Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
For other kinds of drums, see drum (disambiguation).
There are different communication drum types, although they are all commonly known as the "talking drums".
The oldest drums were made out of hollowed logs. The bigger the log, the louder sound would be made and thus the farther it could be heard. A long slit would be cut in one side of the tree trunk. Next, the log would be hollowed out through the slit, leaving lips (wooden ledges) on each side of the opening. A drum could be tuned to produce a lower note and a higher note. For that it would need to be hollowed out more under one lip than under the other.
The message-sending logs are not drums at all from the techincal point of view, since they do not have a skin or membrane that would vibrate as they are beaten. Instead, the entire log vibrates like a big cylindrical gong, so musicologists call this type of instrument a slit gong.
Among the most famous talking drums are the drums of West Africa, where they were invented. From regions known today as Nigeria and Ghana they spread across Africa and to America and the Caribbean during the slave trade. At that time they were banned because they were being used by the slaves to communicate over long distances in a code unknown to the slave traders and masters.
Talking drums are also known as: gan gan, dun dun, atumpan, dondo, and lunar.
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details