Tabor Drums

Tabor drums are a portable snare drum played with one hand. The English word "tabor" is derived from the Latin word for drum. The thin shell of the tabor looks like a frame drum shell with two heads. The shell is traditionally tin so the light weight instrument could be carried, and played, for long periods of time. The heads are usually rope tuned with a snare on one side. Players usually hang the drum from the forearm while using one stick to strike the snared head. The tabor is suspended by a strap from the forearm, somewhere between the elbow and wrist. It has a pitch range of approximately an octave, and should never be played on a drum stand because the vibrations get absorbed or muffled.

Considered the ancestor of the modern snare drum, the Tabor Drum (pronounced "tay-bur") was first found in Medieval Europe around 1300. In the Middle Ages the tabor was often played in unison with a three-holed pipe flute. Modern European folk music continues the tradition to this day, and the tabor drum is still used in the various pipe-and-tabor traditions of Europe. Because of it's light weight and played using only one hand, the pipe-and-tabor is played by one person, as opposed the the fife-and-drum, which requires two people.