Welcome to Sleep Whispers.

I'm Harris, and if you'd prefer to hear this episode and over 400 more episodes of Sleep Whispers,

including many that are two hours, but without any ads, sponsors, promos, or breaks.

Then just become a SOC Plus member by using the link in the episode notes.

It's free for a limited time. Or you can just lean back, put up your feet,

and enjoy this episode. The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments.

Drums consist of at least one membrane called a drum head or drum skin

that is stretched over a shell, and it struck either directly with the player's hands or with a drumstick to produce sound.

There is usually a resonance head on the underside of the drum, typically tuned to a slightly lower pitch

than the top drum head.

Drums are the world's oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments,

and the basic design has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.

In many traditional cultures, drums have a symbolic function and are used in religious ceremonies.

Drums are often used in music therapy, especially hand drums

because of their tactile nature

and easy use by a wide variety of people.

In popular music and jazz, drums usually refers to a drum kit or a set of drums with some symbols, or in the case of harder rock music genres, many symbols.

Drums acquired even divine status in places such as Burundi, where the karyenda was a symbol of the power of the king.

The next section is about the construction of drums.

The shell almost invariably has a circular opening over which the drum head is stretched,

but the shape of the remainder of the shell varies widely.

Drums with cylindrical shells can be open at one end, or can have two drum heads, one head on each end.

...