James loves music and singing and drums so when I saw Panda Drum advertised it seemed like a perfect gift.
For years James has had a wooden drum in the cupboard that he grabs out as soon as Grandad walks through the door. The pair of them sit together bashing the drum and singing and having a great time. Panda Drum seemed like a way to introduce James, who can be reluctant to try out new things, to something a little bit different whilst still remaining in his comfort zone.
A search of the Panda Drum website told me it was a steel tongue drum, available in a range of colours and two different sizes (8 tone and 11 tone). I watched the video clips and loved the soothing sound the drum made. What really appealed to me was that you could hit it anywhere and it would still make a nice sound. James would find it difficult to have to hit a specific, small area.
Panda Drum is not the cheapest thing but was on special offer for Christmas, so on 4th December I ordered a blue 8 tone drum. I got a confirmation e mail immediately and two days later another e mail to say my drum had been dispatched. It was on its way from China so I did wonder if it would arrive on time for Christmas. I shouldn’t have worried though, it arrived exactly when they said it would on December 15th.
It was very well packaged in a couple of boxes with plenty of padding. The drum was a beautiful blue, 6ins in diameter and very smooth. It felt lovely to hold and not too heavy for James to carry around (the website says that the 8 tone drum weighs 1.4lb).
As well as the drum and the two beaters there was:
🥁 a spare set of the number stickers
🥁 a rest for the beaters
🥁 four finger pads (for sliding onto your fingertips and playing the drum with)
🥁 a velvety, drawstring carrying bag
🥁 an instruction/songbook.
I couldn’t resist a go with the drum and I wasn’t disappointed with the sound. It was as soothing and melodic in real life as it had been on the video clips on the website. I spent ages playing the drum and trying out the songs in the songbook.
The instruction/songbook tells you a little about the drum, how to play it and how to read the musical notation. It also includes QR codes for tutorial videos (and instructions on how to use the QR codes if like me you wouldn’t be sure!) and the musical notation for 13 songs. The songs are quite varied. There are nursery rhymes, a traditional Christmas song or two and some pop songs, including one each by Ed Sheeran and Rhianna.
Sadly, I couldn’t be with James when he opened the Panda Drum present on Christmas Day (wretched Covid!) but Helen sent me pictures and a video. James’ smile on first hearing the drum was brilliant!
His enthusiastic bashing later in the day led to the only negative thing I have to say about Panda Drum though. The rubber ends flew off both of the mallets as he bashed away. Helen has since superglued them back on and now James is able to play with gusto again.
James is able to hold the drum and carry it. The sound of the drum is beautiful, melodic and soothing. I can’t tell you it’s James favourite thing – yet. As I said it takes James a while to take to new things so he’s still getting used to Panda Drum. But he is enjoying it, the sound puts a smile on his face – and that’s good enough for me.
You can find out more about Panda Drum on their website pandadrum.com (I have no links to Panda Drum and the opinions expressed here are entirely my own).
If you have a Panda Drum or reading this has inspired you to buy your own I’d love to hear what you think. Do add a comment below or contact me.
