Making and tuning a perfect sounding 2 octaves Wooden Tongue Drum (by a musician & for musicians).

Here is how I made my Tongue Drum. I am not a professional woodworker, I do have some basic skills and tools but you don't have to be a carpenter to make this.
The range is D3-C5, almost two octaves. It is diatonic, and tuned in C major scale.
The board is padouk, 18mm thick, 220mm x 350mm.
The frame is ashwood, 160mm high, 18mm thick.
I created my own design, you can create your own too without fear. The shape isn't really important, you can adjust everything with an accurate tuning process.
Tools needed :
a jigsaw with a narrow blade
a good plane
a gouge & a wood chisel
a router
a drill
a miter saw (mine is not large enough so I had to use my ribbon saw)
some clamps, straps, and wood glue
The woodwork isn't perfect but the sound is as good as expected ( I'm a professional musician ).
I have also built a bass tongue drum, an octave lower but only 7 notes, you will see it at the end of the video.
Here is a better sounding track so you can hear how these drums are really capable of :
• DIY Wooden Tongue Drum...

[@MrSaemichlaus]

That tune in the end sounds like a ringtone I'd install.

[@squidguy7907]

You could make it one, I know how on apple devices

[@narnodel2]

@@squidguy7907Well I should deposit this tune, if I get royalties every time a phone rings I will be a millionaire soon.

[@squidguy7907]

​@@narnodel2 id use it if i could

[@killyouwithfire]

Arnaud Delannoy can you upload it somewhere, I really want it as a ring tone

[@PIANOvseMyZvezdyHalubtsova]

Привет! Посублимируем вместе весну??? 5 минут и она всю ночь будет крутиться у вас в голове,🌸🌿🌸🥰🎹🎹

[@Trathaal]

“I use a very high-end table saw” XD

[@NimsChannel]

I saw one of ryobi's chop saws break on the arm and the blade section went flying.

[@Trathaal]

NimsChannel yikes! Gotta wear protection for a reason

[@NimsChannel]

Protection won't help with that. lol. Better build quality might. He's lucky it landed into his chest blade side away.

[@Trathaal]

That IS pretty lucky! :O

[@eduard647]

The tune at the end sounds like an early 2000s playstation game song

[@DV1General]

I immediately thought I was playing Jak and Daxter

[@robbe73]

The Crash Bandicoot soundtrack has some of these vibes too.

[@charbri_8855]

I was thinking every zoo/safari based shows sound track ever

[@hiiambarney4489]

@@robbe73 Haha heck jeah. Instant Jungle feel

[@SaintJames14]

Dark Cloud vibes 100%

[@Leispada]

Plays each note separately - me: yeaa idunno dude... sounds off Plays final tune - me O_O *changes to loincloth** im feeling this one

[@narnodel2]

Yes the sound wasn't great in this first try. I have added the bottom of the case since then, the sound is much better. I have also put 7 piezo pickups in the bass tongue drum (on per note), connected to a good amplifier the sound is awesome !

[@Leispada]

@@narnodel2 Im lovin it man, excellent work :D

[@FlourescentPotato]

lmfaooooo

[@gotthisbro]

Me already in my loincloth... THIS IS MY FUCKING JAM!

[@LesskoBrandon]

never have i been so excited about wood

[@jackallenproductions]

Liar

[@Gyoza-Eater]

I love your tablesaw man cutting edge tech right there.

[@caelestisnox7045]

The outro has me straight up vibin

[@flopasen]

love the table saw!!

[@jackallenproductions]

This is incredible. I want to try this project myself. Fantastic job.

[@PIANOvseMyZvezdyHalubtsova]

Привет! Посублимируем вместе весну??? 5 минут и она всю ночь будет крутиться у вас в голове,🌸🌿🌸🥰🎹🎹

[@NicholetteChua]

I just found my new favourite instrumental!

[@BrianSmith-ey9js]

Brilliant. Just terrific.

