♬ Hand-Tuned in Taos, New Mexico

Maggie Hayes, 64. Retired music teacher. Builds rain drums in a sixteen-square-meter wooden shed behind her cabin at the foothills of Taos, New Mexico. This is the last batch she will tune by hand.

“I taught children to listen for thirty years. Then I retired and realized I had been listening to other people’s music the whole time. The drum is the first thing that’s mine.” — Maggie HayesTaos, New Mexico

Everything Maggie Sends With the Drum

Six Things You Won’t Find on a Machine-Tuned Drum

Every detail below comes out of thirty years of teaching music and six years of filing steel in a wooden shed. Nothing here is decorative.

“A hand-tuned steel tongue drum is genuinely rare outside the small luthier community. Most drums on the market are machine-stamped and machine-tuned, which is why they can sound brittle even at low volume. What Maggie is doing here — tuning each instrument by ear against the same reference, one at a time — is the way these drums were originally made by hand-builders in the early 2000s. The pentatonic layout means anyone can play one without a single lesson, and that part is not marketing. It’s the math of the scale.” Dr. Helen WhitakerProfessor of Music Education, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff

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What You Get With Every Drum

• Hand-Tuned in Taos. Each of Maggie’s last 290 drums is tuned by ear, one at a time, in her wooden shed at the foothills of Taos.
• 432Hz Pentatonic Calibration. Nine notes, all pentatonic, tuned eight cycles softer than standard concert pitch. Every note harmonizes with every other.
• Carbon Steel Build, Pearl Finish. Powder-coated carbon steel. Holds tuning. Travels in a tote bag without scratching.
• Beginner Friendly From Minute One. Numbered tongues + a beginner songbook. No prior music experience required.
• Made for Playing, Not Display. Maggie has refused two collectors and one wholesaler. The drums go to people who will play them.

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