Hammering out a tune on your own steel drum
Posted by Paul Woodhouse at March 26th, 2007
With the Cricket World Cup in full swing, The Tinbasher is happy to help you capture the mood of cricket in the Caribbean.
No, I’m not suggesting a game of Cluedo but instructions on how to make your own steel drum. Or, to be more precise, a Dudup.
This site explains how to make a steel drum plus some other fascinating steel drum factoids:
[G]et a 35-gallon steel barrel from a junkyard or a cooperage and work on that. You will need to use a heavy ball-peen hammer to properly work the metal of the barrel. Make sure to have a kid around to help. And remember to wear ear plugs!
First, make your stick! (For cans, use a 6 inch piece of 1/2″ dowel with rubber bands or surgical tubing wrapped around the end. For barrels, you will need to glue half of a rubber bouncing ball – we use a Super Pinky – onto the end of an 8″ long 1/2″ dowel. Use epoxy for a strong bond.)
Set your can or barrel on a solid flat surface.
Draw a line with chalk or pen across the top of the can or barrel just slightly off center, dividing the circle into two slightly different sizes. See the diagram.
Use a hammer of an appropriate size to pound up and down the line you have drawn, forcing the surface of the drum down. This will stretch the two areas and make them resonant. You may have to pound more or less on certain areas depending on the material of your drum.
Sometimes the two notes will become apparent as you pound down the line. Use your playing stick with your other hand to test the notes as you hammer. If you are not having any luck, you may need to hammer UP from the inside of the barrel. This can raise the note areas and make them more taut and resonant. Keep trying!
Your Dudup is done when the two areas that make notes are as resonant as possible, and are about a fourth or a fifth apart. Don’t worry if it’s not in tune with your piano; the Dudup is a rhythm instrument that sounds good in any key!
As both a former cricketer and drummer this little project sums up my philosophy regarding both disciplines: just give it a whack and see what happens.
If I get enough encouragement in the comments I promise to have a go making one and video the outcome.
Nice. I got here via a search for “make your own roller” or something like that. I’m building some aluminiUm drums and while the totally by hand method is very satisfying, it take ages and I keep smacking myself on the bonce when it’s rolled right round. I need a roller, cheap !
I’d love to mic that steel drum, feed the signal into a digital processor or Audacity audio editor, jam some wild effects on it, like massive gverb, long delays, and in and out with the phaser/flanger dealies, and warp it up to outerspaceness.
Come on! Will somebody give John a spare set of rollers before he gives himself breain damage.
I’m sure after I’m done inanely whacking it in the name of tuning that it’d naturally be quite spacey from the get-go.
Yes please. There’s definitely a need for the tinbasher to prove that he can actually bash tin, rather than just ponce around with fancy website
When it’s done, perhaps I can nick Vasper’s audio mashup for a piece of steel inspired electronica at the end of the podcast.
I knew it was only a matter of time before I was called out on real-life tinbashing – even though I’m no real-life tinbasher.
Still, this is all about being able to tune the beggar. Any old fruit can slice a steel drum up and whack it with a hammer (hmmm…those words could come back to haunt me).
I promise to have a go, but after the cold snap we’re anticipating this week.
Then I’ll take it down to Vaspers’ and we’ll record something in his outside latrine.
This is good simple stuff. Fun. I’m looking for instruments i can make with my indigenous students out of metal. My kids like their music. Look forward to watching you in action.
I’m looking for something that I I don’t need to slice or weld – just whackable from the outset.
Although, in a similar vein to the world cup, the thought of it all has quickly lost its sparkle.
your idiots. go to harbor freight or any tool store, buy an english wheel cheap and if you havent made something yourself dont go telling people how to make your theories worse.
ty i have now tunned my tenor pan and it sounds good as new my advise is just to trust yourself and go with the flow it will adventialy work i think you are alll very clever people to do this it is really really hard !!! and if you keep testing it will possibloy go into tune at last but i am better than every one at it now only joking love you all loads thank you all sooooo much i am sitting here playing the carribean brezze ha ha ha love you all byee x x x x
do you have any information on the history of the dudup?
if not do you know where i can find some?
please email me at stewartva@verison.net
thanks!
Thanks for the help I’m doing a music project and this will be better in my price range!!:)
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