Drum Circle

The only place these djembes are light is on your pocket book. The new Toca line of lightweight hand drums feature authentic Afro-Cuban sound coupled with indisputable value: It's a match made in hand drum heaven. With the Toca Lightweight Hand Drums you receive an excellent combination of value, looks, and sound quality.

Toca Hand Drums feature sculpted shells in a variety of hand painted finishes that covers both the shell and the head, making them eye-catching as well as functional. You can find a Jamaican-inspired Rasta finish with black, red, yellow, and green stripes or an African-themed Earth Tone finish that offers an organic brown/black/tan pattern. The hand drum has a pre-stretched synthetic head and a protective rubber edge along the bottom. The shell itself is also synthetic, and was developed as a hybrid that combines the fundamental components featured in doumbek and djembe drums.

Although this drum is light, the sound quality is definitely not. The Toca has a wide frequency range and fantastic response, delivering both heavy bass tones and resonating crystal clear slaps.

The best thing about the Toca Lightweight Hand Drums? The price. Starting at just $49.99, this is the best drum for those who are on a budget or individuals who are buying in bulk for classrooms and drum circles. Plus, each drum comes with a an adjustable carrying strap and a drawstring-carrying bag.

Choose from three sizes: 9" x 16", 10" x 19", or 12" x 22". The Toca drums are high in sound quality, visually stunning, and are so easy on your wallet you may just may want to own all three.

These drums were introduced at NAMM 2010. Pre-Orders are now being accepted and drums will be available to ship in March.



Toca Lightweights Series Hand Drums, Rasta w/ Strap + Bag



Toca Lightweights Series Hand Drums, Earthtone w/ Strap + Bag

Labels: drum.circle.facilitator, freestyle, hand drums, Music Education, NAMM, toca, toca djembe, toca.percussion, toca.shell

In the August issue of Downbeat magazine you'll find a great review of the new Toca Freestyle Djembes in Antique Gold and Silver. Below, we have included a copy of the piece as well as a transcription.

Toca Freestyle Djembe: Full-Bodied Satisfaction

Toca Percussion has retooled its award-winning Freestyle djembe - a chaliced-shaped, single-headed hand drum with roots in the West African countries of Guinea and Mali.

Instead of employing the traditional method of carving the instrument from the trunk of a tree, Toca uses a patented shell made from synthetic PVC material for these djembes. This makes the Freestyle djembe amongst the lightest and the most durable models on the market. The PVC shell produces a bright resonance that allows for easy tone production and makes the drum an excellent choice for school programs and drum circles.

Toca puts hand-selected goat skin heads on the Freestyle djembes, providing an important organic element often lacking in all-synthetic models. The skins on the four djembes I played all had excellent quality heads with even thickness and no blemishes.

The new Freestyle djembes feature a low mass bold tuning system, unlike traditional djembes that use a somewhat complex rope tuning system. The Freestyle djembes are easily tuned with a small wrench that comes with the drums. The tuning mechanism provides for quick, practically effortless tuning of a wide range of tensions. The bolts on the Freestyle djembes have protective rubber sleeves on them, which protect the player's legs and enhance the look of the drum. A non-slip protective rubber collar is located on the bottom of the instruments.

The new Freestyle djembes are available in two new hand-painted finishes - antique gold and antique silver - to give them a distinctive, North African look. They come with a choice of four different head sizes: 9-inch, 10-inch, 12-inch and 14-inch. The heights of the drums are relative to the head sizes, making the 12-inch and 14-inch more of a traditional djembe size and the smaller drums are musch like a North African dumbek. All sizes produce full-bodied sounds with sharp high-end slaps and satisfying bass tones. - Doug Brush

AUGUST 2009 DOWNBEAT

In addition to the Freestyle Djembes, Toca also offers a line of Freestyle Didgeridoo instruments.

Labels: djembe, djembe.tuning, toca, toca djembe