Jeanne Wood on sun 28 nov 99
Hi,
I've been making dumbecks for a number of years and
enjoy them very much.
I have been hearing about the "udu" drum and would
like to try those as well.
I've never actually seen one, only pictures (OK so I'm
a little geographically isolated). Does anyone on
Clayart have any advise about their makeup? Belly to
neck proportions? Size of openings? Heighth & width?
Glazed or raw? Wall thickness?
I've found those things make a difference with
dumbecks, possibly they do on udu's too.
Second question, what is the physical difference
between dumbecks and djimbes? Other than their country
of origin?
Thanks for your help.
-Jeanne
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Richard Ramirez on mon 29 nov 99
Jeanne,
I am also interested in the make-up of these drums. If you do find out
some information about these drums, could you e-mail that info? Would
appreciate it Thanks, from the "Clay Stalker" Richard G. Ramirez
Jim Cullen on mon 29 nov 99
Go to www.yahoo.com, type in udu drums and sit back. I'm sure you'll get more
info then you ever wanted.
GOOD LUCK
Anita & Nick Feng on mon 29 nov 99
Dear Jeanne,
I've been making udus for several years. I love them! When I started, I
worked closely with a percussionist who had played and heard many udus, so
he would try out the ones I made, critique them, and make suggestions.
First, some general points
1. make the pot as thin as possible. This helps the udu to have a nice
riinging sound when you hit the side of the drum.
2. The rim, however, should be flattened, and a little wide at the very top
so that it is comfortable to play against.
3. I make them unglazed in earthenware. Glazed udus "ring" too much for my
taste and begin to sound more like a bell than a drum. Same holds true for
stoneware as opposed to earthenware. A more porous body makes a better
sound. (my opinion only!)
Hole size will vary depending on overall size.
I make an udu that is about 15" high. The hole on the side is about 1 3/4",
The hole on the top slightly larger. Keep the neck straight. Don't narrow
it in. Experiment with all the other dimensions and proportions.
Mine are thrown, in two pieces.
You can see a (poor) picture on mine at my website ( www.scn.org/~bg599 )
Good luck. The udu is a wonderful instrument!
Anita Feng
Issaquah, WA
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeanne Wood
To:
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 1999 8:00 AM
Subject: udu drums
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Hi,
> I've been making dumbecks for a number of years and
> enjoy them very much.
> I have been hearing about the "udu" drum and would
> like to try those as well.
> I've never actually seen one, only pictures (OK so I'm
> a little geographically isolated). Does anyone on
> Clayart have any advise about their makeup? Belly to
> neck proportions? Size of openings? Heighth & width?
> Glazed or raw? Wall thickness?
> I've found those things make a difference with
> dumbecks, possibly they do on udu's too.
> Second question, what is the physical difference
> between dumbecks and djimbes? Other than their country
> of origin?
> Thanks for your help.
> -Jeanne
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. All in one place.
> Yahoo! Shopping: http://shopping.yahoo.com
>
Jeanne Wood on sun 2 jan 00
Hi Anita,
Happy New Year, Y2K seem to pass without a
problem...which is very good.
Well I finally got my first udus out of the kiln and
I'm pleased, they look & sound very good.
I do have a question though.
When I play them to get sound I have to slap them so
hard my hand hurt after awhile. does this mean...
I'm playing them incorrectly?
The udu shape needs adjusted somehow?
I'm a wimp?
Do you have any suggestions?
-Thanks, Jeanne W.
>
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Anita & Nick Feng on mon 3 jan 00
Congratulations on your udus. You should be hitting them with the palm of
your hand, not the fingers, so that the hole is completely covered with each
hit. Another possible problem might come from the contour of the udu where
the hole is placed. It should be somewhat flat at that point so that the
hand can cover it easily. Also, possibly, the proportions are off somehow.
How big are they? And how long is the neck? These are quiet drums anyway
you know.
I've been meaning to send you my manuscript, by the way. I will soon!
Anita
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeanne Wood
To:
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2000 4:53 PM
Subject: Re: udu drums
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Hi Anita,
> Happy New Year, Y2K seem to pass without a
> problem...which is very good.
> Well I finally got my first udus out of the kiln and
> I'm pleased, they look & sound very good.
> I do have a question though.
> When I play them to get sound I have to slap them so
> hard my hand hurt after awhile. does this mean...
> I'm playing them incorrectly?
> The udu shape needs adjusted somehow?
> I'm a wimp?
> Do you have any suggestions?
> -Thanks, Jeanne W.
