For a flute and drum maker/player it was a special day for me. That particular log tongue drum was very dark in color from what I believe would be oxidation. One of the tongues was broke off. You could see inside the hand carved drum and I couldn’t believe how smooth the inside was. Considering they probably used some kind of broken flint rock to carve it.

There were a lot of carvings on the outside of the drum of Mayan designs. For something that was this old it was hard to believe in how good of condition it was in. The more I looked at the glass display I was getting visualizations of them sitting around a campfire in the rainforest playing the drum and chanting to the stars.

The Aztec Log Tongue Drum is also known as a teponaztli. It has an H designed slit on top to form the tongues. The tongues are of different lengths to give dissimilar tones when struck. A hardwood log was used. It was fire-hardened to give it strength and durability. The Aztec drum varied in length from 1 foot to 4 feet and had figurative designs carved into the sides.

Historical records show that children between the ages of 12 to 15 attended a House of Song or cuicacalli in the evenings.  These schools were located next to the temples.  Here the children learned how to sing, dance, and play musical instruments such as drums and flutes. 

Songs were taught about their views of creation, life and death and the gods.

The tongue drum is also known as the "Slit Drum, Log Drum, Xylodrum or Harmonic Drum and it gets its different pitches of sound from the different lengths and sizes of the tongues cut into the striking surface. It is one of the oldest musical instruments made. Its roots are African, South American and Asian. Those cultures used the drum to tell stories, dance and communication.

I have made tongue drums and used them on my music recordings. I generally crafted the drums with 1 inch thick pine mainly because of the lower cost and availability of pine wood.

I love the sound of the drum whether it is made out of stretched hide or a striking surface of wood such as the tongue drum. I like to use a striking mallet of soft tanned hide covering a ball of soft hide inside. For the stick itself I like to use a small diameter sapling. For me the soft ended mallet gives a more soft touch or tone.

The Aztecs used deer antler with a hunk of something hard on the end for the mallet.