[@TheNyhm1]

Nice mellow sounds. Great work

[@LoanSharkSama]

this is amazing dude

[@Olafleflibustier]

wow ! really amazing work !

[@john69sjourney15]

sound amazing

[@Lurphiralyngdoh]

Creativity at its best.. Hats off guys

[@troubledspirit3328]

Excellent

[@qqartq]

incredible sound

[@Namchem]

This gives me safari vibes.

[@sutusmihaly]

..awesome 🙂

[@angelb.9438]

wow. this is so amazing

[@xx_latte_g9104]

Wow very talented

[@mucharanga2091]

amazing work!

[@WCGwkf]

I want to see the bass version of these, just a huge slab of wood

[@narnodel2]

Yes, I have build a bass tongue drum which you can see on the music sample at the end of the video. But the overall size of this bass tongue drum is too small, it is not resonant enough, I had to add some piezo pickup to make it usable. But since the Paduk is a very expensive wood, I didn't want to make large instruments at first...

[@WCGwkf]

The one that has a single row? I can see it being expensive but worth it! Theres a store near me that has large pieces of exotic slab wood and its definitely expensive!

[@ddogg14]

Let's make a subcontrabass version the size of Kansas

[@nxcove]

Thank you for sharing, it's very interesting!

[@benhoughtonmusic]

great sound!!

[@Asdayasman]

That upside down jigsaw setup is fucking terrifying. Lemme just fire a hot saw blade into my eyeball and cook it when it fails. Use a scrollsaw.

[@narnodel2]

I don’t have a scrollsaw, otherwise I would have use it !

[@junseopark1911]

Amazing!

[@kiranranjitkar2748]

Beautiful and Great.

[@thetomster7625]

beautiful

[@S.yean.O]

Very nice, and very good.

[@nelsonx5326]

Very cool.

[@osvaldoluizribeiro5997]

Bravo!

[@ghostypup]

brilliant

[@cocosloan3748]

Veeerrryy good !

[@amalperera3074]

Tanks 👍👍👍

[@EduardoRiter]

Great job! Fantástic. Subscribed.

[@gooridconep5904]

Nice!!

[@dennisriderTv]

Sending full support

[@sirberu1529]

Me with tongue drum: *Normal Drum Sounds*

[@ckorangy]

Very inspiring and well shot. Thanks for sharing

[@chandalf4500]

4:20 - put it on spotify! :D

[@AnnoDominiMCMXCV]

John-T. Lypsilon It sounds like a future standard iPhone ringtone.

[@chandalf4500]

@@AnnoDominiMCMXCV I hope they will pay him well then

[@CuroxX]

This is literally the ambient music from planet zoo its not original lol

[@chandalf4500]

@@CuroxX lol

[@CuroxX]

John-T. Lypsilon look it up

[@pianoclase8813]

Genial!!! El sonido que produce ese instrumento es muy parecido al de una marimba...

[@kostaraskaram]

Civ3 menu song in the end

[@darksentinel082]

if i had any woodworking skill i'd make one in a heartbeat.

[@blackwater7183]

I def heard that song on the last part in the Discovery channel.

[@rebeccaelliott4261]

Awesome! I’m going to make one for my little son 😄

[@aslazaimi5824]

Did you make it?

[@yinzhang3860]

genius

[@justinward4044]

Does the type of wood have an immense effect on the instrument? I figure density will probably play a bit of a role in it

[@narnodel2]

It does. I think the sound will be very bad with coniferous wood, I could have tried with oak but since this is a long process to make a drum, I tried with the best wood possible. I could have spare 10$ with a cheaper wood, but I don't regret to have bought paduk for this project. All marimbas and xylophone of the world are build with exotic dense woods, I guess it's for a reason !

