Djembes.

Nice drums.

You can walk around with them between your knees, you can sit down and play. You can put them on a stand.

But what is best?

OK. A few observations based on direct personal experience:

1) Standing:

I haven’t tried the traditional walking around playing method yet, so we will skip that for now. If you want to stand up and play, the Mano Percussion stand (below) will help you out, but it’s not as flexible as I thought it would be, and you can’t really use it sitting down.

I bought this Mano Percussion Djembe stand in Megamusic’s sale ($65), but strangely, it only seems to cater for you playing standing up, as the minimum height off of the floor is around 12 inches / 30 centimetres, so you can’t use it sitting down at all – it’s just too high. It’s also taller than a snare drum on a stand, even when fully adjusted, so it’s not a great deal of use to me.

Nice stand… Shame about the height!

Oh well, back to the shop it goes!

2) Sitting:

Depending on the size of the Djembe and what you sit on, your comfort levels for both playing and sitting will vary.

I have found for a large drum, you can rest it on the floor, tip it slightly away from you and play comfortably.

For a smaller drum, you can take a cymbal stand apart (remove the top part of the stand), and place the drum on the base.

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CAUTION:  Make sure the height of the stand is less than the height of your drum however, or you may end up with the metal post sticking right up through the middle of your drum head, which won’t do much for the sound, and it will cost you $150 for a new head. So use one of these at your own risk. You have been warned. 

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This old flush based premier stand works quite well with the bigger Djembe. It’s just enough to give it a little ground clearance (about 1″), which is all it needs. It’s still extra to carry though, so I was still on the lookout for something more suitable.

Also: Find yourself a decent chair or perhaps a drum stool. I use a Stagg drum stool now. A backrest might help, but I get by without one.

Drum Stand: You may be able to find a plant pot holder, but it needs to be just the right size, and it needs to be sturdy enough for prolonged use, so I thought about it after seeing a few candidates on Google and then looked elsewhere.

Eureka!

And then we finally found the answer:

Or more precisely, my wife Susan came up with the answer. an old oven grill rack from a halogen oven sits under the drum, and raises it a little from the floor. I initially thought the legs would splay outwards with the weight of the drum – but they are fine.

Cool! Additionally, the ten inch (10″) diameter racks pictured have “feet” on both sides. if you have two drums of slightly different sizes, like these 10.5″ and 12.5″ diameter djembes, by inverting one of the racks you can get them to be both about the same height. And the racks are more portable than half a cymbal stand. The little feet pointing upwards – approx.  1″  (20mm) and 2.5″ (65mm) – on the rack prevent the djembe from falling off as well. Nice!

Job Done!

Minimal height difference – that’s better!

My thanks to Susan for solving this conundrum with such a simple and sound solution!

PS The djembes pictured here are made and sold by Akwaaba in Perth, Western Australia. They look and sound great and personally, I think they sound better (louder and more authentic) than a Remo djembe. That’s because they are authentic! The drum shells come from Ghana. You can check out more of Akwaaba’s cool stuff (including their drumming workshops) at their website here: