Hawkdancing Studio Presents a:
African Djembe Drum Building Workshop
Always wanted a African Djembe drum but are intimidated by the construction and ropes? Here's a chance to get a reasonably priced djembe and learn to put it together, tune, care for, and play it in a sacred workshop setting! We'll prepare and head your drum in one seven hour session and then return a week later to finish, tune, and play it!
Provided in the workshop:
- A rebuilt, hand carved, Iroko wood drum shell from the Ivory Coast (Above)
- Properly sized steel rings and wrapping materials
- An African goatskin from Mali, Africa
- Low stretch, double weave, polyester rope
- All the tools and equipment for assembling the drum and tuning it
- Direct supervision and instruction ensuring a quality instrument!
- (I've built over a 100 drums the last ten years and know all the tips and tricks.)
Where, When? (Two sessions)
- Amethyst Dreams, 412 East 18th Street, Kansas City, MO, 64108
- Saturday Dec. 11th 10am-6pm to build the drum
- Monday evening Dec 13th, 5-8pm, to finish and tune your new drum.
Cost?
- All materials and instruction for $295.00 with a rebuilt shell. or $395 with a new Ivory Coast shell. You MUST preregister with $50 deposit, limited to 12 participants maximum!
- Visa /MC / Disc / AMEX accepted. Call to register 816/349-9931
Choice of rebuilt Drum shells assigned by registration date. Registration limited.
Want to rebuild/rehead your existing drum at the workshop?
Call for prices!What should I Bring along? Visit our African Drum pages to see more drums!
Details Week One:
I've rebuilt 20 Ivory Coast shells. Reworked and leveled the top and bottom edges, filled any cracks or weaknesses and refinished these full size shells. We'll start out with a short connection and attunement meditation and then begin work with choosing and inspecting the shells, and finish oiling them.
- I'll show how to inspect and select a hide for color and thickness. And start them softening in water.
- We begin assembly with preparing the rings.
- First we wrap with electrical tape to seal them from moisture.
- Select a cloth wrap from materials provided (or bring your own special cloth).
- Wrap top and bottom rings, glue ends.
- We'll measure out ring or cradle rope and weave on to the rings.
- Check for even numbers and spacing, then join together and finish ends.
- Measure out lengths of rope for the verticals to prepare for heading
- Head the drum in teams of two.
- Rinse and wring out skin
- Prestretch hide
- Punch holes and tie onto hide ring
- Thread verical rope and tie end loop
- Snug down skin, checking for evenness.
- Prepare for drying
- Cut excess skin off
- Wrap with athletic bandage
- Rough shave drum
At this point we'll talk about personalizing your drum and explore design ideas in carving. painting, adding jewelry and totem items. You'll take your drum home and let it dry for a week!
Details of Day Two:
- Process last weeks experience. Share our drum personalization ideas and plans.
- Finish shave and lightly sand the heads.
- Hand tighten the heads.
- Tighten with rope lever in teams.
- Learn the ways to start and end a row of weave.
- Tune em up!
Once we have everyone's drum ready to play, I'll cover some drum basics:
- Care of your drum.
- Accessories, and how to use them.
- Basic playing hand technique.
- Simple drum circle survival rhythms
We'll end our session by learning a drummers greeting/prayer.
- Required:
- Cloth or leather gloves
- Athletic Bandage
- An open heart!
- Optional:
- Custom cloth for rings
- Small locking pliers
- Needle nose pliers
- Scissors
- Smooth curved blade knife
- Razor knife
