In general the best woods for djembe are all of the woods that we post on our website.  We must say however, that out of those that we post, the favourites and most popular around the world are typically Lenke & Guenou wood.   As for sound, this is tricky as each drum is unique, even if 2 drums were carved from the same tree and headed the same, they would not have the exact same sound.   For this we have to rely on history, our ears and the general inner carving of the djembe.  Of course the skin also plays a big part in the sound of the drum, but in general and based ..read more

March 1st 2021 starts a new era for Wooden Roots with the launch of the Wooden Roots website 3.0. “Did you not just get a new website” I hear you say? Why yes we did, how kind of you to remind us that we did indeed launch website 2.0 in January 2019. Should we talk about the mis-guided disaster that our Website 2.0 became or shall we remain positive and focus on 3.0? I think the latter is what we shall do as it’s always better to have a positive approach in this life rather than moan about “woulda, coulda, shoulda”. Right, well if you are reading this blog then you are indeed on our brand new ..read more

Pre-lockdown one of our students purchased a drum from us, we asked them to write a review. Instead, Diane very kindly wrote this instead and so we decided to feature it as a blog. How the drum helps the well being, heal and exercise  Authour: Diane Pilbro - February 2021  The drum has been an essential part of my life for about three years. When as a beginner, I was amazed that in a circle, all drummers would mirror each other, as if some innate ability to auto connect. Respect was a major issue. Learn from those who knew.  Time arrived when I needed to purchase my own. A speci ..read more

At Wooden Roots we believe that buying the right drum is like buying a pair of shoes. Quite simply if the djembe doesn’t correctly fit you and your purpose for purchasing in the first place, you will probably not play it and the djembe will end up in the corner of a room collecting dust or being used as a coffee table. So how do you know which drum is right for you? When customers come to Wooden Roots for a new djembe we typically need to know the following information; 1. What is your height and body type? Small hands, large hands? Djembe’s come in many shapes and sizes and so do people. We b ..read more

Covid-19 has effected everyone, all over the world. So how have we faired throughout the challenges of lockdown’s, Tier 2 to Tier 4 closure’s and further lockdowns? First and foremost we have kept drumming! During the first lockdown, Spring 2019, we quickly worked out how to switch our students over to ZOOM classes. We originally offered this for free and used it as a weekly check in to make sure everyone was ok and we just did some simple drumming. Then in the Summer 2019, we were able to bring students back in-house to our Studio 1 and we resumed in-person classes. We reduced the class sizes ..read more