looking..

stu

 

 

Tuning

The simplicity of the design requires that one tune the old way: with heat to tune up , and water to tune down.

Click for detail.

A few of many possible playing positions
(click for a bigger image)
This way, one can access the metal and skin sounds simultaneously.

This method is for when the drum is tuned up nice and high.

playing djun djun style, leaning up on one leg.

It also works well with a strap or cord over one shoulder. It is very light.

 

Previous Page | Contact | Home

© 1996-2008 Eric Stuer All rights reserved


RHYTHMWEB
P.O. Box 836711 Richardson TX 75083
RHYTHM WEB™; and  RHYTHMWEB™; 
are trademarks, and any unauthorized use of the names is a violation of applicable law.