Bought for a gift. It was a hit !

Hello there, nice to meet you! ;o)Right off the bat, I'm not a musician (yet ;o), so I would be more set for aesthetic sounds, if you get my drift. Each rain drum literally marches to its own drummer, pun intended-- meaning each one is uniquely tuned at the factory that created them. No two drums are alike. This is my newest 'spiritual zen' hobby, trying out steel drums of various sizes and explore the differences between them... and soon learn how to play them well.This semi-gloss emerald colored finished drum, right out of the box sounded marvelous to me. I tested this drum with the rubber stopper at the bottom removed-- which seemed to help this drum resonate better, almost like hearing some bells being rung, you know? Just so you are aware, the silicone/rubber gasket/stopper is to keep the reverberations that always happen with these drums down for you to enjoy the notes, a contradiction to be sure. Playing these drums on a hard wooden surface really does enhance the sounds they make, as a tip for you. ;o)This fairly well made drum kit comes with two mallets, with smaller than usual, olive shaped rubber balls at the end of polished wood sticks, a songbook (more on that in a minute), a brown velvet bag, and two sets of stickers, one set with gold numbers, the other with both black and white numbers.Here comes the reality check:This C major drum does sound lovely at first, but I was experiencing two extremes: some tongues were perfectly in tune and some were 'out of whack.' A check with a tuner app indicated two of the tongues were definitely out of tune, and I discovered two dead tongues without emanating much sound in harmony with the rest of the neighboring tongues, confirming what I suspected. An oh, darn! moment for me-- which means I must learn to tune them at another time when I'm more proficient. It's a tricky thing to do tuning, but it can be done, albeit carefully.In addition, the songbook of 21 songs are not just for this drum, but other drums with more notes. There's no staff layout, but merely a notation of the drum tongue numbers without telling you what note you are tapping at any time. You are given the beat/time for each song. There's no words, nor familiar clues to help the beginner to recognize the rhythm or pace of what they are playing, if not familiar with the musical beat time sequence. I learned elsewhere that numbers with a dot above or below the number indicates a higher version of that note, as the dot below the number indicates a lower version of that note and you can see that on this drum with the dot over the number '1' tongue. More so, I see dots to the immediate right of the numbers, and there's no explanation what is that for... so I'm filled with questions.The songbook is 'littered' with these 'dotted number' songs, and gives a clue that very few of the songs offered can be used with this drum, is what I'm trying to say. I'm sure this may be an important point of consideration for some people learning to play this instrument. The very first song in the booklet is the well known "Happy Birthday," has this dot under the numbers, that this particular 6 inch, 8 note drum doesn't have... kind a bummer here, trying to get started, ah, well.Give these Weipoken Steel Tongue Drum 6 Inch 8 Notes, with Mallets (Dark Green) a try... I don't think you'll regret your purchase-- just remember each drum is uniquely made... so your mileage might vary on achieving a great sounding drum. ;o)***********************************************************May Your Holidays Be Warm, Cheery And Bright! ;o)Cheerio and Best of Luck in all your endeavors! Hopefully, this review was helpful.

The sound from this is great - it's clear, soothing, and it's in tune. It's pretty sturdy, too. My dogs have knocked it off the table and it's come out unscathed (not the mallets - I'll get into that in a minute). I love that it comes with a soft, cloth bag for storage and it's not very big. So if you want to try an uncommon instrument and not have to deal with minimal storage space, this is a good beginner.It comes with mallets with a hard rubber cap and when I was able to try them, they struck true. Unfortunately, the dogs got to them so now the mallets are gone and I need to find new ones.

My kids and I LOVE this rain drum.The sound that this creates is really peaceful and calming.I find my youngest daughter playing with it when she needs to calm down.We keep it in a simple, easy to find spot in the house so that the kids can play it anytime they need or want to.

Nice finish on this that will complement any landscaping. Place under a spot where rain water has a few feet of free fall before striking the eight available tongues. When struck, these produce a resonance pitched along a full octave of the major scale.NOTE: drum needs to be emptied after becoming filled with rainwater, as the vessel loses its resonance chamber. For this reason, product would not be suitable for producing sustained sound effect with a fountain or water feature.Makes a nice gift for someone who enjoys landscaping or gardening.

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It has rained here for 2 days and not one sound had come out of the rain drum. Very disappointed. I will be retuning this item

We purchased this rain drum for the mellow tones rainfall would bring.When it rains no sounds comes from the rain drum. Not happy.