[@Xaltar_]

@@narnodel2 Several reasons actually but most importantly, longevity. There are some lovely light, soft woods that have amazing tone and resonance but they get absolutely destroyed after a very short time. Tuning goes out as the fibers compress and the tone shifts a lot more with humidity changes. This is according to a traditional Marimba maker I spoke with in Africa. He showed me Marimbas made of anything from pine to tortoise shell. Hearing a marimba band of 34 people was truly breathtaking.

[@Georgia-Vic]

and you'd be correct! there are specific types of wood used for African Slit Drums. Density is the main requirement along with others like:flexibility and tensile strength, how much moisture a wood will absorb or repel, how much resistance a wood will endure under hot & cold temperatures all of which will affect the resonance of the body as a whole.Btw the top or Head should not be permanently affixed to it's other 4 sides since all heads will either be damaged over a period of time due to playing, cracking and/or wear and plus the heads need to be able to be interchangable, because heads have different distinctive tones of tuned musical scales!

[@jon_rome_143]

Yikes, what a shame there's so many silly comments by people who think 'common tools' only refers to a hammer and some glue. Fascinating to see the process behind making one of these, I hope to try making one myself one day!

[@leac1019]

Une nouvelle vidéo! ça fait plaisir. Ça fait longtemps💪🏻

[@narnodel2]

En effet ça fait longtemps, j'ai en ai tellement à faire, mais le temps file toujours trop vite... On a rejoué Vaki Kosovar à St Chéron vendredi soir dernier au fait ! Tu as raté quelque chose...

[@leac1019]

Arnaud Delannoy Oh génial, j’aurais aimé voir ça, mais je ne suis plus à Saint Chéron :(

[@renatozorete8493]

*GRANDIOSO TRABAJO...FELICITACIONES!!!!!!..SALUDOS DESDE CHILE*

[@operator_r]

красивая мелодия в конце видео

[@emmanuellicup]

Nuce work... Keep it up... Already parked here... God bless

[@Loebane]

I played this and my phone said the song that was playing at the end was "The Patient - Tool"

[@rust3152]

hey thats a good song

[@ikindawannalearn9513]

Very nice! It took me several tries to get a drum that sounds good. You do a few things differently than me so it is nice to see you can still get a great result!

[@sixstringedthing]

Straight up stealing the idea for the "high end table saw", that's genius. And being a musician, I guess this would be a pretty nice project to start with. Thanks for the video!

[@narnodel2]

Yes I'm a musician too, not a woodworker, and this project is not too complicated to start with. Good luck !

[@Asdayasman]

It's not genius, it's suicidal. The blade is meant to be on the opposite side of the workpiece to your important parts.

[@sixstringedthing]

@@Asdayasman Suicidal? Stop clutching your pearls mate, it's a bloody jigsaw. I've been using power tools since my late teens (I'm 41). I've been taught the correct way to use most of them, and the rest I taught myself by watching professionals online. Yes, I was also taught that you should never modify a power tool, and I'd never attempt something like this with a grinder, circ saw, recipro saw, cold cut saw, drop saw, or anything like that. But in this case, wearing safety goggles and a pair of suitable gloves mitigates about 99% of the risk in this clever modification, as long as you're not a moron and you engineer it correctly. I've fabricated enough stuff in my time to be fairly confident that I'll be able to use this without dying and with all my digits intact when I'm done. 😉

[@narnodel2]

Yes, it is just a jigsaw, and a small, weak battery powered jigsaw. I would choose another tool if I wanted to commit suicide.

[@P_X_H_]

Where can i find music like this. Is there any on Spotify? Great video! Sounds amazing!! Just like donkey kong country for SNES 🙂

[@MortenBN1988]

*runs into weird wooden mask* HOOKAH-BOOKAH!!!

[@thenameh]

Thanks for the tutorial I made it and everything went fine.

[@narnodel2]

You're welcome ! Have you made the same note pattern or have you tried your own one ?

[@samstits8982]

Do you know if there’s a specific spot where I should drill into the bars when tuning them. Under where you strike? in the middle of the bar?