>
> >
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
> http://messenger.yahoo.com
>
Kathleen Gordon on wed 5 oct 05
To perk up my kids throwing class today we made udu drums... the ones
they made are really... small the size of two fists..
will they work???... I have never made them before and am not a muscian
so i am not sure if they have to be a certain size.. my thinking was if
they are small they will make a small noise and if they are bigger they
will just make a deeper noise.. i took pictures off the internet for
inspiration but you just never know the size when you look at a photo..
any udu experts out there?????
Cynthia Bracker on thu 6 oct 05
Musically/acoustically speaking, you are correct, the larger they
resonance chamber, the lower the pitch. However, if they are really
small, you might not hear much of a tone at all. Though I have never
made one, some things that come to mind that might affect tone
production are:
Smoothness of the interior of the resonance chamber (a smoother
vessel should provide better tone quality as you will have a uniform
reflection of sound
Size of the holes - they need to be small enough to be completely
covered by the palm of the hand.
Shape of the chamber - Again, based on my understanding of acoustics
and not actual experience, I think that the shape of the chamber will
influence tone quality. This may or may not be something that you
would notice, but as an example a rounder more spherical shape will
cause different overtones to be excited that a more ovoid shape. The
rounder one should result in a fuller sounding tone whereas the ovoid
one might be more hollow and haunting sounding.
You might go to www.soundsofclay.com Adam Sutton makes Udu drums as
well as other ceramic musical instruments. You can e-mail him from
his website. He might be able to provide more practical
information. The other person that comes to mind is Frank Giorgini
(yes, the same one who wrote Handmade Tiles). He made professional
Udu drums for years. Nice guy, too. I met him at NCECA.
Thanks! I always love it when I get to put that degree I got in
music to work in the clay field!
Cindy Bracker
Bracker's Good Earth Clays, Inc.
888-822-1982
http://www.brackers.com
On Oct 6, 2005, at 1:01 AM, Kathleen Gordon wrote:
> To perk up my kids throwing class today we made udu drums... the ones
> they made are really... small the size of two fists..
> will they work???... I have never made them before and am not a
> muscian
> so i am not sure if they have to be a certain size.. my thinking
> was if
> they are small they will make a small noise and if they are bigger
> they
> will just make a deeper noise.. i took pictures off the internet for
> inspiration but you just never know the size when you look at a
> photo..
> any udu experts out there?????
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> ________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
>
David Gallagher on thu 6 oct 05
I think the biggest influence of size will be the pitch created, smaller size = higher pitch. Volume will be effected as well, but I think you might be supprised at the volume you will be able to get out of little drums. I made one a little while back, they are fun. The other thing to take into consideration is wall thickness, the thicker the wall the more it will absorb the vibrations, if they are little tanks.... they may not sound very well. Acoustics
Kathleen Gordon wrote:To perk up my kids throwing class today we made udu drums... the ones
they made are really... small the size of two fists..
will they work???... I have never made them before and am not a muscian
so i am not sure if they have to be a certain size.. my thinking was if
they are small they will make a small noise and if they are bigger they
will just make a deeper noise.. i took pictures off the internet for
inspiration but you just never know the size when you look at a photo..
any udu experts out there?????
______________________________________________________________________________
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
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L. P. Skeen on thu 6 oct 05
I made one, but dang if I know where the image is at the moment. Udus are
cool. The larger they are, the deeper the sound. There may also be a sound
correlation to the size of the openings, not sure on that.
L
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathleen Gordon"
> they made are really... small the size of two fists..
> will they work???...
marianne kuiper milks on thu 6 oct 05
I am not yet as much of an artist as I am a musician
(knowledge wise, anyway) so I'll speak from my angle.
I don't know what ududrums are (I'd love to find out)
but the rule for most any instrument is: longer/larger
= lower pitch, shorter/narrower higher pitch.
I'm sure the kids will be delighted with any sound
they make and simply comparin who is "the lowest" in
the class, and setting the kids/instruments in order
will be a grand experince. And of course smaller is
softer (but more fun...??)
You can always make bigger ones later for a
comparitive experience. Maybe with a different class.
I think this kind of stuff is great: always strive for
a double learning experience.
Hope this helped a little.
Thickness of tapping surface playes a role as well.
Marianne
--- Kathleen Gordon wrote:
> To perk up my kids throwing class today we made udu
> drums... the ones
> they made are really... small the size of two
> fists..
> will they work???... I have never made them before
> and am not a muscian
> so i am not sure if they have to be a certain size..
> my thinking was if
> they are small they will make a small noise and if
> they are bigger they
> will just make a deeper noise.. i took pictures off
> the internet for
> inspiration but you just never know the size when
> you look at a photo..
> any udu experts out there?????
