Atabaque: Brazilian musical instrument

The atabaque is a tall wooden and Afro-Brazilian hand drum. The shell is produced traditionally from the Jacarada wood from Brazil and the head is traditionally made from calfskin. The rope system is twisted around the body to connect a metal ring near the base of the drum to the head of the drum. Due to this tuning mechanism, the drum is sometimes known as “Atabaque de Corda”. The wooden wedges are forcefully pushed between the ring and the body and a hammer is used to tighten the rope and to loosen it as well when needed to raise or lower the pitch of the drum.

source: capoeiraresistenciajf...

In Africa, the cord-and-peg tension Atabaque had a distribution area roughly in agreement with the agogô. These include the Guinea Coast from the Niger River and the west to Benin, Togo as well as Ghana. Beyond the African continent the cord-and-peg tension are found in the Bahia, Suriname, St. Dominique, Cuba and the southern States of America and later the drum travelled to the Yoruba land, ewe, Fon and Akan people during the New world Diaspora.  The musical instrument is commonly used in Capoeira, Maculel and the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomble as the instrument is judged as sacred in Candomble. This musical instrument is of three types: the “rum” which is the tallest of the instrument but with the lowest pitch, the “rum-pi” which is the medium size of the instrument and also in the middle pitch and the “le” which is the smallest of type of the drum that possess the highest pitched.