Hand Percussion · Models

Model

Bina Tabla Set

Hand percussion · India

A tabla is two drums played as one instrument: the wooden dayan tuned to a pitch with a hammer and the wooden blocks under its straps, and the metal bayan bent with the heel of the hand. Both carry the syahi, the black tuning paste that gives tabla its bell-like tone and takes a specialist to apply.

Model

Asano Nagado-Daiko

Hand percussion · Japan

A nagado-daiko is hollowed from a single trunk of keyaki — sometimes a century of drying before the wood is cut — and headed with cowhide tacked down rather than tensioned, so its pitch is decided at build time and never changes.

Model

Gawharet El Fan Tabla

Hand percussion · Egypt

Called tabla in Egypt and darbuka further north, this is the drum of Arabic classical and shaabi music. Gawharet El Fan's are aluminium shells inlaid with mother-of-pearl and shell, as much decorated object as instrument.

Model

Nazareth Berimbau

Hand percussion · Brazil

The berimbau is a wooden bow, a steel string, and a gourd pressed against the player's stomach to open and close the resonance. It leads capoeira: the roda's tempo, and which game is played, are called by the berimbau.

Model

Hugh Tracey Treble Kalimba

Hand percussion · South Africa

Tracey's kalimba takes the mbira of southern Africa and gives it a Western diatonic tuning and a solid resonating board, which made it playable by people outside the tradition and turned it into the instrument most of the world calls a kalimba.

Model

Ayasa Handpan

Hand percussion · Germany

Handpans after the Hang are specified by their scale — D Kurd, C# Amara, F Low Pygmy — because the tuning is the instrument. Ayasa's are nitrided steel, hand-hammered, and made to a chosen note layout.

Model

Miyamoto Shime-Daiko

Hand percussion · Japan

The shime-daiko is small, tuned very high by rope or bolt tension, and holds the pulse an ensemble plays against. It is the one taiko whose pitch a player sets rather than inherits.

Model

PANArt Hang

Hand percussion · Switzerland

Two nitrided steel shells glued at the rim, hammered into a tuned central note and a ring of tone fields, played with the hands rather than sticks. PANArt built the Hang from 2000 to 2013, never in quantity and never to order, and every handpan since descends from it.

Model

Emin Darbuka

Hand percussion · Turkey

The darbuka is played with both hands across the head and the rim, and the Turkish style — a thin head, a sharp rim, and finger technique that runs at speed — is what these cast aluminium shells are voiced for.

Model

Cooperman Frame Drum

Hand percussion

Cooperman's frame drums are built with a tuning system that lets a natural head be brought back into pitch as the weather changes, which is the practical objection to skin frame drums answered.

Model

Contemporânea Surdo

Hand percussion · Brazil

The surdo carries the pulse of a samba school, and Contemporânea builds them in aluminium and wood across the three tuned sizes a bateria uses — first, second, and third surdo.

Model

Rhythm Tech Tambourine

Hand percussion

Rhythm Tech's crescent tambourine removes the part of a round frame the hand covers anyway, which makes the instrument lighter, easier to hold, and easier to play fast. It is the most copied tambourine design of the last forty years.

Model

Sela CaSela Pro

Hand percussion

The CaSela Pro's snare system can be adjusted or removed without tools, letting one box cover both the snare and the traditional sound.

Model

Gope Pandeiro

Hand percussion · Brazil

Gope's pandeiros are the ones most often seen outside Brazil, in both nylon and natural-skin heads, and in the aluminium frames that survive travel.

Model

Gon Bops Mariano Series Congas

Hand percussion

The Mariano series revives Mariano Bobadilla's original California shell profile, which is squatter and wider than the Cuban pattern most makers copy.

Model

DG De Gregorio Chanela

Hand percussion · Spain

The Chanela is De Gregorio's best-known cajon, built for flamenco accompaniment where the slap has to be sharp enough to sit against palmas and heels.

Model

Tycoon Supremo Cajon

Hand percussion

The Supremo cajon is Tycoon's volume seller: a Siam oak box with fixed snare wires, made in the company's own factory, at a price that puts it in most rehearsal rooms.

Model

Toca Freestyle Congas

Hand percussion

Freestyle congas use moulded synthetic shells and synthetic heads, which means they do not crack in a van, do not detune in a damp hall, and cost a fraction of a wooden drum.

Model

Panyard Jumbie Jam

Hand percussion

The Jumbie Jam is a small, light, chromatically tuned steel pan on a stand, priced so a school can buy a class set. It did more than anything else to get steel pan taught outside Trinidad.

Model

Meinl Woodcraft Congas

Hand percussion

Woodcraft congas use American white oak staves and Meinl's tuning hardware, and sit at the professional end of a catalogue that runs a very long way down in price.

Model

Schlagwerk 2inOne

Hand percussion

The 2inOne cajon puts the snare wires where they respond to the top corners but not the centre, so a player gets a snare crack and a clean bass note from the same box without adjusting anything.

Model

LP Classic Conga

Hand percussion

The Classic is the conga most people picture: Siam oak staves, LP's Comfort Curve rim, and hardware that survives being tuned hard and often. It is the drum against which other production congas are described.

Model

Meinl Cajon Bass Pedal

Hand percussion · Germany

A cable-driven beater that lets a seated cajon player add a bass drum with one foot, which is how the instrument ended up in duo and singer-songwriter setups where a kit will not fit.

Model

Gawharet El Fan Riq

Hand percussion · Egypt

The riq is a small frame drum with heavy paired jingles, and in Arabic classical music it is a lead instrument rather than an accompaniment — a riq player carries the rhythm and its ornament at once.

