How To Tune a Steel Tongue Drum or Tank Drum with Magnets 

Caution: Keep those powerful magnets away from watches, credit cards, phones and computers.

*_Chromatic tongue drum pairs:_* If you have two identical tongue drums, you can lower the pitches of the notes on one of the drums each a half-tone, to provide a chromatic tongue drum pair. You could do that for every note, or just for the four notes that provide the necessary accidentals. The advantages of using identical tongue drums is (1) the pair will have a uniform timbre, and (2) you will acclimate more easily to the positions of the respective note degrees on the drums. There is a different advantage to using non-identical drums. Namely, the two manufacturers may have each chosen a different note degree for the large, center tongue (assuming that there is a large, center tongue). That means that you would now have two different very low notes, which might add some versatility to your playing options). Alternatively, you could use a single drum, and lower four of the notes a half-tone in just one of the octaves. That would be more limiting, but also less expensive and more compact. The reason that I reference four notes is that a diatonic scale has 7 notes, and a chromatic scale has 11 notes (in each octave of course).

Magnets don't work to raise the pitch. Metal can be ground off the bottom tip of a tongue with a die grinder to raise the pitch. Use a tuner to check the pitch very often between very light grinding. It doesn't take much. That annoying resonance can be tamed by placing felt sticky pads at the base of each tongue. My cheap Amazon drum ( all flat) now sounds wonderful. Michael

Thank you so much for showing this. Every tongue drum maker should explain this to their customers. I always include magnets with mine.

I love the fact you called magnets "sticky". Your videos are very informative thank you.

Just by chance I had some of those magnets and adjusted the central tongue as you did in the video and it’s balanced the whole drum as the higher scales are now super crisp also so this is a super bonus -THANK YOU 🙏🏼

That is a crafty way to get a few scales out of one drum!! Awesome and thanks!!

Just bought a 12 inch drum for my grandson and wanted to hear different tongue examples when I stumbled on your profile. Nice approach in explaining the ins and outs of these drums. I did have a question though. I'm thinking it's the weight of the magnet and not the magnetic properties that make it change pitch. But could be both. You have one of the most pleasant voices I've ever heard on RU-vid. And I watch 1000's of videos. Thanks for sharing and for what you do and hope you make many more videos just to hear your sweet voice.

Thanks, super educational and easy to follow. I will look forward to more!

I just found you for I’m getting a tongue drum. I’m into fine tuning my body and have gotten such great info on what instruments to use. Thank you so very very much for your information. 🥰💕🌟

These videos are so great. Thanks for taking the time to make these! I'm a fan. Love your kind and positive energy. My first tongue (13-note) drum is on its way. Should get it next week. I'm excited to learn.

Its really cute with a glow ring stick inside with lights down

Thanks for showing me how to do this, will definitely experimenting with my steel tongue drum with magnets now. :D

Works like a charm - thanks for the post. You are champion!

I ABSOLUTELY love the description of the notes going an entire step down when you add the magnet!! Brilliant

love your laugh and smile. I'm gonna definitely use your trick!

This is really helpful! Thank you! I just got a similar 12 inch tongue drum from Sonart and it needs a bit of tuning

Thanks for sharing this! Very helpful and informative.

Thanks Molly - looking forward to the video - Happy New Year

That's pretty cool I have to admit.

This is awesome, thanks Molly!

Always learn something new with your vids👍

Interesting! Will give this method a try.. Thank You Molly!.💜

Thank you Molly!

For the tuner I learned from Ricky (ReWildYourSoul) that a spectral tuner should be used, not a guitar tuner that doesn’t show harmonic alignment. A strobe tuner should also work I imagine.

My husband just bought me a tongue drum. I’m trying so hard to learn. Thanks for your help. I have no idea what I’m doing! My drum has a hollow center, and is large and more flat. Methinks he paid too much. Here’s to learning, though!

This is great! I just bought a D major tongue drum and need to change the C#'s to C's :D

There is a “magnetic” paint. You can put a bit on your drum & attach the neo-mags to that (if your drum isn’t magnetic). 😉

Thank you so much! 😊

Molly I received my first tongue drum 😀 its a six inch gold color , I will be receiving 2 more I'm so excited 🎶 My grandson will be having one of them Thanks a bunch for your videos 😍

Just found a great little tongue drum that's on its way in the mail. The original posting said it was in C maj which is meh.. I wanted D minor. Come to find out, it's actually in D major, and you just gave me the key to simply convert it to D minor. Thank you so much! 💓

Love Your positive energy Molly

Thank you thank you!

