Bags and Accessories

Choose a djembe bag by the weight of your drum and how much it travels:

• Zip Cotton Djembe Bags: lightweight padded black cotton with a zip-top lid, for Indo djembes and other lighter drums.
• Ghana Cloth Djembe Bags: padded bags sewn from West African cloth by the team of tailors in Accra we’ve worked with since 1998, so every bag is different. They carry drums up to 8kg.
• Primo Series Canvas Djembe Bags: water-resistant reinforced canvas with padded shoulder and waist straps, for drums up to 9kg.
• Master Series Djembe Bags: weather-resistant reinforced nylon canvas with a ply-board lid insert and cushioned base, for drums up to 11kg.
• Djembefola Custom Bags: a Cordura exterior, weatherproof hardtop, hard bottom disc, and non-slip base, with front and top zips, for drums up to 14kg.

Djembe bag sizes go by the diameter of your drum head, measured across the top. Most adult djembes take an XL (11.5 to 12.5″), XXL (12.5 to 13.5″), or XXXL (13.5 to 15″) bag, and the Master Series and Djembefola XXXL bags are designed for larger drums with a rubber tread or flared foot.
Ghana Cloth bags come in sizes from 11″ to 15″.
If your drum is between sizes, or has a hair-on skin or rubber tread, choose the larger size.

A drum hat protects your djembe’s head, and a practice hat softens its sound for quieter practice.
The African Drum Hat is hand-stitched in Ghana from wax-print cotton with foam padding, and guards the head, bearing edge, and rope from bumps, dust, and sunlight; for rain, or extra protection inside a bag, the Canvas Drum Hat is water-resistant.
Batik Practice Hats are padded cotton that cut the volume and sustain, so you can practise at home, and they make the difference between tones and slaps easier to hear.
For very quiet practice, pack an old t-shirt or towel up the stem to soften the bass.

For standing or roving play, choose a strap by the weight of your drum.
The clip On Shoulder Harness suits lighter drums and players from age 9 to adult, clipping onto the drum’s uprights or a bracing loop, which makes it popular with schools.
For heavier drums, the 4.3m Primo Series roving strap and Master Series roving strap wrap around the drum and sling over your shoulders, the way djembes are slung in Africa.
The Master Series strap adds a wide padded belt across the shoulders.
If you play seated, a padded waist Strap holds the drum in place and takes pressure off your back and thighs.

Sessi sessi, also known as ksing ksing, seke seke, or the Malinké sege sege, are metal rattles that add a snare-like buzz to your djembe and accent every note, especially the bass.
They fasten to the drum with a cinch belt or slot in next to the top rings, and lead drummers use them to stand out.
The Guinea Series sessi are handmade in Conakry from polished sheet metal, and the Ghana Series sessi are made from galvanised steel, much like the ones players in Africa often make from old tin cans and scrap metal.

Shea butter is magic on hands: we love a little before playing, and a more generous application after a good drumming session. Djembe hides like goat and cow have their own existing oil constituents, so while a little shea transferring from a drummer’s hands to the skin is fine, there is no need to apply it directly to a drum skin.
Shea is also particularly handy and popular in West Africa as a protective barrier on djembe shells.
It is often applied to a raw shell to slow the drying process and reduce the risk of the timber cracking.

Tuning a rope-tuned djembe means adding tension through horizontal knots, and a Tuning Bar makes that easier while protecting your hands from rope burn.
It’s made from reinforced alloy and suits djembes of all sizes, but it isn’t built for cranking the vertical ropes (a dry pull), which takes far more pressure. For that, use the heavy-duty Cranking Bar.
If you’d rather leave it to us, our African djembes come with free lifetime tuning at our St Kilda studio.