Model

PANArt Pang Instruments

Hand percussion · Switzerland

PANArt stopped making the Hang and moved to the Pang family — gubal, pangs, and hardened-steel forms that ask to be played differently. The workshop has always treated the instruments as its own line of enquiry rather than a product line.

Model

Miyamoto Okedo-Daiko

Hand percussion · Japan

An okedo-daiko is built from staves like a barrel rather than carved from a trunk, which makes it far lighter and rope-tunable — the taiko that gets carried through a festival rather than stood on a frame.

Model

Bina Dholak

Hand percussion · India

A barrel drum played on both heads with the hands, rope- or bolt-tuned, and carried through folk music, film songs, and devotional singing across North India and Pakistan.

Model

Remo Talking Drum

Hand percussion · United States

Squeezing the cords between the two heads raises the pitch mid-stroke, letting the drum follow the tones of speech — which is what gives the family its name across Yoruba, Hausa, and Wolof traditions.

Model

Asano Ō-daiko

Hand percussion · Japan

The ō-daiko is the largest taiko in an ensemble, often several feet across, carved from a single trunk and played standing with both arms. It is the drum a taiko performance is built around, and one instrument can take years to make.

Model

Emin Bendir

Hand percussion · Turkey

The bendir is a large frame drum with a gut snare stretched under the head, giving a buzz behind every stroke. It carries Sufi and Anatolian music, played upright with the fingers of both hands.

Model

Nazareth Atabaque

Hand percussion · Brazil

Rope-tuned with wedges driven down the sides, the atabaque comes in three tuned sizes — rum, rumpi, and lê — played together in Afro-Brazilian religious music.

Model

Hugh Tracey Alto Kalimba

Hand percussion · South Africa

The alto sits an octave below the treble with fifteen tines, and is the one most often used for accompaniment rather than melody.

Model

Meinl Dunun Set

Hand percussion · Germany

A djembe ensemble sits on three rope-tuned bass drums — dundunba, sangban, and kenkeni — played with a stick in one hand and a bell in the other. They carry the melody of West African drumming; the djembe solos over them.

Model

Remo Ocean Drum

Hand percussion · United States

Tilting the drum rolls hundreds of small steel beads across the head, producing a sound close enough to surf that it is used for exactly that in film and theatre — and, with a clear head, watched as well as heard.

Model

Tycoon Master Handcrafted Congas

Hand percussion

Master Handcrafted congas are Tycoon's professional drums, with thicker Siam oak staves and hand-selected heads, at prices well below the American brands.

Model

Toca Player's Series Cajon

Hand percussion

The Player's Series cajon covers the standard format — birch body, hardwood front plate, internal snare wires — at the price point where most people buy their first one.

Model

Gon Bops Fiesta Series Congas

Hand percussion

Fiesta congas are Gon Bops' student and semi-professional drums, with the brand's rim contour at a price a beginner can reach.

Model

Schlagwerk La Peru

Hand percussion

La Peru is Schlagwerk's traditional cajon: no snare wires, just the box, in the Peruvian form the instrument had before European players added the buzz.

Model

LP Aspire Conga

Hand percussion

Aspire puts a real tunable conga with LP hardware into a first instrument, and is the drum most school and community programmes end up owning.

Model

Panyard Tenor Pan

Hand percussion

Panyard's tenor (lead) pans are chromatically tuned across the full melodic range and built for school and community steel bands in the United States.

Model

Remo Mondo Djembe

Hand percussion

The Mondo djembe replaces a carved wooden shell with Remo's Acousticon and rope tuning with tuning lugs, which makes it consistent, weatherproof, and playable by anyone who can turn a key.

Model

LP Cyclops Tambourine

Hand percussion

The Cyclops is built to be hit with a stick and mounted on a stand rather than shaken, with a moulded frame and steel or brass jingles depending on the model.

Model

Meinl Marathon Classic Congas

Hand percussion

The Marathon Classic line is Meinl's workhorse conga: Siam oak, heavy hardware, and a rim contour designed to be played hard for a long night.

Model

Meinl Snarecraft Cajon

Hand percussion

Snarecraft cajons carry fixed internal snare wires under the whole playing surface rather than only the top corners, which gives a consistent snare buzz wherever the box is struck.

Model

Remo Frame Drum

Hand percussion

Remo's frame drums cover the tar, bendir, and general hand-drum formats in synthetic heads and Acousticon shells, which is what put frame drums into schools and workshops at scale.

Model

LP Galaxy Giovanni Series Conga

Hand percussion

Developed with Giovanni Hidalgo, these congas use a wider, flatter rim contour and a shell profile tuned for the fast, melodic hand technique he is known for.

Model

Tycoon Supremo Bongos

Hand percussion

Supremo bongos cover the standard pair with Siam oak shells and steel hardware, and are among the most common bongos in schools outside the LP catalogue.

Model

LP Vibra-Slap

Hand percussion

The Vibra-Slap reproduces the rattling quijada — a donkey jawbone with loose teeth — using a wooden resonator and a metal pin box, which is both more hygienic and more repeatable.

Model

Meinl Headliner Congas

Hand percussion

Headliner congas are Meinl's student and semi-professional drums, built in rubberwood with the same tuning hardware pattern as the lines above them.

Model

Meinl Sonic Energy Steel Tongue Drum

Hand percussion

Steel tongue drums are cut and tuned so each tongue sounds a note of a chosen scale, and Meinl's Sonic Energy range brought them into general music retail from the sound-therapy market.