Steel Tongue Drum

A Steel Tongue Drum - also called Steel Slit Drum, Tank drum or Hank Drum - is a steel tongue percussion instrument and belongs to the family of Aufschlagidiophone.

Description

A Steel Tongue Drum consists of a hollow, round sound body made of steel, which usually has on the top seven to ten steel reeds which are tonally tuned and played with the hands or padded mallets. The steel tongues are cut in the manufacturing process of the sound box that a connection stays only on one side. Usually, Steel Tongue Drums have an opening on the bottom, rarely on the top.

Sound example? / I

History

Dennis Havlena was in the spring of 2007, inspired by the slope into an instrument that can be produced in DIY easily. He took over from the slope the circular arrangement with hands played sound fields. As a basis for his instrument was an empty 20 lb propane tank, which is available in the U.S. in many households. Unlike the slope Havlena selected for tone tongues in different sizes, which are cut out from the tank. He had taken over from the Tambiro of skins Vega, a steel tongue instrument based on a helium tank in its six pages tongues were cut this idea. Havlena had already built itself its own version of Tambiro and published a manual on its website. Havlena called his instrument Propane Tank Hank Drum or Drum ( as a combination of " slope " and "Tank" ) and published in the summer 2007 for this instrument an instruction manual. She found a world-wide echo in people who tried the DIY of Havlenas instrument and presented their results on YouTube the public.

Meanwhile, there have undertaken a number of manufacturers worldwide to bring commercial versions of the Steel Tongue Drum on the market, which are characterized in that there is no propane tank fashioned, but a not so high sound body is specially made ​​that will be played while sitting on the thighs can.