Have you ever wondered how a drum is made? Bass, side (snare) or tenor?
First, make sure that you have the right materials: plywood, glue, nails, famaica, wires (for the snare drum) and drum skin.
Our team in Kampala have made up 3 bass drums, 6 side drums, and 3 tenor drums using the following steps:
- Find a large board piece of plywood. (This will be your main material).
- Cut it to the size of the drum you want to make (i.e. bass drum, tenor drum, or side drum).
- Wet the plywood so that it can bend into a circular shape easily.
- Repeat this, however make sure that the second piece is a smaller shape, so that it can fit inside the first. (We do this to make the drum strong).
- Once in a circle shape, glue the plywood pieces together with glue and screws.
- Wait 3 days for the glue to dry, and then remove the screws.
- Cut the famaica material (which determines the colour of your drum) into a size which circles around the plywood.
- Use the glue again to stick the famaica onto the plywood. (Superglue is used when sticking the last edges of famaica together to make sure that it sticks).
- Get the drum skin, and measure it with a metal circle around the plywood.
- Weld the metal around the skin of the drum.
- Add the vibrators to the bottom of the drum (this creates the snare sound).
- Put hooks around the drum to connect the two skins. (The hooks are used to tune the drum).
- Screw in the hooks to keep everything together.
- Finally, tune the drum by turning the hooks to the right sound.
