Frame Drums
Paul Marshall
Introduction
 Framedrums are perhaps one
of the earliest forms of drum
made by many civilizations across the world, in essence they are a piece of
animal skin stretched over a circular frame that has a depth less than the width
of the head, or another definition is where the frame is half or less than the
diameter of the head. There are examples where the drum frames may not
be circular, square & many-sided drums exist. (see image below)
 Playing the
drum
The drums in the family are most commonly played with the
hands. Specifically the fingers. Some, such as the Bodhran from Ireland are
played with a stick, others are shaken and others still use a mixture of playing
styles and strikes. The playing styles vary hugely from drum to drum,
from country to country, from region to region and indeed from player to
player. Frame drums can be held in one hand away from the body and
played with the other, they may be rested on the knee, on the lap, or held
between the knees. Some mounts are available for having them mounted
imdependently of the player.
Additions
 Many treatments can be added to
a frame drum to augment the sound, the most common is to add one or more sets of
‘jingles’, small cymbals set into the frame. These are generally grouped
by the public under the humble title ‘tambourines’. If you listen to a skilled,
Kanjira, Riqq or Pandeiro player you will
certainly get your eyes (& ears) opened. Other treatments include
the suspension of rings from the rear of the drum as shown in this image of my
Persian Daf. Gut, leather or
nylon strips may be stretched across the underside of the head to give a ‘snare’
sound as with the Moroccan Bendir.
This section attempts to gather together a list of all
the different types of frame drums available. Clicking on a blue link will take you to
more information regarding a particular drum.
Snare
drums
such as are usually associated with drumset also qualify as frame drums
apparently, however they are dealt with in the drumset
section of the site.
 For more general or specific information or if you wish to take up
frame drumming I highly recommend that you subscribe to the framedrumming Yahoo group, there is so much knowledge assembled
with the immensely talented and experienced participants there that you should
never need to look further. I also recommend that you visit the
excellent Rhythmweb
site run by Eric Stuer for framedrum central and information on all types of
drumming around the world.
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