What to do about overly tight damaru skins

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videodhara
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2022 2:44 am

What to do about overly tight damaru skins

Post by videodhara »

Sorry if this is an overly mundane question, but…

I recently got a new small damaru (well, relatively: it’s a 12cmx14cm three-point damaru). Good quality: not one of those drums painted bright blue; can tell the skins are good. When it arrived it immediately started going slack, so I used the paper towel method to tighten them back up. Fast forward three days and the humid dog days of summer have turned mighty autumnal mighty quick, and now what were quite well tuned skins are waaay too tight; there’s no bounce to them, and, when I practice, the drum sounds with a dead, high-pitched “ping”. If I rub the skins with my hand for a bit they sound better, for maybe 30 seconds at most.

Im afraid that having them overly tight like this will cause them to permanently stretch and never quite sound right. I’m at a loss at what to do, whether there’s anything I can do anyway, or whether I should just let them chill and accept whatever fate befalls them. It’s apparent that intervening in the first place ended up being a stupid thing to do. Any advice or reassurance would be greatly appreciated!
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