![Whale drum (from Emil Richards Collection)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Whale_drum_%28from_Emil_Richards_Collection%29.jpg)
A steel tongue drum, tank drum, or hank drum is a round steel
slit/tongue drum in the
Idiophone
An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electroph ...
family originally fashioned from a propane cylinder.
Description
A steel tongue drum can be made from an empty (often 20lb) propane tank. The tank is flipped over, the base cut/knocked off; and seven to ten tongues are cut radially into the bottom of the tank, forming the top of the instrument. Steel tongue drum can also be made from new unused tank heads. The tongues can be tuned by the maker by varying the length of the cuts, or by adding weights, often
neodymium magnets
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file:Nd-magnet.jpg.html" ;"title="hard_disk_drive_.html" ;"title="hard_disk_d ...
to the tongues. The steel tongue drum is often tuned to
pentatonic scales
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale).
Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancien ...
but can be tuned to the
diatonic scale, the
chromatic scale
The chromatic scale (or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches (more completely, pitch classes) used in tonal music, with notes separated by the interval of a semitone. Chromatic instruments, such as the piano, are made to produce th ...
, or any set of notes the maker chooses. The instrument is played with the fingers or with mallets. It boasts a pleasant, bell-like tone.
History
The steel tongue drum is based on the wooden
slit drum
A slit drum or slit gong is a hollow percussion instrument. In spite of the name, it is not a true drum but an idiophone, usually carved or constructed from bamboo or wood into a box with one or more slits in the top. Most slit drums have one slit ...
. The slit drum is known to have been developed independently by multiple ancient civilizations including
Africans,
Aztecs, and
Indonesians. They were used for both ritual and entertainment in these ancient civilizations. The steel tongue drum today had several predecessors, most notably the Whale Drum in 1990 by Jim Doble and the Tambiro by Felle Vega. In February 2007 Dennis Havlena, inspired by the physical properties of the Tambiro and the tone layout of the
Hang
Hang or Hanging may refer to:
People
* Choe Hang (disambiguation), various people
* Luciano Hang (born 1962/1963), Brazilian billionaire businessman
* Ren Hang (disambiguation), various people
Law
* Hanging, a form of capital punishment
Arts, e ...
, created a steel tongue drum with a circular cross pattern layout from an empty 20-pound
propane tank. The name 'Hank Drum' came from a combination of "Hang" and "tank".
YouTube video: The Original Propane Tank "Hank Drum" - by Dennis Havlena
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Dennis Havlena's instrument, in turn, has inspired other steel tongue drum inventions. Today there are a lot of vendors of commercial versions of the steel tongue drum worldwide.
file:Gombadrum frontup5.jpg, Hank drum
file:Steel tongue drum pentatonic F 432.jpg, A steel tongue drum tuned in a pentatonic F scale with A 432 hz
Construction
Slit drum
A slit drum or slit gong is a hollow percussion instrument. In spite of the name, it is not a true drum but an idiophone, usually carved or constructed from bamboo or wood into a box with one or more slits in the top. Most slit drums have one slit ...
s were originally built out of hollowed out logs or bamboo, but the steel tank drum is made from steel and often built from 20 gallon propane tanks. The construction is usually enclosed, unlike other open-bottom drums, so the sound produced resonates through the steel and vibrating air escaped from the slits. When built from a steel propane tank, the paint is usually ground off and properly sized slits are cut and tuned by means of filing or adding material through soldering
Soldering (; ) is a process in which two or more items are joined by melting and putting a filler metal (solder) into the joint, the filler metal having a lower melting point than the adjoining metal. Unlike welding, soldering does not involv ...
or welding
Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as bra ...
.
References
External links
Dennis Havlena's Website
* ttps://www.tongue-drum.net Tongue Drum Guidebr>How to Build a Hank Drum
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Percussion vessels
Slit drums
21st-century percussion instruments
Pitched percussion instruments