Hula base drum .. the big kahuna of a typical Polynesian log drum set

Hula base drum, .. big and cylindrical shaped wooden body,normally from a mango or coconut tree trunk. Cow or goat skin is stretched over each end, ropes are used to secure a home made heavy-duty power cable lashed together in a circle shape, acting as the sealing rings with a metal or wooden round brace that is also there to help the skins tighen at both ends.

The zig zag pattern of the ropes through the sealing rings and the metal or wooden round brace pulls the skin tight towards the middle, stretching the skins over the ends like glad wrap on a food container, this helps to create the deep base tone required for this instrument

You can tune the base by how much you tighten the ropes in conjunction with the other wooden drums and their sounds in the set. The quality sound of the base and the other instruments is essential to the hula drum dance music sound.

"Hula Drums"

Like the gear stick on a manual car, you can start in first gear and speed up to fifth, or work your way down the gears controlling your speed, this is the same concept the hula base drum does with hula drum dance music.

The base player also keeps the other drummers on their toes,remembering to keep the pace up or down, regular or irregular depending on the required beat sequence for each item.

This is just a taste of what you can expect from a base drum produced from a tree trunk, covered in animal skin that beats out the tempo .. boom .. boom boom .. boom .. boom boom.

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