After watching your video I feel empowered to tune my own drum versus paying someone. Thank you so much for such a visually clear concise step by step video‼️
Hey guys, thanks so much for this great video! I have been putting off tuning my drum for 6 months because I was tired of paying someone to do it for me but afraid to do it myself. You made it so easy and I have a delicious sounding drum again!!!!
thanks for the video!.. pulled 10 diamonds on my new toca freestyle 2 synthetic drum and it converted it from sounding dull and ringing ringing to alive and crisp! almost sounds like my wula drum now . who knew tuning could make such a big difference? was afraid to try but your video gave me the courage. much easier than it seems
Top marks for clearly demonstrating how to tighten a rope djembe. I was avoiding the project, now I will tighten/tune with ease when needed. NOW, do one on replacing the vertical rope. Update: I suggest using a (white) rubber hammer to loosen the adhesion, between skin head and the wooden drum rim, before you begin weaving a tune.
TO UN-TUNE -- Pass a stick under the last horizontal weave, wiggle and pull it around a little bit to loosen that weave and undo those 2 twisted verticals (makes a sharp snap). Then pass the free end of the rope back from under verticals 2 & 1. Pull the loose bit out from there all the way until the last bit is 'stuck' under the tension of these verticals. Then give it one hard, sharp tug in the same direction, and the last stuck bit will snap out. Do this backwards for each weave as required. Nice tutorial, X8 Drums! Tuning rope djembes is really way, way easier and quicker than it looks. :)
Kenya, As you've shown me this before (on stage... right before I popped it); it's good to see your video. Hope all is well with you and yours; appreciate your being a positive role model.
There are also key tuned wooden djembes. They sound So much better. I have both, and the key tune is easier to tighten, but I think the rope tuned will give a much more balanced tension on the head.
What a lesson. Thanks very much for this lesson on how to tune a djembe drum. I practised on mine and I got a different good correct sound. Bravo ! Nomthandazo
Thanks so much for the tutorial! Worked like a charm. It would be cool as well to how to use the excess slack at the end to tie into a handle type of thing. I see in the video your drum already has one at the top (a little loop handle).
When you rope tune a traditional djembe,the vertical pull ropes are the equivalent of lugs on a mechanical tuned djembe, conga, snare,etc. Most premium traditional djembe have between 27 to 35 vertical rope pulls.Try to find any mechanically tuned drum with 30 lugs per head,lol.Actually,a traditional rope tuned djembe/drum is a more sophisticated way of tuning a drum.
is the tension on the head distributed evenly throughout the circumference of the drum. or do you have to tune all the way around the drum to maintain even pitch on the head?
@@Misterdandamanify Someone who's tuning it for the first time might crack the drumhead if they try too hard to go all the way around. Best to go till the head feels just tight enough, and then locate a playing position where you get equal tones from both hands. At least that's how I tune mine and it works. BUT mine doesn't have a spine down the middle of the head, so that might work a little differently.
Do all djembe’s take their own amount of rope to be tuned? For say if they were all at the same pitch would they have different amounts of rope used in tuning?
If I want to tune just a little bit, is it possible to make just 2 or 3 diamonds? Don't you have to go along in every row? Isn't there goning to be a tension problem?
As we create more diamonds does it become more difficult to pull them lower? I'm on a second row and it is starting to look uneven (they arent all pulled down to the bottom)
thanks man! I have a small one and this helped a lot. should I detune it. if I don't play it much? also, what do I put on the Goat Skin to keep it smooth?