There are just a few essential steps to take for the daily care of your favorite jembe drum.

We recommend that you think of your drum as a small child, and refrain from subjecting it to treatment that and infant would not endure well.

HEAT and COLD

COLD  The cold seems to have a much greater effect upon the drummer, than on the drum. I have not found that drums object to winter temperatures at all. The drop in humidity that usually comes with winter may even have your drum sound better! You should just be cautious with the transition from a cold place to a warm place. It would be best to do this slowly. Once again, having a nice bag for your baby will allow it to  remain warm during travel, or to warm up slowly to avoid condensation on the wood and skin.

HEAT  Extremes of heat are the most dangerous to the well being of your drum. A goat skin drum head will react to heat by contracting and tightening. For many drums this may over stress the skin and cause it to tear. The amount of heat and direct sun a skin can endure without damage largely has to do with how tightly it is tuned. The tighter it is, the more sensitive it becomes to moisture, heat, and impact.

BY THE FIRE

When warming a drum head near the warmth of an open bonfire to drive out humidity, keep the sparks away and always personally hold your drum, rubbing your palm over the surface of the skin in a circular motion to insure it does not become overheated, and to also insure that it warms evenly. The skin should never be allowed to become too hot to touch. My belief is that continued heating and cooling of a skin will weaken it prematurely. Warming a skin is not a good substitute for tightening the rope, but is useful to keep a well tuned drum singing proudly as humidity rises during the course of an evening of drumming around the fire.

IN THE CAR

The temperature inside a hot car can easily cause your favorite drum to split.

While the cost of a well made drum bag may seem like a lot, the cost to have a new skin put on is not much less than purchasing a bag to protect it. Good quality bags can shield your drum from a whole lot of heat, rain, dirt, impact, dogs, kids, and other perils.

The trunk of a car is generally much cooler than inside greenhouse-like glass. Wrap it with blankets, clothes or anything you might have to help insulate it.

For travelling, it works very well to place your jembe upside down on the seat and seat belt it in. Put your favorite hat on it for fun.

Once while crossing a small foot bridge in the dark with a wagon load of bagged drums, one drum jumped off the wagon and landed in the shallow creek, where it stayed for an hour. When we found it, the bag had protected the drum from the impact, and actually kept out most of the water. I loosened the rope and dried the drum by a fan. The next day it was re-tightened and was as good as new. It would not have been a pretty sight if it were not in that bag.

RAIN, HUMIDITY, SPILLS, and other MOISTURE

Keep your drum dry. Drum skins are relatively weak when wet. If a drop of water is allowed to penetrate the skin, it will become weak at that spot and likely tear open as the tension from the surrounding dry skin pulls it apart. Again, this will depend largely upon how tight the skin is.

Protect your drum from people passing by you with drinks, sweat, and lit cigarettes. If you see that something wet has dropped upon the skin, attempt to wipe it off as quickly as possible. You may see that the skin has raised up from the moisture like a welt. Check to see if the offending substance has gotten down into the area where the skin wraps around the steel rings. This is an area that is not easily dried. If you know for sure that wetness has run into this area, I recommend removing all the tension from the skin by loosening the ropes. I have had this action both succeed and also fail to save the skin. This is about all you can do though.

After wiping away wetness on the surface, warming the skin will help it to dry and remain strong. The radiant heat from most any source will do well, as long as is is not too intense. A desk lamp, sunlight, and open fire will all work well. Blow air on it with a fan to help it dry.

Be watchful for children with wet, sticky hands. For some reason they love to put those grubby paws on drums.

IMPACTS

Drum bags protect very well from impacts caused by narrow doorways, slammed trunks and car doors, kids with sticks, dropage, and other such abuse.

The tighter the skin is, the less it will take to puncture it. It is the sharp ended items that are most dangerous. Watch out for door knobs.

The Wood

For the most part, it is going to be the base of the drum that gets most of the abuse. A well rounded bottom edge will help keep the wood from chipping out if it is set down hard.

Some woods are very sensitive to hard impacts and must be vigilently protected. Others can take an amazing beating. The characteristics of the different woods are discussed in the section on woods.

Keep the wood away from heat as you would the skin. As the seasons change, a woods’ moisture content will change as the surrounding humidity levels change. The drum body will swell and shrink accordingly. There is always enough moisture in the wood to cause a crack if it is overheated.

You may wish to apply some oil to the wood to maintain it’s luster and color. I recommend lemon or almond oil. They are light and clear. If the wood on your drum has more of a raw finish, you might try some palm oil. It has a bit of an orange color and darkens the wood nicely. Palm oil can be found at most oriental groceries. Mix it well under hot water.

Check the section on Woods for more about natural aging, cracks, and repairs.