In the context of physical [as opposed to psychological and/or emotional] Healings the use of the drum is a distinct possibility. If you do decide to go this route, to be truly effective you should craft your own drum. While this may at first seem too complicated, it is actually quite simple as it is based on the transformation of a preexisting drum by the addition of an animal-skin head. The skin is the essential element of the drum.
The first step is to acquire a tunable tambour, minimum 13" in diameter with a plastic head. A tambour is a tambourine minus the ‘ine’ [the metal sounding-disks].
You will also require a skin large enough for the drum.
1. Disassemble the drum by removing the tuning screws. This will separate the tuning rim from the shell. Then remove the plastic head from the skull.
2. When purchased, the skin will be quite hard. Soak the skin in a sink filled with water that is a little hotter than your hand can stand. Place the skin on the surface of the water, and as it softens place some stones on it to keep it below the surface of the water. At this point you should add to the water minuscule quantities of the complete range of your bodily fluids [saliva, tears, sweat, mucus, blood, urine, sexual fluid; and for women, menstrual blood]. Tears, sweat, mucus, urine and menstrual blood can be collected beforehand and preserved on cotton cloth. The saliva, blood, and sexual fluid should be fresh. If this is not to your taste, blood alone can suffice. This will now be your skin.
By the time the water has gone cold the skin will be ready to apply to the shell.
3. While the skin is soaking, cut the plastic head away from the rim it is attached to, and then cut this rim at any one point with a hacksaw blade [24 teeth per inch].
4. When the skin is ready [the water has gone cold] take it out of the sink and damp off the excess water with 100% cotton cloth [color of your choice]. Center the skin over the shell and with the palms of your hands smooth the excess skin down the sides of the shell.
Try not to stretch the sounding surface of the skin while doing this, as when the skin dries it will shrink, and if it is stretched at this point it will be too tight to deliver low tones.
5. Work the split rim back onto the shell. Note, as it was cut this should not be a problem. Be careful with the skin tension. At first, have the edge of the rim level with the top edge of the shell [top = skinned side]. Bring the excess skin back up around and over the rim. Then place the tuning rim back in position and refit the tuning screws +/- 1 turn [maximum] into their holes. This should bring the tuning rim and head rim into their correct relationship. If at this point the skin has appreciably tightened, and appreciable means a noticeable
tension to the skin, place a palm against the skin and gently push to release the tension. At this point the skin should show slight fluctuations of surface.
6. Depending on the amount of excess skin, you have a few options. You can cut the entire excess off, level with the top of the tuning rim; or you can cut only the excess immediately adjacent to the tuning screws [also just to the level of the top of the tuning rim] and then fold the skin back over the outside of the tuning rim and, depending on the excess, cut it level with the bottom of the tuning rim, leave the excess or, if there is enough, loosely fold it just under [between ½ > 1"] the inside bottom edge of the shell. Cut while skin still damp and always cut away from the drum.
7. Let this set and dry naturally. DO NOT APPLY ARTIFICIAL HEAT.
8. Once dry you can tighten the tuning screws just to the point where they no longer ‘jiggle’ around. This will be the basic tone of your drum. It can still be loosened at this stage by slight pressure with the palm of your hand. For tuning:
begin at any one tuning screw and tighten ½ > 1 turn. Go to the opposite screw and repeat. Go to the screw to the left of the beginning screw and repeat this process until all the screws are tightened. Check the tone at each tightening. Note that a greater range of tones within any given tuning [tightening] is available with uneven tightenings. Note also that uneven tightening is counter to accepted Western tuning practice.
9. You can now begin to sound expressions. Note that expressions will manifest aspects unique to the tunings they are sounded with.
There is much room for experiment here in discovering which tones feel best to you, and then with experience, which tones are optimal for the individual you are addressing.
You are now ready to sign the skin with whatever representation [sigil, design etc.]
you desire. First use a soft lead pencil to arrive at what you want [it can be erased] and then use a permanent marker to finish.
You can also consider adding a mnemonic design/device to the drum head, either alone or in conjunction with any other signature you might employ. This mnemonic is composed of nine areas [each approximately the size of your thumb] which you can color from the correspondences delineated in The Stand of Stones Color Field Visualizations. With this device you will not be counting numbers then, but seeing colors. This also facilitates the distribution of your strokes around the drum’s head, which both provides a more melodious sounding and gives ample opportunity for swinging the rhythm.