Music education always carries the same image: that of a child playing the piano, the violin or even the guitar.
But music is far from being limited to these three instruments. When it comes to offering an instrument to your child, you should not be confronted with the disadvantages of playing them.
Among them, the initial cost, of course, but also the maintenance and private lessons they require.
Music, which is so important for a child's cognitive development [1], should not be a big budget.
For this reason, the tongue drum offers a real alternative, based on decisive advantages
- an inexpensive instrument
- no need for accompanied learning
- a more joyful learning experience for the child,
- a lack of maintenance,
- a saving of time.
We will analyse in detail all these advantages in comparison with classical instruments such as the piano, violin or guitar.
Is the Tongue Drum cheaper than other instruments?
The Tongue Drum saves you one very important thing: you don't have to weigh between buying an instrument and buying a car.
Although not all instruments cost £250,000, the acquisition cost is not the only one.
Much lower acquisition costs
Don't hesitate any longer about whether to invest in the stock market or buy your child a musical instrument: do both.
The tongue drum is cheaper than a piano
Have you ever wondered how much a piano costs? Between £600 and £10,000, which takes you from almost mediocre quality to high quality. We're not even talking about a grand piano, whose prices range from £4,000 to over £100,000.
Here we have only talked about the cost and not yet about the space such an instrument takes up in a house or, even worse, in a flat. When it comes to your child starting to play the piano at a music school and ending up spending his or her life on the piano at the station, ...
The tongue drum is cheaper than the violin
Now, what about the violin or the guitar, which have less of these space concerns? With violins, let's not fool ourselves, they are available for £80. But at this price you get to a higher level very quickly.
Because not only is the sound anything but fabulous, but as a beginner you will quickly wonder if such blows are not punishable by law. So a decent violin costs at least £400, not including the bow, carrying case and rosin. We don't want to tell you about the top class for almost £300,000.
The tongue drum is cheaper than a guitar
Let's move on to our last instrument, the guitar. Like the violin, it occupies a respectable place. You can keep it in a corner or even hang it on the wall. As for the price, again it is different.
Although guitars can be found on Amazon for £40, it's not certain that the kid will go very far with such a device, unless he doesn't live near the dump. Expect more like a good £500, with an upper limit of £4000 for the very high price range.
How much does a tongue drum cost?
A Tongue Drum costs between £60 and £800.
The Tongue Drum is a combination of two gas cylinder necks developed by an American visionary named Dennis Havlena. An instrument that can produce incredible tones across two octaves with impressive precision and subtlety.
No private lessons
The Tongue Drum for children is undeniably superior to pianos, violins and other guitars. Why? Because it can be played without frustration:
- Frustration from wrong notes,
- Frustration at the stares of others,
- the frustration of ridicule.
Isn't that exactly what kept us away from musical instruments when we were young? We all remember flute lessons in high school: the epitome of aversion to music theory.
With the Tongue Drum, these costs are eliminated. Your child does not need individual lessons to play the drum. No particular posture of the instrument or body position is required.
The child will naturally place the tongue drum on his lap or place it in front of him. Producing sounds by striking the mallets of the tongue drum is just as intuitive.
Therefore, the Tongue Drum is first and foremost an instrument of creative freedom, of the child's inspirations and inclinations. The tongue drum saves the authoritarian and traumatizing teacher who inhibits passion and establishes a mechanical style of playing in the child.
No maintenance costs
A musical instrument usually entails a lot of maintenance costs. The piano goes out of tune and requires the services of a piano tuner. A string breaks and needs to be repaired properly by the manufacturer or a piano repairer.
If the strings on your violin suddenly loosen or break because you have tuned it wrong or are too tired, you need to go to a luthier. The same goes for the guitar, which faces the same problems as the violin.
Not to mention the danger that humidity poses to the wood of these delicate instruments. The reed drum is the opposite.
The reed drum is the instrument of freedom par excellence:
- Robustness,
- lightness,
- sturdiness, lightness, resistance.
These are the three adjectives that best describe this beautiful instrument, which fits perfectly into our century; a century in which people want to be able to take their favourite objects anywhere and play them anywhere.
Whether on a river bank, on a mountain top or in a tree, the reed drum can be taken anywhere and in any weather.
A time saver
You're probably wondering what we mean by this - a time saver of what? We'll tell you:
- a time saving in tuning,
- a time saving in learning.
As far as tuning is concerned, there is none. The tongue drum comes home sounding good, and it will continue to sound good for decades.
For this very reason, it is quick to learn. With the reed drum, the note doesn't change if you hit half an inch before or after where you're aiming.
It is not a stringed instrument that squeaks, whistles or sounds wrong because your finger was 0.3 millimetres from the exact spot or your fingertip brushed the neighbouring string.
You will be able to play the reed drum within ten years, that's guaranteed.
In short, the tongue drum has nothing but advantages compared to conventional instruments. Among the general public, the tongue drum is still unknown because it is only 16 years old, but it is definitely gaining popularity.
Invest now in your child's future, at a reasonable price and with amazing results.
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[1] Musical training for the development of speech segmentation, François, Chobert u.a., 23. September 2013, doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhs180.
Externer Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22784606/