Welcome to the diverse universe of the world’s oldest drum, the frame drum. By definition, a frame drum is a drum with a drumhead width longer than its depth. Traditionally, these drums have a single drumhead made of rawhide or modern materials such as plastic or synthetic skin.
Almost every culture has a type of frame drum used for different purposes like spiritual ceremonies, parades, and recreational dances. With their history of over 3000 years, there are tens of different frame drums globally, with different sizes, playing techniques, and with or without jingles on the sides.
Let’s dive deeper to tour several types of frame drums in different regions.
Different Types Of Frame Drums
Bendir
Location: Turkey, North Africa
Frame drums are mainly associated with Middle Eastern culture, as they are highly present in eastern ethnic music. Plus, the oldest frame drum image can be found in Turkey right now, which shows how deep these instruments are in the origins of culture.
Bendirs were commonly used in Sufi ceremonies, mainly in Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, and Mesopotamia. It is played in a vertical position with fingers.
Bendir is one of the oldest and most common frame drums with a wooden shell and a drumhead traditionally made of rawhide. In some traditional old-style bendirs, there are guts strings, which act as a snare on the back of the skin. Furthermore, they are medium-sized frame drums with diameters between 14” to 22”.
Persian Daf
Location: Iran
The Daf is a relatively larger frame drum with a wooden shell, jingles on the sides, and a drum head made of goat or fish skin. It is mainly associated with Persian culture and is often used in Iranian folk and classical music. Before, Daf was a regular member of Sufi ceremonies.
The large drum has diameters around 18” to 20” and depth around 2” to 3”. You can play the Daf with both hands, holding it in a vertical position just like the Bendir. However, here you can also use shaking techniques to activate the nickel rings.
Riq (aka. Riqq or Tef)
Location: Middle East
The Riq or Tef is the traditional tambourine from the Middle East. With its sonic versatility, this instrument can replace a whole percussion orchestra. It traditionally has a wooden shell with a 9” diameter, goat or sheep skin drumhead, and 5 double pairs of jingles on the sides.
Although the origin of Riq goes back to Egypt, it is often used in all the Arabic-speaking countries and Turkey. There are many different types of Riq with different sizes and numbers of jingles.
It is one of the most flexible frame drums, which you can play by tapping the jingles, shaking or twisting the drum, hitting the skins with fingers or palm.
Bodhran
Location: Ireland
The Irish version of the frame drum is called Bodhran. The medium-sized drum typically has a crossbar inside the frame and is played with a wooden beater.
It has a particular playing style in which the left hand adjusts the sound of the drum from the backside using pressure, while the right hand creates the sound with the beater.
Dayereh
Location: Central Asia, Balkans
Dayereh or Ghaval is the Central Asian and Balkan version of Iranian Daf. Relatively smaller than Daf, Dayereh is a medium-sized frame drum with metal rings as jingles.
The main countries that use Dayereh in their folk and classical music are Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Balkan countries. As instruments are quite the same, the playing techniques are similar to the Daf.
Pandeiro
Location: Brazil
South and North America have many frame drums called shamanic drums. The indigenous people used these drums for rituals and ceremonies for their hypnotizing sound.
Besides shamanic drums, the Americas also have frame drums derived from the European tambourine. The most important one is called Pandeiro, which is commonly used in Brazil’s samba, choro, coco, and capoeira music.
Pandeiro is a medium-sized (8” to 12”) tunable frame drum with jingles on the sides of the rim. Traditionally, it is made from a wooden frame and goatskin.
You can play the instrument in various ways hitting with the thumb, heel, fingertips, and palm, while you can also shake the drum for a jingle sound. How cool is that?
Tar
Location: North Africa
One of the most ancient frame drums is the Tar, a single-headed drum from North Africa. The large-sized frame drums (16” to 22”) are made from goat or sheepskin for the head and wood for the frame.
You can play the Tar on your lap in a vertical position, mainly using one hand for the accented beats and the other hand to maintain the position and finger rolls.
Kanjira
Location: India
One of the smallest frame drums is Kanjira from south India. This small instrument requires extreme virtuosity to play, including the Indian Split-Hand technique. As it is a member of the Karnatic music tradition, players need to learn highly complex rhythmic patterns to play the drum.
The drum is around 7” to 9” in diameter and is traditionally made from jackfruit trees. The drumhead was typically made from lizard skin, but today they use goatskin as lizards are endangered as species.
You can hold the Kanjira with the left hand while the right hand hits the head with the palm and fingers. You can change the drum’s pitch to create more versatile sounds by applying pressure with the fingertips.
European Tambourine
Location: Europe
Many hand drums across Europe originated from eastern frame drums. The sizes may vary, but the main principle is the same: a wooden frame and an animal skin stretched across the frame as the drum head. Additionally, most tambourines also have jingles on the sides.
Examples are Tamburello from Italy, Buben from Slavic countries, Pandero from Baskonia, and Adufe from Portugal.
Conclusion
As the oldest percussion instrument globally, the frame drums universe is quite rich and diverse. Almost every culture has its own version with slightly different shapes, sizes, materials, and features, which allows for different sounds, playing styles, and techniques.