HANDDRUMHUB
Find the groove — hand drums, tuning, and world percussion.
From converting tempo to note length and tuning a drum head to generating a polyrhythm, keeping the beat with a metronome, sizing a djembe skin, and counting a tapped groove, HandDrumHub pairs free hands-on percussion calculators with clear guides and a richly illustrated museum. Find the groove, then understand it.
Drum & Percussion Calculators
Free tools for hand drums and world percussion — BPM & tempo calculator, drum head tuning calculator, polyrhythm generator, metronome, djembe head size calculator, and a beat & tap tempo counter.
BPM & Tempo Calculator
Convert a tempo into the exact millisecond length of every note value, and see its standard tempo marking.
Drum Head Tuning Calculator
Turn a target note into a frequency, then into the membrane tension your head needs to reach it.
Polyrhythm Generator
Lay two rhythms of any ratio onto a shared pulse grid with exact millisecond timing.
Metronome
A free browser metronome with an accented downbeat, adjustable tempo and time signature.
Djembe Head Size Calculator
Turn a shell's bearing-edge diameter into a recommended raw skin size for rope tuning.
Beat & Tap Tempo Counter
Tap along to a groove to measure its BPM and track your position in the bar.
World Percussion Museum
Wander an immersive, richly illustrated collection — djembe and West African drumming, cajón and hand percussion, congas and Afro-Cuban rhythm, and taiko and frame drums from around the world, each in its own gallery. Every entry, image, and fact is drawn from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.
Tour the museum →From the Journal
Clear, worked guides on tuning a head, understanding tempo and polyrhythms, choosing your first hand drum, and the world traditions behind the instruments — reading to pair with the calculators above.
Tuning a Rope-Tuned Drum: How to Read the Pitch You're Aiming For
Rope technique is only half of tuning a drum. This is how to turn a target note into an actual number using drum-head physics, and how to tell whether you've actually reached it.
Choosing a Djembe Head Size for Your Build and the Sound You Want
Djembe "head size" is really two separate questions — which shell size suits your build, and how big a raw skin you need to cut for it. Worked numbers for both, from the djembe head size calculator.
What Humidity Actually Does to a Drum Head's Pitch
Why a rope-tuned drum sounds different on a humid day, worked out in real Hz and semitones from the tuning calculator's own physics — and why the shift turns out to be the same regardless of head size.
Playing Polyrhythms: Actually Feeling 3-Over-2 and 4-Over-3
Once you know what a polyrhythm is mathematically, the real work is getting it into your hands and feet. Worked timings for 3-over-2 and 4-over-3, plus a limb-independence progression that gets you there.
Practicing With a Metronome Without Playing Stiff
A click on every beat is a great diagnostic tool and a bad long-term crutch. Real click schedules from the metronome tool, and a progression for building solid time without flattening your feel.
Counting Complex Meters: 7/8 and Beyond Without Losing Your Place
Odd and complex meters aren't polyrhythms — they're one pulse stream grouped irregularly. Real beat-position tracking from the beat counter tool, and a practice method for actually feeling a 7 or a 5.
Keep Learning
Plain-language explainers on the building blocks of rhythm — drum anatomy and tuning, the ideas behind polyrhythm and groove, and the world drumming traditions that carry them — everything you need to go deeper with confidence.
Visit the Learn hub →