R
emove all rings and bracelets to
protect your drum before playing.
When seated, you can place the head of
the doumbek between your knees, with the
base of the drum resting on your crossed
ankles. You can also lay the doumbek on its
side, across the hip. The drum head will be
positioned just off center, in front of your
body. For stability, rest your forearm over
the bowl of the drum. For a right handed
person, the body of the doumbek is level
on the left hip with the left arm parallel to
it. Strike the doumbek using wrist action,
not arm action. Stroking around rim of a
doumbek creates a high treble sound, but
stroking the middle portion will make a
low bass sound.
How to Play
About
Tuning a Tunable Doumbek
I
f you have a tunable doumbek with bolts
connecting the head to the collar, you
can loosen the bolts to loosen drum head
or tighten bolts to make drum head tighter.
Make sure not to tighten collar so much
that there is no gap between the collar
and body. If your drum head has hooks
with nuts and bolts, you can tighten drum
head by tightening bolts or loosen bolts to
remove tension in head.
Tuning a Fixed Head Doumbek
A
fixed head doumbek cannot be manually
tuned. If the head is loosened on a
natural skin drum head due to humidity, one
can tighten the head with a damp cloth placed
on the playing surface for about 15 minutes.
Then let the head dry naturally and tighten. It
is important to make sure water does not get
into the glue joint. Also, applying heat from a
hair dryer or other heat source will tighten the
head. But be careful not to allow the glue joint
to get too warm. Tightening the drum head
will make the drum have a higher pitch.
For a lower pitch, you will have to loosen the
drum head. To temporarily loosen the head
of a fixed doumbek, you can try a little bit
of water, rubbed evenly into the head with a
cloth. This is not a method we recommend
you rely on repeatedly. If the head of a fixed
head doumbek is synthetic, it should hold
tune indefinitely.
T
he doumbek is a goblet shaped drum
consisting of a thin single head membra-
nophone. It is played with a light touch and
varying finger techniques, the drum produc-
es both a bass note, or “doum” and a higher
“tek,” or “ka” sound. The doumbek is gener-
ally associated with Middle Eastern music.
The thin drumhead creates a crisp sound
when struck and the chalice cavity generates
a bass resonance.
MAST-RD
Doumbek
Doumbek
Doumbek
Doumbek
