I made a “Ming Drum” for my kid — an online steel tongue drum simulator. No download, no sign-up, just open the browser and tap: https://zhimalab.tech/games/mingdrum
Why a Ming Drum
Steel tongue drums (tongue drum / tank drum) have an ethereal timbre with long sustain, and as long as the scale is well designed, no matter how you tap it, it won’t sound bad. For a complete beginner kid, this is the best starting point — no frustration of “hitting a wrong note.”
What’s inside
- C major scale: 8 tongues, one octave (keys ASDFGHJK); 15 tongues, two octaves (keys A Q W E R T Y U I O P 1 2 3 4), with C / D / G key switching
- Multi-touch: on phones and tablets, kids and adults can hold down multiple tongues at once to tap out chords
- Four themes: Zen Garden / Star Sea / Deep Sea / Aurora — soft and easy on the eyes
- Record & playback: tap out a melody you like, record it with one click and loop it
How it was made
Pure frontend: Web Audio synthesizes the steel tongue drum timbre on the fly (fundamental + inharmonic metal overtones + procedural reverb, zero samples), Three.js builds the 3D drum face, and the strike’s audio energy drives particles, glow and lighting in real time.
The first time my kid got a sound out of it, his eyes lit up. Want to put a “sounds good no matter how you play” drum in your kid’s phone too?