The tone of a skin drum is, just like a stringed instrument, effected by three factors which are part of the laws of physics.
The first factor is the width of the skin. To use the example of a guitar, if a guitarist plays a note high up on the neck his fingers press the string down on a fret which makes the string in effect shorter. The shorter the string is, the higher the note. This is just the same with drums. A wider drum is like having a longer string - it makes a deeper sound.
The second factor is the thickness of the drum skin. Again, to use the example of a guitar, the high notes are played on the thinnest string and the low notes are played on the thickest string. A guitars six strings vary in thickness, each being thicker than the last (from high notes to low notes) across the neck of the instrument.
The last factor is the tension of the drum skin. Again to use the example of a guitar, the instrument is tuned by making the strings tighter or slacker by the cogs called 'machine heads' at the top of the guitars neck. The player will turn the cog to wind in or wind out the string making it tighter (a higher note) or slacker (a lower note) until it is the correct note.
If the string is too slack it will flap about when it is plucked and make no note at all.
This is the same with drum skins, the slacker the skin, the deeper the drum's note, until they get to a point where the skin is so slack that the drum sounds more like a cardboard box than a drum when you hit it.
Some drums are able to have their skins tightened like guitars. Timpani, the 'kettle drum' of an orchestra is a good example of one tunable drum.
Traditional shamanic drums do not have a tuning ability however, the skin on these drums is fixed. But skin - a natural material - moves about a little as it breaths. It takes in dampness from the air and the more damp rawhide is, the bigger it becomes. This is why a drum is made with wet rawhide, as it dries it shrinks and tightens up.
Some types of skin move about a great deal, and are very susceptible to moisture in the air. Generally this is thinner skins such as goat or fish skin. The thicker deerskin which Nicholas uses on his drums makes them more stable, but even they will sound dead and dull in very damp conditions.
To solve this the drum needs to be warmed up, this dries out the skin. Drums can be warmed by putting them in a warm place or left in the sun to dry. A place that is too hot can make the skin dry out too much sometimes resulting in it splitting or even the hoop imploding, but this is rare.
Photo: Southern Siberian Shaman's drum drying in the sun on the roof of a yurt before a ceremony
This gentle drying will not damage the drum skin in anyway, it is a natural part of the relationship you will have with your drum, and if treated with love and good attention there is no reason why your drum should not out live you... a drum is for life!
Nicholas has been making both shamanic and medieval drums for over 25 years, and offers a range of single sided deerskin shamanic frame drums.
His shamanic drums are based on two different drum-making traditions, those of the Native Americans, and those of the Mongolians and Southern Siberian shamans.
These single sided drums in the style of Native American frame drums are made with the finest of materials, and come ready to use complete with a buck skin wrapped beater and instructions about the upkeep of the drum.
These instructions are also available as a pdf file 
The drums are unpainted and are available in 13 inch, 15 inch, 18 inch, and 20 inch diameters, all with free postage in the UK.
CHOICE OF DRUM FRAMES
There is the choice of two different frames for the Native American style drums, solid wood and laminate (plywood).
Most of the shamanic drums commercially made today are made from laminated plywood drum frames. These frames are made in a factory and are generally perfectly round and perfectly flat.
In the 'good 'ol days' of proper village shamanism, drums were made from bent solid wooden frames, and these drums are never round and often not very flat.
Nicholas offers the choice of flat and round factory made modern plywood frames, or traditional solid timber (beech) craftsman made frames.
The solid wood frames will move as the skin dries, to give the drum its final shape. Drums using these frames will never be perfectly round, and may have a slight bend across the width of the drum, making them not quite sit flat when put face down on the floor. This does not effect the sound of the drum - just the look.
The laminated factory made plywood frames will generally be much flatter and rounder.
Please specify - by email - which type of frame you would like when you order your drum.
Native American style drums are laced in a traditional way with deerskin lacing, which goes over the back of the drum to form a cross which is then wrapped in soft buckskin to make a comfortable handle to hold the drum by.
In Siberian shamanism, the drum is perhaps the most important object a shaman can own. Siberia and Mongolia are considered to be the original home of shamanism, and Siberia is where the word shaman itself comes from. It is from the shamans of this area that the shamanic journey, now popular in the West, originates.
Siberian drums vary quite a lot from the more simple Native American style drums shown above, they are made especially for the shaman and often decorated with bells, cloth ribbons and other objects.
Nicholas Makes these drums for people in as close to a traditional way as possible. Each drum he makes like this is different and made in ceremony with the aid of his spirits. He undertakes shamanic journeys to find out the nature of the drum he has been asked to make, as well as how the drum is to be decorated and 'dressed' in ritual objects.
The frames of these drums are solid timber (beech), made by a craftsman in the UK. They are roughly round but not perfectly round.
The method of putting the skin on these drums does not pull the frame in the same way as the frame is pulled in Native American style drums, and so the finished drum is generally flat and as round as the original drum frame was.
The skins are made generally made from reindeer - from animals herded in Northern Europe.
These drums keep their tension in damp weather much better than Native American style drums do, due to their different method of construction. They are very suited to the climate of the UK and Northern Europe.
Prices for these drums vary from between £375 to £795, as they take far longer to make than Native American style drums and have higher material costs.
Nicholas works in collaboration with a shamanic blacksmith who makes some of the metal parts for the drums, and sometimes he uses original antique metal work previouly owned by Siberian shamans.
Each drum is unique and a true work of art. Sizes vary between around 15 inches to around 24 inches. Each comes with a traditional Siberian style drum 'paddle' (drum stick).
For more information on Siberian style drums, please read the .pdf article written by Nicholas on the subject here
If you would like to talk to Nicholas about the possibility of him making you a drum in this style please email him.
To see a larger picture of these drums made by Nicholas, please click on any of the small thumbnails below.
