Indigo Hand Drum

I started with a pandeiro I got from a percussion shop here in Barcelona. I wanted to learn capoeira songs, and this instrument provided the foundation.

In the States, this instrument is referred to as the tambourine. I'd only heard tambourines in church, as a shouting or stomping element in the music. But this context was different.

In capoeira, multiple parts of the hand drive the rhythm — palm, fingers, heel. It got me thinking: what if I played this like an MPC or any drum machine with touch pads?

So I made my own. I didn't want chimes. Just skin and hand. The body is 3D printed. The head is goat skin, dyed in indigo as an experiment that came out beautifully.

I went back and forth on how to mount the skin. I could build a tension mechanism like the pandeiro from the percussion shop, or just use thumb tacks. So I used the tacks, because it was easier. Tuning was not a priority with this one.

I mounted the skin on the drum and let it dry overnight. The sound was so crisp. Turns out I put the skin on upside down, so the top reveals the skin fibers while the underside is smooth like leather. It still was perfect to me.

I don't know exactly what this is yet. A pandeiro, but not quite. Something older and something new at the same time. I made it because I needed to hear something, and now it exists, and I can play it.

More to come.