Thread: More off-cuts – tongue drum

one tongue:eek:

Originally Posted by polarbill74

Hi, I've been looking for information about building tongue drums and I found this message board. I was wondering if anyone knows how to tune them, !

This answer is theoretical only but should work.
The length of the tongue should determine the pitch produced so first thing is to both determine the pitch you want and fint something like a tuning fork, piano, synthesizer or oscilator which can produce it at will.
Then make a single tongue and see how its pitch compares to you source pitch. Just keep cutting bits off till you get it right.
Measure the length of this tongue. Now a tongue twice as long should have a fundamental frequency half that of your first tongue or an octave below.
Now you have the information you need to convert lenght to pitch.
You will have to visit the Internet to find the intervals in the western music system because the 12 notes in western music are not linear steps like the 21 in Indian or asian music .
Then all you need do is convert musical intervals to mm and cut away.

Let me lnow if it works and I will build me a great big one out of blackwood.

Ross

a bit of time has gone by how has everyone gone with the tuning of your drums ....looking for tips and hints
:confused:

Just looking through the forum & saw Wongo's tongue drums & was wondering if he sells them I am interested in purchasing one. Have been looking for one for months. Jo Ho

I have seen them with the tuning done by scalloping the underside of the keys