Bought for a gift. It was a hit !

Hello there, nice to meet you! ;o)Right off the bat, I'm not a musician (yet ;o), so I would be more set for aesthetic sounds, if you get my drift. Each rain drum literally marches to its own drummer, pun intended-- meaning each one is uniquely tuned at the factory that created them. No two drums are alike. This is my newest 'spiritual zen' hobby, trying out steel drums of various sizes and explore the differences between them... and soon learn how to play them well.This semi-gloss emerald colored finished drum, right out of the box sounded marvelous to me. I tested this drum with the rubber stopper at the bottom removed-- which seemed to help this drum resonate better, almost like hearing some bells being rung, you know? Just so you are aware, the silicone/rubber gasket/stopper is to keep the reverberations that always happen with these drums down for you to enjoy the notes, a contradiction to be sure. Playing these drums on a hard wooden surface really does enhance the sounds they make, as a tip for you. ;o)This fairly well made drum kit comes with two mallets, with smaller than usual, olive shaped rubber balls at the end of polished wood sticks, a songbook (more on that in a minute), a brown velvet bag, and two sets of stickers, one set with gold numbers, the other with both black and white numbers.Here comes the reality check:This C major drum does sound lovely at first, but I was experiencing two extremes: some tongues were perfectly in tune and some were 'out of whack.' A check with a tuner app indicated two of the tongues were definitely out of tune, and I discovered two dead tongues without emanating much sound in harmony with the rest of the neighboring tongues, confirming what I suspected. An oh, darn! moment for me-- which means I must learn to tune them at another time when I'm more proficient. It's a tricky thing to do tuning, but it can be done, albeit carefully.In addition, the songbook of 21 songs are not just for this drum, but other drums with more notes. There's no staff layout, but merely a notation of the drum tongue numbers without telling you what note you are tapping at any time. You are given the beat/time for each song. There's no words, nor familiar clues to help the beginner to recognize the rhythm or pace of what they are playing, if not familiar with the musical beat time sequence. I learned elsewhere that numbers with a dot above or below the number indicates a higher version of that note, as the dot below the number indicates a lower version of that note and you can see that on this drum with the dot over the number '1' tongue. More so, I see dots to the immediate right of the numbers, and there's no explanation what is that for... so I'm filled with questions.The songbook is 'littered' with these 'dotted number' songs, and gives a clue that very few of the songs offered can be used with this drum, is what I'm trying to say. I'm sure this may be an important point of consideration for some people learning to play this instrument. The very first song in the booklet is the well known "Happy Birthday," has this dot under the numbers, that this particular 6 inch, 8 note drum doesn't have... kind a bummer here, trying to get started, ah, well.Give these Weipoken Steel Tongue Drum 6 Inch 8 Notes, with Mallets (Dark Green) a try... I don't think you'll regret your purchase-- just remember each drum is uniquely made... so your mileage might vary on achieving a great sounding drum. ;o)***********************************************************May Your Holidays Be Warm, Cheery And Bright! ;o)Cheerio and Best of Luck in all your endeavors! Hopefully, this review was helpful.

The sound from this is great - it's clear, soothing, and it's in tune. It's pretty sturdy, too. My dogs have knocked it off the table and it's come out unscathed (not the mallets - I'll get into that in a minute). I love that it comes with a soft, cloth bag for storage and it's not very big. So if you want to try an uncommon instrument and not have to deal with minimal storage space, this is a good beginner.It comes with mallets with a hard rubber cap and when I was able to try them, they struck true. Unfortunately, the dogs got to them so now the mallets are gone and I need to find new ones.

My kids and I LOVE this rain drum.The sound that this creates is really peaceful and calming.I find my youngest daughter playing with it when she needs to calm down.We keep it in a simple, easy to find spot in the house so that the kids can play it anytime they need or want to.

Nice finish on this that will complement any landscaping. Place under a spot where rain water has a few feet of free fall before striking the eight available tongues. When struck, these produce a resonance pitched along a full octave of the major scale.NOTE: drum needs to be emptied after becoming filled with rainwater, as the vessel loses its resonance chamber. For this reason, product would not be suitable for producing sustained sound effect with a fountain or water feature.Makes a nice gift for someone who enjoys landscaping or gardening.

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It has rained here for 2 days and not one sound had come out of the rain drum. Very disappointed. I will be retuning this item

We purchased this rain drum for the mellow tones rainfall would bring.When it rains no sounds comes from the rain drum. Not happy.