Did you know that drums often come from the supplier tuned down, to avoid damage in storage or transit, and are often never tightened up to playing standard (let alone performance standard).
These drums often have only vertical ropes, and no horizontal mali weave.
They can sound a bit dead, muffled, or over resonant.
A good tell-tale is whether you can depress the center of the skin more than a few millimeters with your thumbs. If you can, the drum probably needs tuning.
Skin care can also be an issue over time, as grime and oils transferred from players hands can build up on the drum skin, making it look grubby, and potentially being a home and food source for bacteria.
Most natural drum skins are goat, or possibly cow. Synthetic skins are also common on mass produced drums (especially with plastic shells etc). Care must be taken when cleaning natural skins, in particular.
Sustaining Rhythms offers a service to come out to your school and inspect and clean, tune and if required and repair your drums. (There may be an additional cost for non-trivial repairs, such as replacing ropes and reskinning).
A maintenance fee of $10 per drum, minimum $100 (10 drums, or less) applies. A call-out fee of $0.40 per kilometer from Darlington may also apply (depending on distance).
Click here to download the School Drum Maintenance Flyer PDF.
Contact us to book a maintenance call-out for your school.
Sustaining Rhythms Music Circles 