Mud to Music, Exploring the ceramic drum

MUD TO MUSIC,  Ceramic drums

An exercise in discovery

During the process of building large, earthenware water jars, I kept hearing the comment that I should turn one into a drum.  Good Idea!, AND, I wanted a drum anyway to annoy my family and pet.  My first ceramic drum was an exercise in attaching drum heads and hardware to a large jar, AND realizing that it would require $100 of drum hardware to make an $80 drum.  Not real profitable when compared to the 5 or 10 cents I make on cups. 

You have to know that I’ve designed and made several Tarwackys which are guitar similar stringed musical devices for producing funky sound.   There, the sound board top is glued wood-on-wood. Guitarists rely on the instrument staying together under normal use, so why not glue the drum head onto a bisque ware body?.  Both wood and the bisque pot lip are porous and the two surfaces should accept Elmer’s type glues, better yet with permanent, non-water soluble glues such as “Tight bond”.

As you can see, the sound body of this beast is ceramic

Thinking about a guitar top, I made sure a porous earthenware water jar lip was very flat by sanding the bone dry greenware.  I found that it works better to sand with a large sheet on top of the jar, instead of laying the sanding surface on a table and sanding under the weight of the jar. Another difference in jars and drums is that drums need a hole for the air (sound) to exit the drum body, meaning I have to have a hole as well as a drum head.

 Once the lip is perfectly flat and the earthenware lip is optimally prepared for gluing, I fitted a 1/8” plywood head, glued it flat with weighty and went over the glued joint several times to fill in the gaps, sanded the head edge, and let it dry for 48 hours in a warm environment.  Then, to seal the head, I sprayed several coats of shellac for a smooth finish.

The glued plywood head is the most novel aspect of these drums.  It is considerably cheaper for the drum maker to affix the head of thin plywood with glue than utilize drum head skins with complicated head stretching hardware.  I do reinforce the first gluing  by filling in holes (between head and body) and tightening the wood to clay bond.  I have found that the drum head, if installed with some care, is almost impossible to pop off and have yet to have one dislodge from the drum body. 

The drum head tones and any additional Ohulu style “boingy” or bouncy sounds are a response of the drums sound hole and chamber.  Brush, snare, and rattles are a secondary function of what is attached to the inside of the head for additional tonal interest and complexity.  Additionally, any drum needs an opening for the sound to exhale from the drum body, as mentioned above.  The constraints can be dovetailed by making the uhlu sound hole in various ways to enhance the bounce (or boing).  Drum features which apparently have an effect on the bounce are sound hole size, placement, and neck height.  The possible configurations are limitless but, it is easy to extrapolate the desired features after building a few drums.   The designer/constructor will generally sense the directions he/she wants to pursue after playing a few completed drums.

Posted below are several drums and a discussion of their strengths and weakness.  A weakness that all ceramic drums share is excessive weight.  In ALL cases, the drum is heavier than a wood, gourd, or similar drum body materials.  As a counterpoint to drum criteria, ceramic lends itself to an organic shape and design and this enhances the sound, as does the bisque ware fired porcelain of earthenware clay process.  Clay is very plastic in the construction (wet clay) stages and lends itself to the organic forms which produce pleasing instrumental sounds. 

 Bad picture but you get the idea: I made a (large) tall vase, open at both ends, and tried to attach some clay devices to be able to add a skin drum head.  Nothing worked so I flattened the top and glued on a piece of plywood.  Not a bad sound, but this piece has since found a new home so I don't have it anymore to photograph in completed form. 

This drum has a hole in the bottom and some tonal control clan be exercised by "palming" the sound hole.  Not a bad drum, but the shellac covering makes it slippery to handle.  I carried it by the bottom sound hole which I reinforced with Elmers and silicone.  See photos above for another shot of this drum. 

This drum has a burnished iron oxide slip surface, fired at cone 06 (earthenware temperature).  I cut the hole directly ito the lower side instead of the bottom to make it easier to "palm".  Holes can only be added while the clay is wet.  I like the sound of this drum, but not so much boinging stuff going on.  The hole is just a bit big and without reinforced sides, a bit fragile to carry it by grasping the hole. This drum looks good, feels good, and folks who know nothing about music like its appearance?

This is a double headed drum (top and bottom) and the sound hole is on the side.  The two heads are different sizes.  I thought this would make a nice combination of sounds, but the smaller head is somewhat dead and the sound hole is too small.  David Blink at the YVCC Latin Percussion shop suggested I cut a hole in the smaller head for more air movement and that is my next project (cutting holes in wood is way easier than cutting holes in baked clay).  This drum sets flat on a surface and acts as a table in my shop.  It's very easy to carry by the sound hole, but still a bit heavy.  The smokers at the central outside picnic table at YVCC think this drum is hard to hold , but what do they know??  Their efforts did attract Security!

This is the latest drum.  The bottom is round and the sound hole is on the upper/diagonal side, with a neck extending out about 3 inches.  The head of this drum was cut 15 degrees off flat when the body was bone dry (hack saw, dry clay) to make the drum head parallel to the round inside opposite the sound hole.  I think this drum has the most pleasing and complex sounds of any drum so far.  I want to pursue sound holes and necks off from this model.  

I want to thank David Blink at the YVCC LP shop for his kind suggestions and assessment of these drums.  Next drums include more elongated shapes, refined sound holes, smoother insides (glazed perhaps), and interior snare devices that "rattle" to add complexity to the issuing sound.  As drums take several months from conception to completion, I won't update this post until December/11 or early 2012.  Hope you enjoyed the post.  Any ideas/mh.