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Professional Steel Tongue Drum
Percussion Instrument, Steel Tongue Drum
with Bag, Music Book, Mallets, Finger Picks
Questions? Issues?
We are here to help!
Phone: (1) 718-535-1800
Email: support@pyleusa.com
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The Professional Steel Tongue Drum have the ability create a powerful
connection between the player and their own inner-world regardless of
age or musical experience. They can be used to attain a deep meditative
state, for healing purposes, and for the care-free experimentation with
music.
Drum Safety:
Steel Tongue Drums are quite heavy, and they come with mallets and
other small parts that can be hazardous to children if handled
improperly or ingested!
*Not recommended for children under 5 years old*
1. Steel Tongue Drums are quite heavy and can cause severe damage to
people or property if dropped on them. Be careful and make sure your
hands are free of grease/water before attempting to pick up your
instrument. This will ensure you have a solid grip on the drum and will
not inadvertently drop it on anything or anyone.
2. Do not leave young-children unattended with the mallets provided with
the drums, and absolutely do not allow your child to put the mallets in
their mouth! Although we preform our due-diligence when we produce
our products, there is always a danger that a mallet-head could come o
and it could become lodged in an airway.
Never leave your child unattended with the mallets.
3. Do not leave young-children unattended with your instrument!
PyleUSA accepts no responsibility for incidents of damage or injury
caused by the misuse or neglectful supply of our products to young-
children. Use common sense! Stay safe!
How to play?
Steel tongue drums are really easy to play as they do not require much
eort or any special skills. Even the least amount of pressure or force applied
to drums bring out big sounds. The practice is the only key to expertise
with these drums.
It is about your hands and the ngers that produce the most sounds.
While you put your palm at the center, use your ngers to play at the tongue
of the drums. This creates beautiful sounds from it. On one side, using hands
to play the tongue drums with hands really creates a feeling of connection
with the drums, while on the other hand, mallets or sticks are easy to use
for beginners as these require minimal eorts to bring more music. In fact,
the clearest sounds are made from the mallets.
Steel Tongue Drum Instructions
Please read the following information carefully after receiving the goods:
STEP ONE: To atten the drum face after receiving it.
Due to the bumpiness in the way of logistics, that the received drum with
a curved tone tongue is a normal phenomenon and does not aect the
tone of pronunciation. Using a thumb slightly, point at the top of tone
tongue, press at slightly down. If you have a concave tongue, open a
round black hole at the bottom and push it slightly with a long stick.
This method should be used to ne-tune the later period, will not aect
the pronunciation and tone color.
STEP TWO: Avoid severe impact
If the drum appears severe impact deformation, even if it is reset, the tone
color of the tone tongue will be aected because of the change of the
resonator cavity. Do not place heavy objects above the product and avoid
severe impact.
STEP THREE: Indoor storage
Drums are made of alloy materials. Please put it in a cool and dry indoor
place and store in room temperature to avoid exposure to the sun and rain.
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Steel Tongue Drum Tuning Problems
What if the instrument out of tune?
First of all, the steel tongue drum is a non-xed
instrument, it is a normal phenomenon that
the test range of sound, generally positive or
negative 10 points.
The steel tongue drum can be adjusted by
ne-tuning: Pitch down by pressing the
tongue for overtone, or by using a le with
grinding (g. A) to le it down at the root of
the tongue, and the tone will be lowered;
If it is low tone, please top up the tongue from
its bottom. Generally speaking, our shipment
product sound is a little higher, there is room
for ne-tuning.
What is the correct method for testing
intonation?
Steel tongue drum testing method must be
accurate to test the true accuracy. Above all,
the drum is to be attened. You cannot measure
intonation on an uneven surface. Secondly, to
measure the tone of the target tongue, one
should press on the other tongues (g. B),
and then point the target tongue to face the
tuner (g. C). If not, there will be 1-2HZ test
errors. After knocking the head position of the
tongue several times in a row when aiming the
tuner, remember several times of continuous
percussion, the tuner will appear a beating
range (the steel tongue drum can only test
the sound range value), this range is the
intonation of the target test tongue tone.
Correct scale sticker method
g. A
g. B
g. C
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How To Play:
These instruments are meant for melodic exploration and the free
expression of music, so we highly encourage you to nd your own
playing style. However here are a few tips to help you a long the way:
• Using your thumbs, nger-tips or mallets make soft strikes on the centre
of the tongue, near the tip to create the best sound.
• You can use one hand to mute notes/sound while striking notes with
your other hand or a mallet.
• Once you have the desired sound, begin to create patterns counting out
the beats, such as 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3 1-2-3, etc.
• Try speeding up and slowing down smoothly, striking 2-3 notes at the
same time to create chords, dierent styles of mallets, pausing and
allowing space to enter your melody, experiment with every dierent
way to play that you can! Have fun!
Music Score
Three Bears
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Happy Birthday
Whitewasher
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A Little Donkey
Let’s Sway Twin Oars
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Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Kangding Love Song
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How Rare the Moon
Kangding Love Song
Dont Hide Now
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Rhyme Enlightment
Rice Shop
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To Say Goodbye
Wakening to Truth
The Story of a Small Town
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You and Me
Drum Care:
1. Avoid playing your Steel Tongue Drum extremely aggressively with the
mallets. This can cause the tongues to bend and experience “Metal
Fatigue” which can cause the tongues to fall out of tune. We suggest
gentle playing with the mallets, or using the hands/ngers/thumbs.
It is suggested that if you are attempting to play at comparable volumes
to other loud instruments that you mic your Steel Tongue Drum.
2. Your drum is very tough, but it is susceptible to scratches and dings if
rubbed against abrasive surfaces, or dropped.
3. Avoid exposing the drum to extremes in temperature.
For instance: Hot cars in the summer, snow, saunas.
Washing/Cleaning:
Your drum has been powder-coated, so it is relatively impermeable against
moisture. We suggest using a light touch-up of clear nail-polish to coat
scratches. Due to the nature of powder-coat used, the instrument cannot
be re-coated if it gets scratched. However, if you treat it well it will last you a
lifetime!
Troubleshooting:
1. I hear a rattle/buzz!
Please check to make sure that your wooden plug is axed rmly in your
instrument (It must be very snug to avoid buzzing). Make sure there is no
debris inside the drum/no debris stuck to the tongues. If it is still sounding
o please contact us.
2. There is rust forming at the base of the tongues!
We ne tune our instruments after they come out of the kiln by cutting
the tongues slightly longer. Although we re-coat these areas on the
drums with rust paint before they come to you, we may miss small areas.
Please take a ne sandpaper, give the area a light sanding and use a
desired metal paint to re-coat the area. Acetone free nail-polish will
remove paint without hurting the nish.
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