User:Masonw1406/Steel tongue drum

History
The steel tongue drum is based on the wooden slit drum. The slit drum is known to have been developed independently by multiple ancient civilizations including Africans, Aztecs, and Indonesians. They were used for both ritual and entertainment in these ancient civilizations. The steel tongue drum today had several predecessors, most notably the Whale Drum in 1990 by Jim Doble and the Tambiro by Felle Vega. In February 2007 Dennis Havlena, inspired by the physical properties of the Tambiro and the tone layout of the Hang, created a steel tongue drum with a circular cross pattern layout from an empty 20-pound propane tank. The name 'Hank Drum' came from a combination of "Hang" and "tank".

Dennis Havlena's instrument, in turn, has inspired other steel tongue drum inventions. Today there are a lot of vendors of commercial versions of the steel tongue drum worldwide.