During my training from Get In Tune Music Therapy, Marlys Woods, our instructor introduced what she called a “Happy Drum” to use for one of our intervention training sessions.  I was totally intrigued by this instrument as I had never seen or heard one before. My creative juices starting flowing and I thought of what a great tool this is for both therapists and clients… a drumming instrument, compact, that produces musical notes and ultimately melodies. This drum turned out to be a Hapi Tongue Drum with Hapi being the maker of the drum (more on Hapi below)

I have spent considerable time and effort getting to know these instruments and thus far have identified both the tongue drum and hand pan as instruments that can be used as part of a wholistic adjunct to therapeutic goals in addiction treatment and recovery.

My first idea was that we could have a very creative call/response and go around with me playing my guitar and clients drumming out notes on their tongue drums. This required that the tongue drums be in tune, affordable (under $30), and available next day through Amazon Prime.

Below is a tongue drum I ordered from Amazon… I ordered another of the same to be sure that I was getting exactly the same one… same tuning to be more specific. Success! Tone is good, also!

More to come…