Quick Start Tongue Drum: Play Without Notes, No Experience Needed

The tongue drum (also known as a tong drum, tank drum, gluck-o-phone, or hapi drum) and the handpan (also referred to as a hank drum, UFO drum, or zen drum) are percussion instruments designed to help you focus on your emotions, sensations, and body. You don’t need formal music training or knowledge of music theory to play them. Their main purpose is to encourage relaxation, meditation, and exploration of your inner world.

Tongue drums are very versatile and can be manufactured with different notes, our books are designed for the most popular and widely used model. You may need to skip some songs if you have less than one octave of keys on your drum.

C major is the most common and popular tuning for tongue drums, and our book is perfectly suited for drums in this key. 

All melodies are written in traditional musical notation, but our books are beginner-friendly as well. For those unfamiliar with reading sheet music, we’ve added corresponding numbers above each note.

The numbering system in the books uses the common diatonic scale, with numbers ranging from 1 to 7 to represent the notes of each octave.

For tongue drums with numbered musical notation, the numbers 1 to 7 represent the notes of the diatonic major scale. Dots above or below the numbers indicate notes from a higher or lower octave, respectively.

Playing the Tongue Drum

Most steel tongue drums come with mallets, and if you’ve never played a percussion instrument before, using mallets is the recommended way to start. Mallets make it easy to produce beautiful notes effortlessly, bouncing off the surface to create a clear, resonant sound.