>
>
______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change
> your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be
> reached at melpots@pclink.com.
>
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John Jensen on thu 6 oct 05
I had a little burst of udu enthusiasm a few years back and made a bunch =
of
udu of many sizes. My best playing one is raku. I think the light =
porous
clay gives a better tone and resonanance. Most were more or less bottle
shaped cone six stoneware and the round part of the chamber about nine =
or
ten inches in diameter. It's worth the effort to make them as thin as
possible, I think. One Udu I made was in the form of a rounded female =
form
about thirty inches tall which you can see at my website...called =
Uduwoman.
She is a lot of fun to play but the tone is pitch so low as to be almost
inaudible.
John Jensen, Mudbug Pottery
John Jensen@mudbugpottery.com
http://www.toadhouse.com www://www.mudbugpottery.com
Louis Katz on thu 6 oct 05
The clay should still be porous when you are done. Stoneware fired Uduz
are dead.
Louis
http://falcon.tamucc.edu/~lkatz/c.mid
On Oct 6, 2005, at 1:01 AM, Kathleen Gordon wrote:
> To perk up my kids throwing class today we made udu drums... the ones
> they made are really... small the size of two fists..
> will they work???... I have never made them before and am not a muscian
> so i am not sure if they have to be a certain size.. my thinking was if
> they are small they will make a small noise and if they are bigger they
> will just make a deeper noise.. i took pictures off the internet for
> inspiration but you just never know the size when you look at a photo..
> any udu experts out there?????
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
> _______
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
Maggie Pate on fri 7 oct 05
Oh, what good timing for this discussion! I just
finished dismantling a commission for an enormous udu
that gave up the ghost. A local percussionist asked
me to make him a perfectly spherical udu large enough
that his arms would just encircle it. (Something to
make all the other percussionists jealous (: ). I
worked out the maximum size our largest kiln could
accomodate, did a smaller prototype to make sure he
was happy with the glaze, and set to work.
To make something that size (taking shrinkage into
account) meant coiling a perfect sphere about 24
inches in diameter. I made myself a set of giant ribs
out of cardboard to make sure I keeping the curve
uniform and threw a sort of curving plate (untrimmed)
to support the bottom of the pot. It seemed like a
good challege, but now I think it would be a good grad
school research progect. How to support that great
curve while coiling... The thing was massive. I used
about 45 lbs of clay for it, and just as I was
finishing the top, the underbelly began developing
stress cracks from (I'm guessing) a combination of
shrinkage (started drying a bit on me) and all that
weight on the nice thin wall.
A very fun project, though. If anyone else wants to
try it I'll send you the guy's contact info. (: I'll
post a pic of the smaller prototpye at
pateceramics.blogspot.com.
Happy Potting,
Maggie Pate
Proud to be on the staff at the Potters Shop and
School
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Bruce Girrell on mon 10 oct 05
How do you determine the proper size of the top opening and the side
opening? Is there any relationship between the two?
Is the position of the side opening critical or does it simply need to be
placed where the player's hand can get to it easily?
How does the udu diameter affect the sound? How does the size of the top and
side openings affect the sound?
How does clay maturation affect the sound? Do you want to fire to maturity
for strength or do you want a softer body? I would think that the originals
were not fired to a very high temperature.
Bruce "questions, questions, questions" Girrell
David Gallagher on mon 10 oct 05
I'm wondering about the hole size my self, I imagine that the key factor for the top hole would be that your hand can completely cover it while slapping it. The side hole I think should be about equal size, I don't know about drums but in guitars the placement of the sound hole seems to effect the volume of the guitar, in the center usually provides better projection. The vibrations (sound waves) seem to do better when they have equal lengths to travel.
With the diameter, i think the thinner the body the thinner the sound. Think of the mariachi bass guitars with their big rounded backs. Perhaps looking at drum kit on line would be a good example too, to get a feel for what the different drum sizes and shapes produce sound wise.
With the clay maturation, I think your right that most of these were "underfired" originally. What a great excuse to do a pit fire! Some one before mentioned that stone ware drums are "dead", I would agree from my experience as well. Definitely should be made out of earthen ware to get the best tone.
Bruce Girrell wrote:
How do you determine the proper size of the top opening and the side
opening? Is there any relationship between the two?
Is the position of the side opening critical or does it simply need to be
placed where the player's hand can get to it easily?
How does the udu diameter affect the sound? How does the size of the top and
side openings affect the sound?
How does clay maturation affect the sound? Do you want to fire to maturity
for strength or do you want a softer body? I would think that the originals
were not fired to a very high temperature.
Bruce "questions, questions, questions" Girrell
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Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
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