Making Djembe Drums From a British Columbia Rainforest

For the last 35 years, my partner & I have played world hand drums, djembes, congas, bongos, ashikos, tabla & temple blocks. We never did get that one to sound like a drum at all, but the one from the dance troupe is still in our collection and is a great little drum. Our next drum purchases came from a music store in Mexico, a pair of gorgeous congas.

I have written another article about this on our djembe drum website, so I won't go into that adventure in drumming here. Sanga said that we should not even take our own drums with us, because his buddy would have drums for us there. We got to play with Wayne & Carols drum band called Culture Stop and Wayne made each of us a drum in just a few days so we could really get into it. Could those guys play. The way they played their drum music, so tight, all choreographed with signals and drum pattern communiques all built in differently to each song. The most extraordinary thing we learned though was how to carve, skin & tune djembe, djun djun & and ashiko drums. Correct breathing must be practiced so as not to rip the drum skin. The new drum is massaged and played just a little bit in between knot pulls to get the skin tighter & tighter. Maybe do a tour of shows and drum workshops around southern BC. Our new drums came on the long plane rides home, 3 flights, 20 hours. It would be another year before Waynes' drum making lessons would call to us from part of psyche; giving us a strong urge to carve and skin more drums. We carved our collection of Djembe Drums from the heartwood of Douglas Fir trees from right here on our Vancouver Island acreage of rain forest. Certainly, we learned from every drum, mostly that it is what is in your hearts' thoughts that determines the spirit and sound of each drum. We had always felt the spirit of our drums as we played them, but this was remarkable. The BC Douglas Fir tree makes an excellent sounding drum. Thanks again Wayne Guerra, drum master, for your patience, humour and love while you taught a pair of unlikely people like us to drum and then how to make a drum. The ability to make a drum, skin a drum and tune a drum has changed the level at which we play the drum. I don't know why, it just gave us such a deep connection and comprehension of who the drum is and who we are in the drum world.

So djembe drummers; don't be afraid to try making a drum. I promise you, carving & skinning your own drum will make you a better drummer. Highly recommended to make at least one drum in your drummers life. We carved our collection of Djembe Drums from the heartwood of Douglas Fir trees right here on our Vancouver Island rainforest. Certainly, we learned from every drum, mostly that it is what is in your hearts thoughts that determines the spirit and sound of each drum. There are several great videos of people playing Djembe Drums from all over the world, including a two year boy.