A waisted drum is another term for an hourglass drum - a drum which folds inwards in the middle so as to give the appearance of an hourglass.

The talking drum is a musical instrument from West Africa, which is hourglass-shaped. It was invented in Oyo, Nigeria by Alaafin Ajiboye.

Hourglass drums are a class of membranophone, or drum, characterized by an hourglass shape. They are also known as waisted drums. Drumheads are attached by laces, which may be squeezed during a performance to alter the pitch. The category also includes pellet drums such as the damaru, although not all pellet drums are hourglass shaped (such as the Korean do, nodo,noedo, and yeongdo, which are barrel shaped).

Because when slaves and servants, shepherds and ordinary townspeople played the drum to send messages, everyone in the village heard it. When the sender of the message got a reply, it sounded like the hourglass drum was talking to them.

The donno drum is a drum from south Africa it is a wooden hourglass-shaped, two-headed drum covered with goatskin. The twin heads are laced together by thongs of gut or leather. To play it you hold it under one arm and strick it with a curved slick made of wood.