Drum Build

I have wanted to build a Native American drum for several years; one that I could drum alone or take to the drum circle here in town. I thought about building one from scratch but in the end decided to build one from a kit. After looking around on the internet I settled on an 18 inch drum from Grey Wolf (www.greywolfdrums.com). The drum that I ordered arrived promptly and in good condition. The instructions that accompanied the kit were sparse but provided sufficient guidance.


The kit included the octagonal drum frame made from Western Red Cedar (six sides) and pine (two sides), the drum skin with pre-punched holes, a rawhide circle, and three lengths of rawhide lacing. The first step was to soak the rawhide for 48 hours. This was the hardest part of the build because I didn’t want to wait.


Photo 1 shows the components after the soak, all laid out on a table ready to start.

The drum frame is sitting on the drum skin. The rawhide circle is top left. Two lengths of rawhide lacing are to the right. The third length of rawhide lacing is bottom left. It needs to be spliced onto the double length of lacing. The rawhide slips when knotted so splicing works better. The following photo shows one of the splices. Grey Wolf’s instructions explain how to splice . . . it is really easy.

Rawhide Splice

I suspended the rawhide circle inside the drum frame with four lengths of wire and began to lace the drum. I doubled the three lengths of rawhide lacing, now joined with splices, to find the middle and threaded the lacing through two holes in the drum skin, making sure that the lacings on either side of the starting position were the same length. That way I would thread the lacing in both directions and when they met at the other side of the drum the remaining lacing from each side would be about the same length. I kept the lacing loose so that I could make sure that the rawhide circle was centered inside the drum frame. The following picture shows the rawhide circle suspended by the last wire and the lacing as it was progressing.

Partially Laced Drum

When the drum was completely laced up I began the process of tightening the lacings. I started in the middle opposite the side of the drum where the lacings ended. This was a rather slow process because I wanted to make sure that the tension on the lacings was consistent all the way around the drum, and that the rawhide circle stayed centered. This process resulted in a substantial increase in the lengths of “free” rawhide. The following photo shows the result after going around the drum one time tightening the lacings.

Drum After First Tightening

Notice how long the “free” ends of the lacing have become. Before the first round of tightening the lacings the “free” ends were about three inches long. After the first round of tightening I went around the drum to make sure that the triangles formed by the lacing were symmetrical and then tightened the lacing a second time. After adjusting the triangles again I went around the drum and pulled hard on the rawhide circle to tighten the lacings a third time. Grey Wolf recommends really tight lacings, guitar string tight, so that was my goal.


When I was sure that I couldn’t get the rawhide lacings any tighter then I tied the “free” lengths of rawhide to the circle and then, without cutting the rawhide lacings, I used one of the lengths of rawhide lacing to make a five-pointed star on the inside of the rawhide circle. I used what was left of that rawhide lace to wrap the arms of the star. I then used the other length of rawhide lacing to wrap the other arms of the star.

Drum with Star Wrapped

Notice in this picture how much closer the rawhide circle is to the drum frame. It is much closer than it was after the initial lacing and the first tightening.


At this point the drum looked great but it sounded dead. I worried all evening that I had built a dud. Not so. The drum had dried and tightened substantially by the next morning and it had a wonderful sound. Here is what the semi-dry drum looked like.

Finished Drum Drying

While the drum was drying I put together one of the drum beater kits that I had purchased with the drum.

Finished Drum with Beater

I have a great sounding drum, one that I can’t wait to show off at the drum circle in June.


Would I do it again?   You bet, in a second.

Would I buy another kit from Grey Wolf?   Absolutely! Grey Wolf’s kit was excellent, his service is outstanding, and best of all, the kit is very fairly priced.

 I'll record the drum on my YouTube channel so you can hear how it sounds.

