Djembe Repair, Tuning & Care
Get Tips To Keep Your African Drum In Shape
Kingy Mensah
Mensah is a drum builder and percussionist in West Africa. He has been working with African drums all his life and has lots of tips and ticks in store for you.
Fortunately, you don't need to be a professional to properly take care of your drum. With the help of Mensah and other drummers you can learn to do it all yourself. It's fun and relatively easy. Just ask for help below.
Here are some of the things you need to think of:
Care
A hand-made drum from West Africa is a piece of art. What somebody crafted with his hands, heart and great effort is worth receiving your best care. Proper handling can prevent a lot of trouble. At the very least, use a djembe case that protects during transport and storage.
Repair
It can become necessary to fix small holes in the hide or to repair cracks in the shell. That's easy to do. But you may face bigger issues as well:
From time to time, you'll need to remove the old rope and redo the djembe knots with a new one.
Or you'll even have to replace the whole drum head because the skin is damaged.
Tuning
When the sound is off, your drumming skills are not necessarily the problem. Every djembe needs a tune up from time to time. Depending on the shape of your drum, there are various methods to tune it. You can have your teacher do it or just learn to tune your djembe yourself.
Need Help? Get Answers To Your Djembe Repair Questions
Something wrong with your drum?
Need to fix it, tune it, replace the head?
Want some tips and tricks before you start working?
We're here to help! Post your question and get answers by me and Mensah or other drummers who've been there and done that:
