3 posts tagged “djembe”

It was a pretty good weekend, productive and lazy and fun.  Rae was in California on business, and M was with her grandparents, so I had the weekend to myself.  Started off Friday night with wings & a salad and ordered my first ever pay per view movie (yeah, I know, we just don't typically do PPV), watched Hellboy II which was a lot of fun.  It was a nice splurge to start my bachelor weekend.  The rest of the weekend was a mishmash of working out at the Y, housework, real work (had an annual meeting of a large subdivision to attend on Saturday ~ FOUR HOURS!), more housework, playing on my drum and getting stuff done on the computer.  Moderately successful on the housework front, and a good start on the computer work (more on that later). 

Ended my weekend with my first percussion group meeting (a drum circle group at Eliot that might turn into a meditative drum group, or just a social drum circle).  That was a ton of fun, and nice to be playing my drum with other people. I wasn't the only newbie there, others had never done drum circles before, and there were fits and starts as the organizer of the group tried to impose some process that didn't quite grab most of us.  When we were able to just play, to organically find our own rhythm, it was fun and energizing and seemed to work, though I could tell we were definitely finding our way as a group. I suspect it'll be a meeting or two more before we figure out what we want to do, what we want to be.  One of the older guys brough a digery-do, and it was awesome and really added a great flavor to our playing.

Drum hat 1

My mom made a drumhead hat for my djembe.  I had an idea to make one, picked out the fabric a couple weeks ago, talked about the concept with my folks and just needed to find some time to make one.  Well, over the weekend my mom had M help her make one and they gave it to me Sunday night when they brough her home.  It's exactly what I envisioned.  It's reversible, slightly padded, and fits nice and snug on the drum.  I'm pleased, and mom said it was pretty easy to make (though it had to be much larger than we initially thought).  I think I'll make one or two more just to have some variety to play with.  Pop and I have already started conceptually desigining a full drum case, but that'll take mocking up a pattern and a bit more design to make it fully padded and protective, and to make the straps strong enough to carry.  I'll share pics when I get to making it.

I just wasn't feeling the mojo of the Remo djembe I bought last Saturday.  I played it every night since getting it, played it by myself, with M, listening to youtube videos of djembe players.  Something just wasn't quite right. I knew it the first night it was home, and it only got reinforced as the nights went on - it just wasn't giving me the feeling I wanted in a drum.  The sound wasn't right, it was too ring-y, too loud.  I tried, though, I played every night to try and give it a fair shake.  But it wsn't happening.  I called up the Guitar Center and asked if  could return or exchange it.  Yep, no problem.

So I spent the last couple of days scouring websites, asking questions on a djembe forum or two, and really trying to get a sense of what I should be looking for.  Then I called around to 6 different stores in STL to see if they carried any djembes.  Only two stores had any of the wood drums, the one I liked at Guitar Center and one (turned out to be more than one) at the Drum HQ.  So tonight after work, The Girls and I headed to Drum HQ so I could look at and play with their djembes before making a decision to go back to Guitar Center and get the drum I liked. 

Drum HQ had a brand called Meinl, and they were wood bodies, goatskin heads, rope tuned.  They looked lovely, but there was one seriously huge "flaw" - the goatskin heads were bleached to remove the hair.  The chemical treatment made the drumhead feel tight, look shiny, and gave it a bit of the ring-y quality that the synthetic Remo heads had.  It wasn't near as bad as the Remo, but it was there, a tinny ring quality on the tone and slap (the bass sounded great, though).  I played around for 30 minutes or so, letting The Girls hear what I was hearing.  Rae heard it loud and clear, and knew as well as I did that the Meinl drums were not what I was looking for either.  So, we left, went home, and I packed up the Remo and headed back to Guitar Center to test drive the drum I knew I wanted.

And this is it.  It's a 12" djembe made of Gueni wood with a goatskin head, manufactured by Kangaba.  I have no idea how it really compares to all of the "top end" djembes I've seen touted online that go for upwards of $500-$650.  But I can say that it meets several of the qualities I've read in "djembe buying guides" - in the quality of wood, no cracks, tight rings with no spaces, tight non-stretch ropes, shaved goatskin drum heads.  I figure even if it's not made by a master craftsman (and their website certainly says they are), at least the quality seems there in many of the important factors.  Another important factor for me was price, and this was listed at near the bottom end of some of the premium drums, but sold for much less (yay budget!).

It sounds wonderful to my newbie ears, and to Rae's as well.  It's a rich sound, no tinny ring, no odd overtones rattling my fillings.  I can get nice sound out of it, distinct sounds without having to hit the drum hard (something that wasn't possible with the Remo).  It cost me an extra $100 over what I paid for the Remo AND the drum case, but in the end it's well worth it.  I love the sound, I'm going to love playing on it, learning from it.  I already sound like a better drummer with it.  It's an investment, and something I'm going to greatly enjoy well into the future.  Hopefully more pictures and maybe even some video footage in the not too distant future.