African Music

African Music

1. West African djembe

   • It is shaped like a large goblet and played with bare hands. The body is carved from a hollowed trunk and is covered in goat skin.

2. Talking drums

   • African Talking Drums imitate the rhythms and intonations of speech. They are double-headed and belong to the family of hourglass-shaped pressure drums. They are played with a beater. The drums can be used to imitate speech patterns or as signals to make announcements or warnings. The pitch of the note is changed by squeezing or releasing the drum's strings with the arm.

3. Mbira

   • Melody instrument; Thumb piano; tuned percussion instrument with a number of metal splints; vibrating twang.

4. Kora

   • a long-necked African harp with many strings. The kora is often used to accompany songs of worship.
     • Predominantly used in North and West Africa, it is a 21 string instrument that looks quite like the western lute. It is played by plucking. 10 strings are played by the right hand and 11 strings are played by the left hand.

5. Singing/Voice

   • .Call-and-response form the leader sings a line (the call) and is answered by a chorus (the response). The chorus usually stays the same while the soloist improvises. There is often overlapping between the leader and the chorus. The chorus part is usually homophonic (in block chords).
   • Unaccompanied choruses are an example of a cappella singing. Songs are usually either strophic (split up into verses) or are in call-and-response
   • African singing often includes glissandos (slides which are sometimes known as portamento) and slurs, whistles, yodels and swoops and types of sound such as a raspy or buzzy quality. Melodies are usually organised within a scale of four, five, six, or seven notes. They tend to use small melodic intervals (lots of 2nds and 3rds) and often use recurring patterns and descending phrases.

6. not normally written down but passed on through oral tradition

7. Polyrhythms are also quite commonly used in this region. This means that different instruments play in different time signatures, and the rhythms are played together so they overlap. This creates multiple rhythms (polyrhythms).

8. Xylophone

   • Consists of a set of a wooden bars that are struck with the help of mallets.

9. Polyrhythm

10. In western music, the first and third note are usually stressed. However, in African music, the second and fourth beats are stressed

11. Master drummer: improvises rhythms.