Tsuzumi

The tsuzumi (鼓) is a Japanese drum of Chinese/Indian origin. It consists of a wooden body shaped like an hourglass, and it is taut, with two drum heads with cords that can be squeezed or released to increase or decrease the tension of the heads respectively. This mechanism allows the player to raise or lower the pitch of the drum while playing, not unlike the African talking drum.

Care for this instrument is peculiar in that the drum heads must be exposed to moisture to produce a desirable sound. Before playing the tsuzumi, the player will breathe very close to the head that will be struck. Sometimes he will even take some saliva and apply it to the head of the drum. The quality of sound of the drum will depend on how much moisture is in the atmosphere where it is being played. To make sure the drum heads are moist, the player will breathe into the drum head at intervals when he is not playing.

The tsuzumi plays roles in both Noh and kabuki theater music, but it is also used in min'yō (民謡), or Japanese folk music. It is often played with its bigger counterpart, the ōtsuzumi (大鼓) (lit. large tsuzumi; also called ōkawa (大革?, lit. "large skin") ). Thus the tsuzumi is also referred to as the kotsuzumi (小鼓, also called shōko), or "small tsuzumi."

Ōtsuzumi

The Ōtsuzumi (大鼓, Ōtsuzumi), also known as the ōkawa, is an hourglass-shaped Japanese drum. It is a larger version of the tsuzumi, or kotsuzumi and is used in traditional Japanese theater and folk music. Its appearance and the sound it produces are slightly different from that of the tsuzumi. Whereas the tsuzumi is smaller and has a more ornate drum head, the okawa is larger, and its head takes on a more plain, leathery appearance. The sound is also higher and sharper in pitch, resembling more of a "pop" than the tsuzumi's "pon" sound. The hourglass structure is slightly bigger, and the heads of the drum are taut very tightly. The okawa is played on the side of the player, possibly due to its larger, heavy size, whereas the tsuzumi is played upon the shoulder.

Care for the drum heads of the ōkawa is peculiar in that they must be kept dry at all times. In contrast, the heads of the smaller kotsuzumi must always be moist. Since the sound of the ōkawa is supposed to be higher in pitch, the player must ensure that the skin of the drum-heads remains as constricted as possible, and this is best realized when the drum heads are kept dry. To keep the drum heads dry, they are often kept near a kind of old style of Japanese furnace called a hibachi. When the player is ready to perform, he takes the drumheads and binds them to the body of the ōkawa as tightly as possible. Given the nature of the heads of the ōkawa, they wear after a specific number of times. Since they are very expensive, at least a thousand US dollars a pair, the ōkawa player must measure how many times, and how long he plays his instrument. If he takes good care of the heads, he can use them for as much as ten performances, after which the heads show sign of wear, they lose their desired sound quality, and they must be discarded.