| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mizhavu |  | India | A mizhav or mizhavu is a big copper drum played as an accompanying percussion instrument in the Koodiyattam and Koothu, performing arts of Kerala (a state on the tropical Malabar Coast of southwestern India.) The drum’s mouth is covered with animal skin, and played only with hands. |
| Mridangam |  | India | The mridangam is a percussion instrument from South India. It is the primary rhythmic accompaniment in a Carnatic music ensemble. The mridangam is a double-sided drum whose body is usually made using a hollowed piece of jackfruit wood about an inch thick. The two mouths or apertures of the drum are covered with a goat skin leather and laced to each other with leather straps around the circumference of drum. These straps are put into a state of high tension to stretch out the circular membranes on either side of the hull, allowing them to resonate when struck. These two membranes are dissimilar in width to allow for the production of both bass and treble sounds from the same drum. |
| Nakkare |  | Turkey | Nakkare is a pair of small kettledrums used in a modern mehter marching band. They are beaten with the hands or two sticks. |
| Naqqara |  | Iran | The naqqara (also naqareh) is a drum with a rounded back and a hide head. It is thus a membranophone. The term naqqara comes from the Arabic verb naqr- that means "to strike, beat." The rounded section of a naqqara is made of baked clay, while the flat side consists of treated skin fastened around the rim with string which is tightened over the back of the bowl. This percussion instrument is often played in pairs, where one naqqara will produce low pitch beats called nar and the other for the high pitch beats (the female). The instruments are beaten with short wooden sticks bent outward at the upper ends called damka. Naqqara are also found in India, where the word is pronounced nagara or nagada. |
| Ngoma Drum |  | Uganda | Ngoma drums are used in central, eastern and southern Africa. The name is applied to different types of drum in different regions. The original Ngoma was created from an old mortar that was worn all the way through by Queen Marimbas’ cook. Queen Marimba took this mortar and attached an animal skin to the top of it creating the world’s first drum. The Baganda people of Uganda have a special relationship with Ngoma, so much so that it is thought by many people that theirs is the country where this type of drum actually originated. The Ngoma is used for communication and celebration and is also a symbol of authority. |
| Odaiko |  | Japan | The odaiko is a large barrel drum used in the Eisā (エイサー) folk dance. The "O" syllable in Japanese means something "big" or "fat." The odaiko is big but it is made very light weight for the player to jump up with it easily. Eisā is unique to the people of the Ryukyu Islands (a chain of Japanese islands.) Three types of drums are used in various combinations in the dance, depending upon regional style: the odaiko, the shimedaiko (a drum similar to ones used in Noh theatre) and a small hand drum, the paranku, similar to the ones used in the Buddhist ceremony. |
| Otsuzumi |  | Japan | The otsuzumi, also known as the okawa, is an hourglass-shaped Japanese lap drum. It is a larger version of the tsuzumi and is used in traditional Japanese theater and dance. Its appearance and the sound it produces are slightly different than that of the tsuzumi. The sound is higher and sharper in pitch, resembling more of a "pop" than the tsuzumi's "pon" sound. The okawa is played on the side of the player, possibly due to its larger size, whereas the tsuzumi is played upon the shoulder. Both the okawa and tsuzumi are often found played together in nagauta and hayashi ensembles. |
| Pahu |  | Hawaii | The pahu is a traditional dance drum of the native Hawaiian people. It is carved from a single piece of coconut log and covered on the playing end with a stretched sharkskin. The player’s palms and fingers are used to beat the drum. It is considered a sacred instrument and was generally kept in a temple (heiau), and used to accompany a repertoire of sacred songs called hula pahu. |
| Pandeiro |  | Portugal | The pandeiro is a hand frame drum of Portugal, Brazil and Galicia (Spain). There are two important distinctions between a pandeiro and the common tambourine. The tension of the head on the pandeiro can be tuned, allowing the player a choice of high and low notes. Also, the metal jingles (called platinelas in Portuguese) are crisper, drier and less sustained on pandeiros than on the tambourine. This provides clarity when swift, complex rhythms are played. It is held in one hand, and struck on the head by the other hand to produce the sound. Typical pandeiro patterns are played by alternating the thumb, fingertips, heel, and palm of the hand. A pandeiro can also be shaken to make sound, or one can run a finger along the head to create a "rasp" noise. |
| Pandereta |  | Puerto Rico | The panderetas, or panderos, are Puerto Rico native hand drums. There are three different sizes of panderetas. Each of them creates distinct pitches. |
| Paranku |  | Japan | The paranku is a small, thin, hand-held drum used in the Eisā (エイサー) folk dance. It has one drumhead and greatly resembles a tambourine. Eisā is unique to the people of the Ryukyu Islands (a chain of Japanese islands.) Three types of drums are used in various combinations in the dance, depending upon regional style: the odaiko (a large barrel drum), the shimedaiko (a small drum similar to ones used in Noh theatre) and the paranku. |
| Repinique |  | Brazil | A repinique is a two-headed Brazilian drum used in samba baterias (percussion ensembles). It is used in the Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo Carnival baterias and in the baterias of Bahia, where it is known as repique. It is equivalent to the tom-tom in the Western drum kit. Typically its body is made of metal. The instrument is about the same width as the Brazilian caixa (snare drum) but several inches longer in height and lacking a snare. It is held using a shoulder strap attached to one of the tuning rods. In Rio-style samba it is played with one wooden stick and one hand. In Bahia it is played with two wooden sticks usually. |
