The drum is a percussion instrument that belongs to the family of instruments known as percussion. According to the Hornbostel-Sachs classification technique, it is a membranophone. Drums are made up of at least one membrane, referred to as a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and hammered with the hands or a percussion mallet to produce music. There is usually a resonance head on the underside of the drum that is tuned to a little lower pitch than the top drumhead. Drums have also been made to sound using other ways, such as the thumb roll. Drums are one of the world’s oldest and most popular musical instruments, having a basic design that hasn’t changed much over thousands of years.

Drums can be played solo, with the performer using only one drum, and some drums, such as the djembe, are almost always played this way. Others, such as bongo drums and timpani, are generally performed by a single performer in a set of two or more. A modern drum set often comprises a variety of drums and cymbals.

Drums are generally played by striking them with one or two cushioned sticks, a beater connected to a pedal, or a hand. Hardwood sticks and sticks with soft felt beaters on end are among the several types of sticks used. Certain jazz drummers use brushes to generate a smoother, quieter sound. Drums are used in religious rituals and have a symbolic meaning in many traditional civilizations. Drums, particularly hand drums, are commonly used in music therapy because of their tactile nature and simplicity of use by a wide spectrum of people.

In popular music and jazz, “drums” refers to a drum kit or a set of drums (with some cymbals, or many cymbals in the case of harsher rock music genres), while “drummer” refers to the person who plays them.

Drums were even granted celestial status in places like Burundi, where the karyenda was a sign of the king’s authority.

Although the shape of the remainder of the shell varies widely, the drumhead is nearly always stretched over a circular hole in the shell. A cylinder is the most frequent shape in Western musical history, although timpani, for example, has bowl-shaped shells. Other designs include A-frame (tar, Bodhrán), truncated cones (bongo drums, Ashiko), goblet shaped (djembe), and linked truncated cones (talking drum).

Drums with cylindrical shells might have one open end (like timbales do) or two, one on each end. Single-headed drums have a covering that is stretched over an enclosed region or over one of the ends of a hollow jar. Drums with two heads that cover both ends of a cylindrical shell usually include a small hole in the center that serves as a sound resonating chamber. Two prominent exceptions are the African slit drum, sometimes known as a log drum since it is built from a hollowed-out tree trunk, and the Caribbean steel drum, which is made from a metal barrel.

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