A drum is a constant companion. Not what you might imagine my young campaigner. No snare drum for martial airs. The drum is made of clay or wood. The taut, tanned hide of a goat may serve as a sounding board. Have you seen pictures of tablas used in India?

Or pictures of African djimba? Talking drums. 

You have some idea of what the drum looks like. The drumhead is held on the flared lip of a clay tabla, or on the hourglass form of the rosewood talking drum, by strands of ingeniously knotted, plaited, and woven hair. The ties, sometimes also made of cotton and/or synthetic materials in cooperatives or factories or craft centers, hold the drumhead in place lightly but securely. The tone is determined not only by the pliancy of the drumhead and the tension placed on the drumhead by these ties but also by how and where the drum is struck by hand or with sticks. 

The haunting voices of the Gwana tribal drums still reflect the strength of their anamistic heritage after 300 years of Arab slavery and second class citizenship in Marrakesh. The world drum still beats a tattoo of freedom and perhaps will be better heard in this young 21st century. The drum calls and responds in the choir. Think of Mickey Hart’s recordings for World Drum. Think of the voices Hart found in the Rumanian Women’s Hospital Chorus. Think of King Sunny Ade playing Nigerian Ju Ju music at the SunFest in Palm Beach. Think of a deaf Beethoven feeling the sound under and through his feet.