I began making rawhide frame drums in 1989 after attending
my first shamanic drum circle. Birthing shamanic drums became a passion that
continues to this day. Crafting and playing a drum that you have made yourself
is eminently more satisfying than playing any other. A drum of your own
creation will be imbued with your own unique essence. It will become a powerful
extension of your essential self. Moreover, the spirit of a drum will pass
through your hands into the drum as you make it. As master drummaker Judith
Thompson put it, "Making a drum is like pulling your heart together and
giving birth to a new part of yourself." To guide you in drum making, I
highly recommend the book, How to Make Drums, Tomtoms, and Rattles by Bernard
S. Mason. He gives detailed practical instructions on how to craft frame drums,
from processing the rawhide to bending wooden slats into hoops. This classic
1938 edition is now a free public domain eBook. Download How to Make Drums.epub.
The healing power of a drum is based on the trinity of spirits inherent in the animal skin and the tree that make up the drum and the human player who brings it to life. The spiritual essence of your drum will be determined by the materials that go into its construction. When choosing an animal skin for your drum, take into consideration what animal energies, abilities, and characteristics you would like to invoke. The skin is the vocal chord of the drum’s spirit. Tuvan ethnographer Mongush Kenin-Lopsan explains, "Sounding the drum animates or enlivens it, giving voice to the spirit of the animal whose skin is struck with the beater." Tuvan shamans often name their drums after the animals whose skins are stretched across their frames.
The birth of a shamanic drum adds a new branch to the World Tree/Tree of Life. The drum is connected to the World Tree through the wood of the frame and its association through all trees back to the First Tree. The cedar is known as the Tree of Life by various indigenous peoples; hence cedar wood is often used for drum frames. Cedar frame drums are both lightweight and resonant. Red and yellow cedar both work well. In some cultures, the wood for the frame ideally comes from a lightning-struck tree, bringing the power of instantaneous transformation into the drum. Lightning here is also a metaphor for the striking clarity of the shaman’s reborn soul as it rises from the ego death of his or her initiation.
Keep in mind that your drumstick or beater has a spirit and sound of its own. The best beaters for frame drums are made of strong hardwood with a padded, leather covered head. You can decorate your beater with fur, feathers, beadwork, or engrave sacred symbols into it. Different beaters work better with different drums to bring out the tone qualities. There are hard beaters, semi-hard beaters, soft beaters, and rattle beaters, which are simply beaters with a rawhide or gourd rattle attached to the base of the handle opposite the head. In Tuva, the rattle beater or orba, with its head covered with animal fur and metal rings attached for rattling, is in part for practicing divination and drawing the attention of the spirits. The snare sounds associated with metal, stone, and bone rattles attached to beaters and drum frames are described as "spirit voices."
The birth of a shamanic drum adds a new branch to the World Tree/Tree of Life. The drum is connected to the World Tree through the wood of the frame and its association through all trees back to the First Tree. The cedar is known as the Tree of Life by various indigenous peoples; hence cedar wood is often used for drum frames. Cedar frame drums are both lightweight and resonant. Red and yellow cedar both work well. In some cultures, the wood for the frame ideally comes from a lightning-struck tree, bringing the power of instantaneous transformation into the drum. Lightning here is also a metaphor for the striking clarity of the shaman’s reborn soul as it rises from the ego death of his or her initiation.
Keep in mind that your drumstick or beater has a spirit and sound of its own. The best beaters for frame drums are made of strong hardwood with a padded, leather covered head. You can decorate your beater with fur, feathers, beadwork, or engrave sacred symbols into it. Different beaters work better with different drums to bring out the tone qualities. There are hard beaters, semi-hard beaters, soft beaters, and rattle beaters, which are simply beaters with a rawhide or gourd rattle attached to the base of the handle opposite the head. In Tuva, the rattle beater or orba, with its head covered with animal fur and metal rings attached for rattling, is in part for practicing divination and drawing the attention of the spirits. The snare sounds associated with metal, stone, and bone rattles attached to beaters and drum frames are described as "spirit voices."