| Rommelpot |  | Netherlands | Rommelpot is a friction drum from Netherlands. It is a percussion instrument consisting of a single membrane stretched over a sound box, whose sound is produced by the player causing the membrane to vibrate by friction. Rommelpot is rubbed with a rosined stick. In some parts of the Netherlands, e.g. on the island IJsselmonde, it was tradition, until the 1950s, to go from house to house on New Year's Eve singing songs to the rhythmic accompaniment of the rommelpot. This tradition is still maintained in North Holland on the feast of St. Martin. In Brabant rommelpot can also refer to the dance which is accompanied by the instrument. |
| Sabar |  | Senegal | The sabar is traditional drum from the West African nation of Senegal. It is generally played with one hand and one stick. Among its most renowned exponents is the Senegalese musician Doudou N'Diaye Rose (b. 1928). The sabar was used to communicate to other villages. The different rhythms correspond to phrases and could be heard for over 15 kilometers. Sabar is also recognized as the style of music played while using this drum. |
| Sampho |  | Cambodia | The sampho is a small barrel drum indigenous to Cambodia. It has two heads and is played with both hands. The player of the sampho leads the pinpeat (a classical ensemble of wind and percussion instruments), setting the tempo and beat. The sampho is made by hollowing out a single block of wood into a barrel shape. Both ends are covered with calfskin, tightened by strips of gut or rattan. One head of the drum is larger than the other to allow differing tones. The maker "tunes" each head by applying a circle of paste made of rice and ashes. |
| Shimedaiko |  | Japan | The shimedaiko (also sarugaku taiko) is a small hand drum used in the Eisā (エイサー) folk dance. The word "shime" comes from the verb "shimeru", meaning to bind or make tight. The body of the instrument is made of zekova, pine or on occasion sendan or Japanese bead tree. The skin is horse skin stretched on an iron frame. The skin is 35-centermeter in diameter and its circumference is lacquered for about 4.5 cm. In the very center, where the drum is struck, there is a small circle 4-centermeter in diameter of deer skin. There are eight holes around the drum skin and heavy cords called shirabe are used to tie the skins to the body of the instrument. |
| Skull Drum |  | Tibet | The skull drum (damaru) is an hourglass-shaped drum constructed of two inverted skull caps, symbolic of the joining of the female and male elements of life. Silver band, ornamented with coral and turquoise stones, connects the two halves. Played by rotating, causing the swinging beater to strike each head. The skull drum, often paired with a dribu (hand bell) in Tibetan chanting. The image shows a monk chanting in Lhasa, 1993. The right hand of the monk is holding a skull drum. |
| Slit Gong |  | Cameroon | A slit gong, or slit drum, is a log drum used throughout Africa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. It is usually called a boungu in Africa. A whole log is hollowed out through a narrow slit running the length of the log. Slit gong players use padded sticks to produce a range of penetrating musical notes, depending on where and how the gong is struck. The gong may be carved into various pleasing or significant shapes. They are sometimes referred to as a type of drum, but this is incorrect; drums are membranophones whereas a slit gong is an idiophone. In most instruments, the wood on the two sides of the slit is of different thickness, resulting in tones of different pitch. They can therefore be used to imitate the tonal patterns found in tonal languages. Instruments with two slits (see image) can thus have up to four different pitches. |
| Snare Drum |  | Europe | The snare drum or side drum is a drum with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the bottom head. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom (internal) side of the top (batter) head to make a 'tighter' sound. Originally, snare drums were military instruments originating from Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. They were commonly called a tabor and were used with the fife in the Swiss military. Today, the snare drum can be found in nearly every form of western music. The image shows snares on a drum. |
| Sogo |  | Korea | Sogo means a "small drum" and it is used in Pungmullori as well as various types of Korean dances. The drum is held together with a knob with one hand and is beaten on the drumhead with a firm stick with the other hand. Its size and appearance vary according to the region it is in. |
| Steelpan |  | Trinidad | Steelpan (also known as steeldrums or pans) is a musical instrument and a form of music originating in Trinidad and Tobago. During WWII, tamboo bamboo bands, which usually performed during Trinidad's Carnival began using steel drums discarded by the US military to make advanced versions of their instruments. Ellie Mannette is credited as the first person to use an oil drum in 1946. By the late 1940s the music had spread to neighbouring islands. The image shows a steelband in Port of Spain in the early 1950s. |
| Surdo |  | Brazil | The surdo is a large bass drum used in many kinds of Brazilian music, most notably samba. Surdo sizes normally vary between 14" and 29" diameter. In Rio de Janeiro, surdos are generally 60cm deep. Surdos used in the northeast of Brazil are commonly more shallow (50cm deep). Surdos may have shells of wood, galvanized steel, or aluminum. Heads may be goatskin or plastic. A Rio bateria will commonly use surdos that have skin heads (for rich tone) with aluminum shells (for lightness). Surdos are worn from a waist belt or shoulder strap, oriented with the heads roughly horizontal. The bottom head is not played. |
| Tabla |  | India | The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in the classical, popular and religious music of the Indian subcontinent and in Hindustani classical music. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres. The term tabla is derived from an Arabic word which means "drum." |
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