[@jetronator]

I was the 1000th subscriber \:D/

[@narnodel2]

Congratulations ! That is a small step forward thanks to you !

[@agustianelvinrizano3883]

So natural

[@worryphree]

Haha! This is cool.

[@marcelagaidova302]

👏👏👏👏💗

[@tiaznasution848]

Keren

[@narnodel2]

Terima kasih

[@Cyrus_Bright]

This is really cool, I'd love to try and build one of these myself (which I want to try sometime in the future) but I lack pretty much all the fancy tools that I see people using lol XD

[@rainerzufall689]

You lack a jigsaw, a router, sand paper and some chisels? What kind of workshop do you have??

[@korok2619]

@@rainerzufall689 just no workshop like the majority of ppl i guess

[@rainerzufall689]

@@korok2619 Excuse me but if you have no tools you don't have a workshop I guess?

[@korok2619]

@@rainerzufall689 yep, thats what i said

[@hisokaamorou318]

it's like a song that would fit in minecraft

[@The8B1tWarrior]

It's the minecraft note block

[@MustObeyTheRules]

I wonder how a much softer wood like fir, spruce, Cedar or pine would sound as the resonant top? I imagine not near as resonant as the dense woods I see are typically used on these.

[@narnodel2]

There would be a sound, but I don't think coniferous wood will give you a nice tone, they are way too soft. If you want to try to build one without buying exotic woods, maybe try with beech or oak which have a harder wood.

[@GraveUypo]

i only have a spoon and a rubber hammer. Can i still build one of these?

[@SomeoneCommenting]

Do these follow any standard note pattern so that any player can always know where the notes are, or will you be stuck with the one that you made because your notes were randomly placed, and once you get used to it you will find difficult to play one made by someone else?

[@narnodel2]

There is no standard pattern for tongue drums, they are different from one brand to another, and mine is unique too...

[@jarnoverhoeven3118]

That sounds great! Gotta say, your jigsaw table is very nifty, I do not have a bandsaw, so using a jig saw like that could help in same situations. Your handplane might need a bit of sharpening I think :-)

[@narnodel2]

Yes, that is a very cheap plane, and I’m not very good at sharpening. You can use the tool you want to cut the frame, I used my bandsaw but there is other ways !

[@carlhammill5774]

common tools lol. This is advanced wood craft. Some day want to learn this.

[@rainerzufall689]

No it isn't. It is just basic stuff like he said.

[@JamesReubenGruta]

Sounds like tears for fears!

[@justinbarnes3857]

what is the wood you used?

[@Experienceshare.]

Can you list the order of your notes one this?

[@tylergould3679]

Where did you get the padouk from?

[@narnodel2]

I bought it in a local sawmill

[@GATEWAYFLMZ]

1:02 some important shit right there

[@ceaselessvibing5997]

KZbin Subtitles: [Music] Me:

[@davidhogins431]

Tfw with common tools

[@bandobandit353]

Is there a way to know how long each tongue should be?

[@narnodel2]

About 15cm on the bass side, and 8cm on the treble side. But as I said the precise length is not very important, the most important is how you tune it with the router and the gouge.

[@jasonpillingmusic]

I'm curious if it stays in tune...4yrs later? e.g. moisture in wood may change pitch of things?

[@narnodel2]

That is a good question, I checked yesterday with my tuner, the pitch hasn't changed 4 years later. But the instrument stayed at home, maybe it wouldn't have been as stable if I've had played it outside every day.

[@jasonpillingmusic]

@@narnodel2 thanks for the update...it's an interesting instrument to consider building. I was trying to think of a clever way to make it fine tune-able....maybe a sliding bar weight underneath? But maybe your results shows that detail is not needed!

[@narnodel2]

​@@jasonpillingmusic Yes you can fine-tune it with sticking some weights at the end of the bars. On my first tries, before removing wood at the base of the bar, I used this method which is reliable (unless you try to drop the pitch a fifth down !). It could be a solution if you are afraid that your drum won't stay in tune, first tune it slightly too sharp by scraping the wood, the finish the tuning by sticking metal weights. So later you will be able to tune the bars up of down if the drum is out of tune.

