How to Tune a Djembe | African Drums

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OK. I'm going to show you some quick tips on how to tune your djembe. These are for rope tuned djembes.
The first thing you've got to look is at each strand you're counting as one, so you're going to make a weaving pattern. This is one. This is two. You're going to take your chord, and you're going to go under two, under this one, under this one, and then you're going to pull it across. What we're going to do is weave these two so that we can tighten them by flipping them, and this brings the ring down and tightens your drum.
You just want to tighten your drum until you like it. Don't overtighten, because you can pop the skin, and you don't have to tighten into a specific pitch. So I take the strand. If it's too hard for your fingers, you can get a screwdriver or something. I just kind of push it under. It is under one. I go to the second one. Under two. I pull through. Sometimes I put my foot on the drum. It's OK. Here's under two. Now you'll see the chord is under two strands, one, two. We're not quite done. We go under two, over one, under one, so we weave back. Under two, over one, under one, like this.
Try to keep the chord straight, and you'll see now that as I start to pull this, I'm pulling those two pieces of rope closer together. Sometimes if the drum is tight, you want to use something like a stick or a mountain climbing cleat to grab the rope if it's really hard to pull. It depends on where you are in tuning the drum. I like to take a stick. I put it over the rope, I go around, and then I turn it, and I do figure eights. This will lock the stick in place. You see? Then, using my feet, I'm going to pull until it flips over. You see? And this is going to tighten your drum.
Now, just to make sure it stays, I start the next sequence. I go under the rope just like that, I pull it through, keep it low, and this will help lock it. See? The tension here is holding this rope so it doesn't unsnap. And then you want to check the skin and make sure you're not overtightening. But these are some tips on how to tune your djembe.

[@iiicuuubreathingfullyoohoohooh]

Fabulous. Just what I needed to see and hear in order to reenforce what my teacher showed me. Time to get started.

[@tounsinour5907]

What do you do if your bass is not good but the rest is?

[@SeanMontemayor]

a before and after sound would have been nice.

[@dab9173]

so how does this drum sound? Why is it not shown?

[@seacaptaindw]

Re-do video ... the camera needs to stay close-up on the 'knot' throughout. Every cut-away detracts from the 'action'. The stick'wrapping should be 'demonstrated' later. Please keep the camera where I can study what's going on, without cutting to the wide shot. Thank you.

[@lisadavison966]

I agree with you! I wished the camera stayed on the drum.

[@cozee6681]

It's kind of understandable but I'm still not sure what do you mean by one or two

[@AnglaguburuLight]

At the START of the second row, go below three over the third, below the middle one and then proceeds like this!

[@annecollins3987]

Thank you!!!!!

[@jahsurhofjudah6053]

thanks

[@markusgarvey]

is that a special tightening stick? do you sell them?

[@Kirmeins]

I bet it's also called a "cut-off broomstick handle" :D

[@ioodyssey3740]

If you start with over instead of under then you finish with under and it IS locked. over two --> under one now it's locked.

[@joejackson3668]

Great!

[@janethandwerk6079]

Wouldn't pulling the string through so low on the drum cause rope marks on the drums also I would not step on it with my shoes. As mentioned also the camera needs to stay closer. thanks anyway.

[@ZekeIsaacson]

I normally run my rope through 1 & 2 as high as I can before tugging down at the other side to get it very low before I begin the sequence over 2/under 1. (I have never seen rope burns on a wood shell djembe, BTW) As far as using your feet to hold drum in place; unless using a tuning bench or stand, you need to keep the drum in a steady position as you pull against the drum, and your feet (with or w/o shoes) will give you resistance to pull against.

[@mojo9291]

The background drumming makes this video really intense.

[@nicholasnewell4384]

40th bches lol

[@ahnafmuay]

Second