Steel Tongue Drums – Music For Everyone

Steel tongue drums!

I made this video as the first installment of a series highlighting easy-to-play instruments. It’s my hope that this will help inspire people to add more sound to their rituals. Simple music doesn’t have to be limited by talent or ability. It should be accessible for everyone!

I’d suggest you watch the video for the full experience, including ridiculous sound effects and corny editing.

But in case you’re a person that prefers to read instead of listen, I’ll give you some highlights.

The steel tongue drum is a fairly modern instrument where slits are carved into a metal body, forming tongues that are tuned to different notes. You can play with rubber mallets or with your fingers. They look and sound kind of similar to hand pans or steel drums, but they’re actually descendants of the slit drum, which was a hollowed out piece of wood used by ancient civilizations like the Aztecs.

Steel tongue drums are not technically drums. Drums have a stretched skin or membrane — the sound is produced from the vibrations of the membrane when it’s struck. Steel tongue drums (and most of the related instruments) are in a class called “idiophones,” which is where an instrument produces sound by means of the entire body vibrating. Common idiophones are bells and gongs.

The sound of a steel tongue drum is very similar to a bell. It actually reminds me a lot of listening to hand-bell choirs.

As far as instruments go, it’s not a very big investment. The one that I use in the video was a Christmas present from my wife, but it runs for about $159 on Amazon. There’s also plenty of less-expensive models. Here are a few product links if you’d like to check them out:

• Mine ($159): https://amzn.to/43Y9jVb
• Hopwell 14 Inch ($99): https://amzn.to/3QlB07f
• Lagrima 10 Inch ($59): https://amzn.to/44UDJci
• Yamaer 6 Inch ($17): https://amzn.to/47gTLi9

You can find them in different tunings. Some are tuned to a pentatonic scale. Mine plays a major scale. I love music theory, but with this instrument, I try not to think about it too much. I’ve found that I can achieve quite pleasing sounds by mostly hitting random notes.

In terms of technique, there’s not much to it! I personally play with mallets. I simply hold them comfortably in each hand. There are people who have mastered this instrument and do very well playing with their fingers; however, I’m not one of them. With a little experimentation, you’ll discover there are particular locations to strike the tongues in order to get the best sound — it’s usually close to the center edge.

In terms of beginner playing difficulty, I’m going to rate it a solid 2/5.

It doesn’t take very long to figure out where to hit the tongues to get decent tones, and as I said earlier, almost all of the notes sound good together. With just a little bit of time and practice, you could use this for some lightly melodic background music during a ritual or meditation. You can also just sit and play for a while and trance out. I will say it’s a lot of fun to play and it’s really easy to get lost in the sound.

I’m going to put out a few more videos like this. Right now, I’m thinking of singing bowls, bells, djembes, and other rhythmic noisemakers. If you can think of “simple” instruments that might add a little sound texture to magick, please let me know so I can put it on my list!

I appreciate you reading (and hopefully watching). If you would like to help support me, you can always check out my Patreon page. Even if you didn’t want the YouTube video, I’d love it if you subscribe to me over there! By the way, there are Amazon affiliate links in this article. If you click on them and make a purchase, Amazon pays me a small commission. No big deal!