- The shell should be made out of a single piece of wood, which delivers an ultimate sound. (You can check it by turning it upside down. If you see vertical lines inside the base, it's a alarming sign of multiple pieces assembled together).
- A Djembe should be built out of traditional west African wood: Bala, Lingue, Douke, African Mahogany (Acajou), Melina...and more.
These woods are being chosen for their resonance, density, and other properties.
They cannot be found in North America or elsewhere but west Africa, were the Djembe originates from.
- The head should be made out of West African Goatskin - You can usually see the goat spine line in the middle of the head, which is a good sign of fresh quality goatskin. West African goats are known to have special skins properties due to their feeding, hot and humid climate, which factors will provide skins with higher resistance, stretching capabilities suitable for a Djembe - Artificial heads won't do, and non African Goatskin heads only provide a much lower sound quality.
- The shell and head should be assembled with 3 iron hoops, together with rope. (Any kind of metallic fixation/screws cannot equal the traditional rope assembly).
- A non-stretching rope must be used to assemble the Djembe and maintain permanent tension to minimize tuning requirement frequency.
(If you cut the edge of a non-streching rope and look inside, you should see a light multifibre-like material inside - If not, the rope is of poor quality).
Traditional Djembe used to be mounted with a different system with a regular rope and no iron hoops. Iron hoops are recent Djembe enhancement from the Guinea professional playing context. Djembe fine tuning used to require the skin to be heated from a fire (In the Village context) - The iron hoops and non stretching rope were introduced to allow a permanent tension, thus making the Djembe always ready to play in any environment, like indoor performances (No fire available for tuning).
- The inside shell shape proportions, as well as, how well the Djembe is carved on the inside, are very important factors for the sound quality - Because all inside surfaces are not visible to the eye once the Djembe is mounted, getting your Djembe from anyone carving/mounting the shell outside of west-Africa is not a good idea.
- A Djembe should be hand-made built / assembled by local West African craftsmen. Combination of wood type/density, shell inside shape, weight and proportion of the shell, together with the quality/thickness of the skin, are important factors in the musical quality of a Djembe.
This is a traditional handmade instrument not meant to be produced at industrial quantities.
Some Companies in North America have attempted to reproduce Djembes with modern materials, not understanding its complex assembling technics.
Other companies are importing Djembe shelves/skins from West Africa to mount their Djembe themselves before resell.
A small number of those locally built and mounted instruments might by chance end up having a decent sound, but most of them will not match the sound quality of Djembe mounted by West African professional craftsmen.
Do not get fooled by extreme outside nice finish of some Djembe-like instruments, as this contribute nothing to the instrument sound quality.
Furthermore, North American Djembe-like hand drum manufacturers, often use Djembe tuning as one of the marketing tools to have novice players stay away from authentic Djembes.
The only thing you may need to do on a quality authentic Djembe, is the easy final tuning explained in our tuning slide show (See accessories page).
Verticals tightening are only done once (If authentic quality Djembe with non streching rope), and should be done by the craftsmen/seller, since it is part of the Djembe original mounting steps.
(See the final tuning technique showed on our animated slide): Tuning a Djembe .
It is a simple thing to do with a professional well mounted quality authentic Djembe.
More advise for novice:
Following those few tips to recognize a real Djembe will allow you to purchase a Djembe of good quality.
Whether you are planning on playing regularly or only occasionally, buying a non traditional/modern Djembe look-alike is not worth it. You will thank yourself down the road, if you purchase an authentic Djembe assembled in West Africa, while supporting the African craftsmen who work hard on each and every single Djembe..
Most Djembe-like drums sound different from Authentic Djembes, and do not allow producing proper musical notes to play the rhythms of West African traditional orchestras.
Why try to learn on a look-alike instrument.
Ask any serious and experienced Djembe player, they will all tell you that there's nothing like
the sound from a traditional authentic Djembe.
There are a wide variety of djembe-like drums on the market nowadays, improperly called Djembes, and sold as such, very few quality Djembes.
These Djembe look-alike drums are sometimes more expensive than Djembes because of the cost of material and assembly used to make them look like Authentic handmade Djembes.
Advice for purchasing a Djembe
Djembe
The best Djembes in the world are built in Guinea and surrounding area in West Africa, region where this instrument originates from.
You will only know if you purchased a high quality Djembe when you start playing/learning the real West African rhythms (Not what is played in drum circles..) This will only happen when you start practicing/learning from one of very few true West African Master drummers - Alternatively from trained players/instructors learning from them.
