Caring for your Djembe

Hey everyone, occasionally we get questions about how to properly care for a djembe or other rope tuned hand drum that has a real skin head. Here are a few tips on caring for your djembe drum.

We recommend that your store your drum in a cool spot out of direct sunlight whenever you’re not using it. Direct sunlight can heat the molecules in the wood and cause them to shrink or expand, creating cracks. Also the sun will dry out your head and make the skin feel hard and take the stretch out of it, making the drum difficult to tune.

While we’re on the subject of the head, we’d like to mention that we DO NOT recommend ever putting anything on the skin of your drum, such as lotion, shea butter, or other oils. Simply playing your drum should work the natural oils from your hands into the skin and protect it naturally from drying out.

Keeping your drum in a bag when not in use is the number one thing you can do to both protect your drum and to prolong the life of the current skin that is on it. The case protects the drum from scratching, impact damage, and also creates a barrier of air for the drum that protects it from climactic fluctuations, thus helping the drum keep its tune better.

Inspecting your drum periodically for minor cracks is another great way to prevent potentially serious problems. Often times if you discover a small crack early you can repair it before it gets out of hand, thus saving your shell, which is, in reality, the drum, as all other parts can be replaced.

Never allow the skin of your drum to get wet (no matter how strong the urge to play in the rain becomes :)

This one is obvious, but try to avoid dropping your drum or otherwise exposing it to impacts that can crack or even destroy it.

Last but not least, use your best judgment in situations not covered here. If you are unsure it is always best to get a professional opinion before trying something on your drum that could potentially harm or irrevocably alter it. Feel free to contact us if you ever have any questions.

BE WELL IN RHYTHM—

MOTHER RHYTHM DRUMS