Making a tongue drum is something that 
had been on my list for quite a while.

I knew it was going to 
be quite a challenge

so I decided to eliminate as 
many variables as possible

so that the margin for 
error would be smaller.

I began researching intensively 
and watched all the videos

I could find on people making these drums

watched videos of drums that 
are out there for sale

searched for woods, joinery, design 
and all that stuff.

Eventually, what I decided to make 
was a copy of a Shlagwerk log drum.

It took me a while to go 
further in each step

because the last thing I wanted to end up 
with was a horrible sounding instrument

and call it a failure or 
remaking parts of the process

so I tried to be cautious 
and think 100 times

before cutting into actual 
material and so on.

If you do a bit of research 
you will find that

most tongue drums have 
padauk or wangi wood tops

and that's because these woods 
are more musical than others.

I don't know much about this

but all I can say is that they vibrate 
and reverberate in specific ways

that allow for better, fuller and 
easier to achieve notes.

It's probably due to their density 
and hardness but not just that.

So I started by preparing the wangi 
and after close observation

of the Shlagwerk drum I noticed that 
the top is not a single piece.

It's made out of 4 strips,
so that's what I did.

I also did it because my timber 
was a bit twisted

and this way I could obtain a flat board

without as much wood removal.

Here you can hear 
the difference in the sound

when the pieces are being 
held in different spots.

For the box sides I used three-quarter
inch Baltic birch plywood

and routed rabbets on the bottom 
and sides on the router table.

You’ll want to use high quality materials 
and not cheap plywood

as it may affect the sound in the end.

I planed it carefully removing a 
very small amount on each pass

until the board was 14 mm 
or a little over half an inch.

I also made a groove in the 
middle of one of the largest faces

to inlay a strip of wangi.

There are many ways of cutting the keys

but since I had made the template 
on the computer

I sent a file over to the X-carve and 
had it carving the lines

with a 1/16 straight bit.

You can also use a jigsaw or scroll saw 
and create other shapes for the keys.

Steve Carmichael has a great video 
on how to make a tongue drum

and he uses a jigsaw.

Since wangi is very splintery wood 
I made a second pass

with a V-bed to get a smoother 
look and feel.

I made the top edges level 
and glued the top

using two pieces of wood 
with a slight arc

on them that will act as bow clamps.

These are great for when
you have a small number

of clamps and need to make 
pressure along the entire edge

using just one clamp on each end.

I flush trimmed the box and 
rounded over all the edges.

After all, this is a musical instrument

and your hands will be all over the place

so it's nice to make it 
round and comfortable.

I was still not getting good results 
so I sat back and did more research

and I found a video from KR2 wood

explaining his process for tuning his drum

and how adding more mass to the box sides

would bring the keys to 
a better tone and vibration.

So, I found some hard maple scraps

and glued them super 
tight into both sides.

Always make sure that 
your glue ups are perfect

because a bad glue joint 
will mess with the final sound.

I should have made the walls 
thicker from the beginning

and that way I could start 
fresh on the tuning

but I kept going and it 
eventually worked fine.

So, here I am hitting the keys and

writing down which note I was getting.

Then went back and forth 
removing material

until the desired note was achieved.

You can change about two tones

so, let's say you are getting a C 
and you want to go up to an E

then it should work

but if you're getting a C and you 
want to go up to a G or down to a G

it's going to be super hard
or even impossible.

That's why the size of 
the keys also matters

and a bigger tongue is 
never going to go up

to match a super small tongue.

To tune it up you have to remove 
material from the tip of the tongue

and if you want to go down you remove 
material from the back of the tongue

where it meets the rest of the board.

What I noticed is that removing 
material on a perpendicular line

is much more effective 
than drilling larger holes.

Just be careful not to drill 
all the way through

or even make part of the tongue 
too thin and fragile.

After I was satisfied with the tuning 
I screwed the bottom with lots of screws

to make sure it was fully closed

and the pressure was even
along the entire edge.

I finished off with three coats 
of water-based varnish.

Finally, I stuck on four foam pads that 
are typically used on drum kit cymbals.

The tongue drum is done and 
I think it sounds pretty good

for a first handmade instrument.

If you have any questions feel free 
to drop it on the Patreon post

where you can find a PDF with more 
details about this build

and a free template.

A big shout out to 
Rockler and Inventables

and all my Patreon supporters

and go get your hands dirty.