Get To Sleep Naturally

If you are having a hard time getting to sleep at night here are a few hints:

1. Go to bed (sleep) earlier.  Most people are hardwired to go to sleep between 9:00 and 10:00 if you miss that sleep window and stay up until midnight you will have confused your body's clock.  Not only that, but if you miss the sleep window then your body secrets stress hormones to help you stay awake longer. 
2. Exercise in the morning rather than at night right before bed time.  When you exercise your body raises its adrenaline level . . . this makes it even harder to sleep.
3. Relax with a warm bath half an hour before bed time. 
4. Add relaxing foods to your diet and eliminate stimulants like caffeine, sugar, and MSG.  Calming foods are high in magnesium, which calms the nervous system.  Some magnesium rich foods are black beans, spinach, pumpkin seeds, and salmon.  You might consider a 200 to 300 mg magnesium suplement twice a day as well.
5. If you are still having a hard time getting to sleep then you might visit you local health food store and pick up gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).  GABA is a calming brain chemical.  When I get too stressed out, yup it happens sometimes, I take 100 mg of 5-hydroxytryptohan (5-HTP).  5-HTP is a natural compound that relaxes by balancing the serotonin level in your brain.

Note:  If you don't have a local health food store that you can support (please buy local if you can) then visit http://www.swansonherbs.com/.  They carry both 5-HTP and a variety of GABA formulations.  Please remember I don't work for Swanson Herbs and they don't pay me to hype their products.  However, when I can't buy locally, they are my internet source of choice.  Great prices and service.

Making Bread

I'm making bread today . . . nothing tastes better than bread fresh out of the oven.  I thought that I would make some Naan too.  Naan is Indian flat bread.  It is great with curry.  Here is my recipe:

NAAN FLAT BREAD RECIPE


Ingredients for indian naan recipe:

4 cups White Flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Milk
1 tbsp Sugar
1 Egg
4 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Nigella seeds NOTE:  I use sesame seeds when I can't get Nigella at the health food store

Procedure:

1.  Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl and make a well in the middle.

2.  Mix the sugar, milk, eggs 2tbsp of oil in a bowl.

3.  Pour the liquid mixture into the well in the center of the flour and knead adding water if necessary to form soft dough.

4.  Add the remaining oil, knead again, then cover with damp cloth and allow the dough to stand for 15 minutes. Knead the dough again and cover and leave for 2-3 hours.

5.  About half an before the naan are required, turn on the oven to maximum heat.  Your oven needs to be really hot.  The bread bakes fast.

6.  Divide the dough into 8 balls and allow rest for 3-4 minutes.

7.  Sprinkle a baking sheet with nigella or sesame seeds and put it in the oven to heat while the dough is resting.

8.  Shape each ball of dough with the palms to make an oval shape.

9.  Bake the indian bread naan until puffed up and golden brown. Serve hot.  I don't know how hot your oven will get so I can't tell you how long this will take, sorry.  Turn the light on in your oven and watch the bread.  Take it out when it is golden brown.

Serve warm with a vegetable curry or drizzle honey on it.  Yum.

Rahu and Ketu

Rahu and Ketu moved into new signs, (Scorpio and Taurus), on May 3rd. They will be in these signs for the next 20 months. Vedic astrology uses the visible planets (Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn) and Rahu and Ketu, the nodes where the Moon crosses the ecliptic. While not identical, the nodes function somewhat like the outer planets in Western astrology.


If you would like to learn more about Rahu and Ketu then visit

http://www.komilla.com/pages/rahu-ketu.html for a quick summary.


Rahu and Ketu will affect the houses in which they reside for the next 20 months. To place them in the correct houses you will need to know your rising sign, not your Western Sun sign. You can download a free Vedic astrology package at http://jyotishtools.com/downloads.php. If you are a Windows user then click on “Download Junior Jyotish for Windows for free” to download and install the software.


Once you have installed Junior Jyothish then you can click on “File” and “New” to enter your birth data. To see your chart in fixed sign order click on “View” then “Chart Style” and select the South India style chart. The chart should look like this, but without the identification of the signs:

The Sign that contains the designation “As” is your Vedic ascendant and consequently your first house. Count clockwise from your ascendant to Scorpio. For example, if you are Leo ascendant then Scorpio is the 4th house. Taurus will be located 7 houses away from Scorpio in the 10th house. If you are a Leo rising then Rahu will affect your 4th and 10th houses and for the next 20 months.

Again, if you are a Leo rising then you would want to connect spirituality (Ketu) with work (the 10th house), and ambition (Rahu) with assets (the 4th house), for the next 20 months. Rahu and Ketu can have a significant effect on your life of the next 20 months so act with wisdom and understanding.

Namaste