Hand percussion instruments are that genre of instruments that are played with the hands of percussionists,
not the sticks. Some hand percussion instruments are Cajon, ghatam, udu and so on and of course there is an important sub-category
of instruments of the category hand percussion and that is hand drum. Hand drums are perhaps one of those genres of instruments
that are going to be in the focus of all human beings sight.
Hand drums: Hand drums are those drums that are played
with hands (calf or fingers) of the drummer.
Here is a list of some hand drums: Bongo, Conga, Djembe (jembe), Doumbek
(dumbek), Frame drums (of course we have some frame drums that are only played with sticks, like Indian daf), Tabla
How
to play hand drums
Since hand drums are too many drums with different shapes and every hand drum has its
own hand drumming techniques, therefore it is almost impossible to give a formula or method of playing hand drums. Even those
drums that are similar to each other have very different methods of playing. For example goblet shaped drums are so similar
to each other, but the way that the Persian goblet drum (tonbak) is played is totally different from the way that Egyptian
goblet drum (tablah) is played. About frame drums the position is more complicated.
Traditionally every drum has its
own techniques that are the result the experience of many drummers. Today with the help of Internet that many drummers of
different regions have been connected to each other, are going to use the techniques of different hand drums on the their
own drums and hopefully this will enrich the techniques of all hand drums.
Tonbak (Persian hand drum) is one of those hand drums that is played with all fingers of the drummer.