Squeeze to bend
Tap high on the talk pad for a tight, high note, low for a loose, low one. Keep your finger down and slide: the note bends while it rings, and the cords on the drum close in as you squeeze.
Nigeria · Free · No account
Online talking drum - squeeze it and it speaks
Strike the drum and squeeze its cords to bend the note, like a dùndún drummer of the Yoruba. The higher you tap on the talk pad, the tighter the cords. Then pick a Yoruba greeting, listen to the drum say it in three tones, and echo it back syllable by syllable.
3 TONES
2 DRUMS
9 GREETINGS
100 % SYNTHESIZED
0 INSTALL
What you get
A drum that bends its notes
On a talking drum the pitch moves while the note rings. This page lets you feel it with one finger.
Three tones
Yoruba is a tonal language with high, mid and low tones. The pad has three bands, and the pitch trace shows the melody you just played, so you can see your phrase rise and fall.
Greetings the drum can say
Good morning, welcome, how are you, thank you, goodbye: pick a greeting and the drum says it, each syllable struck at its tone, while the dots of the phrase light up.
Echo it back
Press Echo it: the drum speaks first, then it is your turn. Strike each syllable at the right height; every tone turns green or red, and you get your score at the end.
Your own words
Type a Yoruba phrase with its tone marks (an acute accent for high, a grave accent for low, no mark for mid) and the drum reads it. No Yoruba keyboard? Type the tones as L, M and H.
Two drums, nothing to load
Choose the deep ìyá ìlù, the mother drum that leads the ensemble, or the smaller, higher gángan. The sound is synthesized live in your browser, so the pitch can follow your finger without delay.
Getting started
Make the drum talk in four steps
Strike
Tap the talk pad, high and then low, and hear the pitch change with the tension.
Bend
Tap low, keep your finger down and slide up: the note rises while it rings.
Listen
Pick Ẹ káàsán (good afternoon) and press Listen: mid, high, low, high.
Echo
Press Echo it and strike the four syllables back at their tones.
Specifications
The full sheet
| Type | Yoruba dùndún talking drum, playable on this page, free |
|---|---|
| Drums | Large drum (ìyá ìlù) and small drum (gángan) |
| Playing | Tap height = tension of the cords; slide while holding to bend; U, J, M, Space and arrows on a keyboard |
| Tones | High, mid and low, the three tones of Yoruba |
| Phrases | Nine Yoruba greetings, or any phrase typed with its tone marks |
| Echo mode | The drum speaks, you answer syllable by syllable, each tone checked |
| Sound | Synthesized in the browser: skin modes that follow the tension, stick click, optional brass bells |
| Requirements | Any modern browser with Web Audio - Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari |
How the drum talks
The talking drum is shaped like an hourglass, with a skin at each end. Leather cords run from one skin to the other all around the wooden body. The drummer holds the drum under the arm and squeezes the cords to tighten the skins while striking with a curved stick, so the pitch rises and falls like a voice. Yoruba is a tonal language: the same syllable means different things on a high, mid or low tone. A study led by musicologist Cecilia Durojaye found that dùndún drummers follow the tones, the timing and the loudness of speech when the drum talks, which lets it carry announcements, prayers, proverbs and poetry.
A family of drums
Among the Yoruba of Nigeria and Benin, dùndún is the name of a family of talking drums of several sizes. The largest, the ìyá ìlù or mother drum, leads the ensemble and can be hung with small brass bells; the gángan is a smaller, higher drum. Hourglass talking drums are played across West Africa under other names, such as the kalangu of the Hausa, the tama of Senegal and the Gambia, and the lunna of northern Ghana.
More drums to play
Keep drumming with the bass, tone and slap of the online djembe, hear the 21 strings of the kora, and find every instrument on the world music studio map.
Questions
Frequently asked
Is this online talking drum free?
Yes. The talking drum at the top of this page is free, with no account and nothing to install. Its sound is synthesized in your browser with the Web Audio API, so there is no sound file to download.
How do I bend the pitch?
Tap the talk pad and keep your finger or the mouse button down, then slide up to squeeze the cords and raise the note, or down to relax them. On a keyboard, hold the up or down arrow while the note rings.
Can a drum really talk?
It reproduces the tones and the rhythm of the words. Because Yoruba is a tonal language, the melody of a sentence carries much of its meaning, and listeners who speak Yoruba recognize the phrases, above all well-known ones such as greetings and proverbs.
How do I type the tones of a Yoruba phrase?
Write the vowels with an acute accent for a high tone (á), a grave accent for a low tone (à) and no accent for a mid tone (a), as in standard Yoruba spelling: Ẹ káàsán (good afternoon) is mid, high, low, high. You can also type the tones directly, for example M H L H.
What is the difference between the ìyá ìlù and the gángan?
Both are hourglass talking drums of the Yoruba dùndún family. The ìyá ìlù, the mother drum, is the largest and lowest and leads the ensemble; the gángan is smaller and higher. Pick either one in the menu above the drum.
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