Talking drum

Collected and donated by Mr. Jarvis from Herne Bay, this type of drum is usually known as a "talking drum" because it is used to imitate African languages, often tonal, where words have different meanings depending on the pitches at which they are spoken. The drum is held under the arm of the player, which presses the lacing while playing with a curved beater on one head, thus varying the tension of the heads and creating different pitches. Technically, it is an hourglass-shaped, double-headed wooden drum with skin membranes attached onto the body with twisted rawhide lacing and sewn to rings. The wooden beater also has a strip of twisted rawhide that was probably used during the manufacturing of its curve.