New to this, need a drum for meditation class. What would be a good key to use for deeper tones? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hey guess WHAT? You CAN tune non magnetic drums with rare earth magnets! I just did! Magnet on inside/ magnet on outside......move the outside magnet, inside magnet follows! Works better on larger drums, just look out for hitting the exterior magnets. Was able to get g flat out of a low G....move magnet tolwards the tip of the tongue....got an A ! Trouble is...these things keep multiplying! Im up to 14 tongue drums! like Tribbles (old star trek episode check it out)......;p

Hi Molly, thank you for generously posting help videos and demonstration videos as well. One 'tune' your tongue drum question I have been unsuccessful to find an answer for is..."Is there a way to adjust a (most of the time) higher note so that it rings better?" I have found on several that I have purchased in the 'economy' level that in a 13 note 12 inch drum, for example, the last one or two high notes just won't sing very well. Even when listening to recordings, I note the same. I realize that there is limited physical tongue material to vibrate and generate sound, but some I hear will sing that note; others just kind of a tuned thump. And that is after experimenting to see if there is a sweet spot for the strike that is located differently than other notes.

Hi your videos on the hang drum are great. I have bought a 15 tone hang drum but mine is in D. Where can i find out how to tune it. I have seen your video on tuning it to C Major and I have the Pantone app you recommended. Any help appreciated. Thanks Jean

I had heard of this method but never tried it. I know this is the method Idiopan uses on their drums. Very cool idea! This method wouldn't work on the VibeDrums however because they're stainless steel. Fortunately, VibeDrums does an excellent job of tuning their drums so you wouldn't need to. LOL. I look forward to seeing the other tunings you come up with.

Molly ;love your videos. I just want to buy a tongue drum for mediation purposes only . Could you please recommend one for me. I have never played any type of instrument. Thank so much

My drum is not a tuned scale according to my tuner. There are several g’s ! I will look for rare earth magnets as the regular ones do not stick. Is there a video on RU-vid or Vimeo using a hack saw to hand tune as some videos have mentioned ?

I got big hands. Should I expect to be able to do this, or do I need to pick songs I want to play and get a drum that works for the largest subset?

I have two tongues that sound very flat and have no reverberation. Is that fixable?

Hi Molly, regardig the size of the magnets the ones in your video are they 3x2 mm? thanks.

Is the only way to raise the pitch of a tongue to file it shorter? What about narrower, but not shorter? Is the mass the important factor, or is it the length? Any other way to raise the pitch?

I have no clue how it happened, but my B2 and C3 notes have become the same note. No dissonance whatsoever while hitting them together.

I'm currently looking for a diatonic tongue drum that I can tune, but I'm on a budget. All the tongue drums I've been able to find for $60 or less say they're made with a titanium steel alloy. I tried asking whether magnets will stick and got no response. I tried Googling "is titanium steel magnetic" and got conflicting answers. Do you have any recommendations?

Why are all handpan and tongue drums in the 100 to 200 hz range on pano tuner? I put it on 440 in setting and than trier 432 but ..I don't understand

This may seem like a stupid question, but can I just leave my steel tongue drum sitting out in the open in my living room - or does it need to be covered to protect it from dust? My living room is temperature controlled, so I'm not worried about humidity, etc., but I was concerned about leaving it uncovered and dust getting into the openings. I suppose I could wipe it with a soft wet cloth every now and then? Any advice is very welcome and if I missed a video you made on maintenance that addressed this, I apologize. I just bought my first one - a Rakuni 12". It is numbered from 1-7 and all the numbers but 4 each have a corresponding number with a dot. Figured out what this was intuitively playing it, but if you have a little video on that, please link me to it. Any advice on the best book for general adult music? Where'd you get your Danny Boy - which book?

Hi Molly! I just bought a tongue drum, 13 inches, D#major scale. I am just starting to learn about it and find your videos so helpful(even if I am still confused!). I actually want to change the numbers to letters, cause I read music an it's so hard to get used to the #'s(is this a good idea or will it just make things harder? I play percussion......snare, tympani, etc, and in my past life played the piano as well. Also, can you tell me more about the large vs small tongues? They seem to be octaves. However, it seems that at least one of the notes is not in the same octave as the other notes of the same size. I will be watching more of your videos for sure! Thanks for any help or advice you can give me!

Could you do a video on how to tune a non-magnetic drum, please? Thank you for these drum videos - they’re super helpful!

I just bought a new drum. The center tongue is out of tune and also reverberates, making an awful tinging sound, like nails on a chalkboard. Do you think magnets can help?

Hey Molly. Thanks for making these videos. Your channel is such a great resource! Pretty new to tongue drums but right at the point of wanting to get something a little bit better. I want to find a drum that is tunable (magnetic with opening), large (14+ Inches) and not too expensive ($100 - $200). Do you have any recommendations for something like this?

