hand drum

Dumbek; Metal hand drum with skin membrane.

Played seated with the drum resting across the thighs or between the knees. Played with two hands and never played with the drum stadning on the ground as it is open ended to allow the sound vibrations out into the air. Usually played with two hands while seated, both hands play rhythms making different pitches and tones by tapping the centre and the edge with the palm and the fingers.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk