The tama (a.k.a. dondo or talking drum) is a West African drum whose pitch can be regulated to the extent that it is said the drum "talks". The player puts the tama under one shoulder and beats the tama with a stick. A tama player raises the pitch by tightening the strings and can produce highly informative sounds to convey complicated messages. The ability to change the drum's pitch is analogous to the language tonality of some African languages.