Hi Molly, this video is very helpful. I was just wondering as to how I could use the magnets to take the note a little higher, cuz on my tongue drum which is 10 inches, all the notes are 5 to 10 Hz lower than the actual note. Or is there any other wat to fine tune the note? After having read the previous comments, I think mine is of a pentatonic scale. Is there a way to fix it to normal Do Re Mi Fa Sol La So Do notes?😁

Hi Molly, soooo I have my very 1st tongue drum! 🤩 It's ace! I love it! (Bet you can hear the BUT coming!) I am confused! Now please bear in mind that I have the musical 🎼 acumen of tumbleweed and am brand new to the T/drum; I was quite disappointed to discover that the so-called instruction book, with songs, is no more than a teeny-tiny folded leaflet with bad English. From this leaflet I can now play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star quite fluently. But my question is this, I don't know what notes I am actually playing. It's all well and good to play 1155665 etc but what notes? So, I followed your link to PanoTuner, thank you, and having installed it, I tap #5 and I got a range of notes! (Of course I've forgotten what they were 3 minutes ago!) For example, when I tapped the tongue, the note showed A# with a red bar. The notes changed as is drum resonated and stopped on G flat with a red bar. Is the first note the correct one? I'd be super-greatful if you'd to a 'using a tuner for dummies' type tutorial! I have the identical twin of your turquoise 13 tongue drum. Thank you for taking the time to read this epistle! With love Kazzi.

I am a little lost with your video which does not show how the magnets are inserted into the drum. It looks like the magnets go inside the drum but how are they inserted and how do you make sure, sight unseen, the magnets are actually placed where you want them to be.

That's such a great tutorial. Thanks! I tried it with regular magnets - they stick, but probably too big since they almost mute the sound completely. Or does it have to be neomydium?

Great video, thanks! One thing that isn't clear, however.....do you put the magnets on the outside or the inside of the drum tongues? If outside, I would think they'd get in the way....unless you then remove them? But if on the inside, it seems like it would be difficult to know where to place them. Thanks!

Hi Molly, love your videos! With using these magnets, do you have to use any specific size? I believe the ones you are using at 6 by 3mm, but could you use an 8 by 3mm, for instance, and have successful results?

Dear Molly Khan I'm so happy to see the video here, I'm the seller of the green drum whih you have show in the video! Thanks so much, I wonder to know i fyou want to have one of our new 14 cin 15 note drum? If you need please just pm me send me your address we will send you the drum for free. because i do not know how to contact you, so only here, sorry for truble.

Hi Molly - I have a 15 note steel tongue drum but I find that two top notes are not quite in tune and are flat/dull sounding. The drum is not magnetic so is there anything I can do to solve this? The drum sounds amazing with such an awesome resonating sound apart from these 2 duff notes. Thanks - Meg.

Very cool advice. (Be sure to never let magnets get near any electronics.)

Where is the best place to stick the numbers on the tongues to make an etheric mellow tone please? Thank you for your advice.

Dear Molly, thank you for you videos. Is it possible that the drum doesn’t have a c. According to the tuner app my drum has multiple D’s 🤷‍♀️ kind regards Marlies

Just wondering. on the small tongue drum are the magnets strong enough to cause the same effect by putting multiple on the inside and a couple on the outside to get the tuning effect you wanted?

I was given a smaller size tongue drum. It has two 1’s, a 2,3, two 5’s, & two 6’s. The duplicates have dots somewhere on them. How do I get a 4 tone? What are the dotted numbers about? I just got this. I appreciate your help. Thanks!

Do you know if there is any way to tune the tongues higher? My drum has a couple that are a few cents flat.

How call magnets can you send me a link from the shop.tnx My support

Do we have to tune a drum when you get it?

What are the ideal diameter and height for magnets?

Magnets do not scratch the surface ?

bonjour md pouriez vous parler en fracais svp merci laurence

Well, your link to the magnets leads to nothing now! Don't you update your information?

I own a tongue drum. But I still don’t know how to label it :(

Giggle giggle giggle..........

the magnets your using are called neodymium magnets they are made from lithium ore!! the strongest commercial available they are an excellent choice as they do stick and they do not interfer with the metallic structural vibration.......

Useful info, thanks. Amazon is the *last* place I would go to buy an instrument though. Endless human suffering at their warehouses, manufacturing overseas, and helping put music stores out of business. All for what? The cheapest instruments possible.

you're so cute and giggly. you steal my heart /;-)

Pleeeeease, for the love of God, get a microphone!!!!!