Collection: Tambours de basque avec tête

Tambourines with a drum head, from EMUS, SUZUKI, Groove Masters Percussion and NINO, in six, eight and ten inch.

A head turns a tambourine into two instruments. Shaken, it gives the jingles. Struck on the head with the palm or the fingers, it gives a drum tone underneath them, and a thumb dragged around the edge of the head produces the long shimmering roll that a headless tambourine cannot do at all.

That range is why the headed tambourine is the one that appears in orchestral parts and in most method books, and it is worth having at least one in a classroom set even if the rest are headless.

Fixed-head models are the simplest and need no attention. Tunable models from SUZUKI, EMUS and GMP have lugs around the rim, so the head can be tightened as it settles or slackened for a lower, warmer tone.

Sizes run six, eight and ten inch. The six inch models are light enough for the youngest players. Ten inch models, including the SUZUKI and EMUS tunable ten inch with nine pairs of jingles, carry across a room. NINO models come in a choice of colours.