[@AftertuneMusic]

There is some kontakt libraries for this sound? Everyone know something about it?

[@59michaelash]

Aftertune They play 21 samples across 3 octaves starting at 4:05. You could record the audio from this video using AudioHijack, then slice up the audio, each to a different white key (7 diatonic notes per octave) spanning 3 octaves. It would take a bit of prep, but if you trimmed the slices to the start of each transient and added some fades, I'm sure you could have an "instrument" in about an hour. Define a velocity range + compression, maybe some reverb with a short decay time. Hope this helps!

[@chago7606]

@4:20 Is that an actual song or you just going along to the rhythm?

[@narnodel2]

It's just an improvisation.

[@chago7606]

@@narnodel2 when I first heard it I replayed it 5 times its an amazing tune 🙌

[@franciscoherrerogonzalez6669]

hola por favor plano con medidas en cm, y grosor de la tapa acustica .

[@narnodel2]

Tout est écrit dans les sous-titres

[@Awesumpye25]

How do you tune it after time?

[@narnodel2]

You probably won't have to tune it more than once every ten years. I have done mine two years ago and it is still in tune. I haven't glued the bottom board so it is still possible to access the tongues from below and scrape some wood if necessary.

[@Szobiz]

i'd be 100% unable to do any of that

[@ewh88]

Cool, now let make some NPR music

[@tamer27antepli]

Is this the iPhone ringtone instrument lol

[@francesatty7022]

why are you using da and sol and mi and all of those instead of letters?

[@GraveUypo]

because a lot of (most?) countries use that notation. he's not american probably.

[@francesatty7022]

@@GraveUypo oh I didn't know that. Also, Europe uses letters too (I'm European)

[@herm1301]

Frances Atty i think he is focusing the attention on the scale which is easier with do re mi etc or numbers.

aria math vibes

[@budimarto4973]

I want to make this, may I have the notes for a standard tongue drum?

[@narnodel2]

There is no "standard" tongue drum, you can choose the notes you want ! Or use the same notes as me.

[@stankolodin5586]

Did he sell a knidney for that table saw? So high end and not a jig saw.

[@narnodel2]

See comments below

[@broniszlebiecki9298]

What tools do you need? The author: yes

[@narnodel2]

What tools do you need ? The author : please see video description

[@broniszlebiecki9298]

@@narnodel2 ok every the carpenter has the right tools, but it's how to video so the amount of specialized tools used depresses me a bit 😉

[@narnodel2]

Don't be depressed, if you don't have any power tool, it is possible to make it with hand tools (good chisels, a saw, a fretsaw, and a plane). But instead of being able to make a drum in one day, you will spend one week. The most useful tools for this project (the router and the jigsaw) are not expensive tools, I you want to do some woodwork you will need them one day.

[@broniszlebiecki9298]

@@narnodel2 sure, it's the same in almost every hobby. Even if you want drive radio control car you'll still need strange tools and parts. For a stranger who hits such a world for the first time, the amount of tools and various crap is overwhelming. But the sounds made by the wood are dazzling 👍🙃

[@broniszlebiecki9298]

@@narnodel2 that's also great thing, when author response to the comments! I wish you luck yt algorithm 😉

[@Joaojplm]

How is made the drumstick?

[@narnodel2]

This is marimba mallets. You can also use timpani mallets, which give a softer sound.

[@nightsecurity4003]

Donkey kong 64 that’s all I’m hearing

[@amiak6624]

Its sounds like i play the sand lvl in old game

[@JadeDRail]

I want to lazercut this, i have no idea how ill manage to tune it

[@narnodel2]

lazercut it if you want, but you will have to tune it by hand !

[@danielhall67]

Do you sell these?

[@narnodel2]

I should think about it, but I have other priorities for now... but thanks for asking !