Traditional African instruments

Drums

African drums come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The bodies are usually made from wood, gourds [Gourd: The dried and hollowed out shell of a fruit. ], and clay; drum heads are made from animal skins.

African instruments include the djembe, sakura, talking drum and doumbek

• The djembe drum has been called "the healing drum". It dates back to the 12th century Mali Empire of West Africa. It has a very wide tonal range setting it apart from other drums.
• The sakara is a hand-held drum made in Nigeria, West Africa. It comes in a family of four sizes, from tiny(Atele) to large (Iya-Alu). It has goatskin stretched over a rim of red clay and is played with a light stick. These drums are played all over the world in a variety of ways.
• Talking drums belong to the family of hourglass shaped pressure drums. The gan gan is the smallest, the dun dun is the largest. They have a drum head at both ends.
• The doumbek drum comes from the middle east, originally played in Egypt, Turkey and Armenia. The drum is played with the fingers. Dum is the bass tone played with your right hand in the middle of the drum. Tek is a high ringing sound played with your right hand. Ka is the same sound as tek, but played with your left hand.

Other percussion instruments

African instruments include the gonkogui, yenca, axatse, toke

• The gonkogui is a traditional double bell which is held in the hand whilst being struck with a stick. It has one high and one low tone.
• The yenca rattle is a gourd containing seeds that make the sound. It has a sponge plug which can be removed to change the seeds for different sizes, to give a different sound.
• The axatse or shekere also has seeds loosely covering a hollowed gourd. It is played by striking it on their hand, then on their leg, in various patterns. The top of the ball can be hit to create a deeper tone.
• The toke or banana bell is played by striking it with a metal rod whilst it is lied across the palm of the hand. It can also be hung on the side of drums. A pair of these bells, tuned a fourth apart, usually play together.

Stringed instruments

These include lutes, lyers, harps and zithers

• The kora is a 21- string harp-lute, which includes both plucked and sympathetic strings [Sympathetic Strings: Strings that are not played but make a sound due to vibrations from other strings. ]. It is used by professional musicians among the Mandika people of Gambia.
• The xalam is the most common stringed instrument in Senegal in west Africa. A plucked lute which is a close relative of the African American banjo.

Other instruments

African wind instruments include flutes, whistles, oboes and trumpets. The flutes were made from bamboo, reed, wood, clay, bones and other materials found in the sub-Saharan region.

Trumpets, often associated with royalty, were made from animal horns or wood. Clarinets, from the Savannah region of West Africa are made from guinea-corn or sorghum stems, with a reed cut from the surface of the stem at one end. Double-reed instruments, such as the hasua algaita, are derived from North Africa.

Musical regions of Africa

North Africa

This includes all the countries north of the Sahara. The main type of music here is Islamic, which uses drums such as the doumbek and string instruments such as the ud. Voices often use ornaments [Ornament: An embellishment or decoration to the melody. ] and melismas (lots of notes to one syllable).

The stringed instrument in the following clip is the ud - a low-pitched plucked instrument that looks like a lute.

Tribal Africa

This includes the sub-Saharan countries of Africa such as Senegal, Ghana, Central African Republic, Conga. Music here uses the djembe drum and the kora, with much call-and-response [Call and Response: A style of music in which a phrase or melody sung by a vocalist or group of vocalists is responded to or echoed by another individual or group. ] singing. The music often has ostinato [Ostinato: A phrase or pattern that is repeated throughout a section of music. ] patterns, in the rhythm or the instrumental or vocal parts.

Southern Africa

Music in the southern countries of Africa, which include South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zaire, have been influenced by Western church music, introduced by missionaries in the 19th century. Choral singing is very important in this part of Africa.

Caribbean traditional instruments

The Caribbean (also known as the West Indies) is made up of many island states that speak English, Spanish or French.

Languages spoken on different islands

Here are some of the more common instruments.

Cuban Percussion

Puerto Rico Percussion

Haiti Percussion

Trinidad Percussion

The instruments that North Americans usually refer to as "steel drums" are called "pans" in Trinidad, the country in which they were invented.

Lead Pan or Tenor: the steel drum is divided into 30 notes, depicted by indentations in the surface. There would also be a bass, double seconds, guitars pans, cello pans and tenor bass pans.

Instruments used in religious ceremonies in Trinidad

Bahamas percussion

Musical styles: African

In African music repetition is often used to organise the music.

In the mbira music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe, the interaction of players hands establishes a repeating pattern which players use as a basis for improvisation [Improvisation: The creation of a musical passage by a musician whilst it is being performed. ].

Polyphony and Polyrhythm are also important. Polyphony has many musical parts or rhythms interweaving with each other. Polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of two or more individual rhythms (eg 3 against 4).

In West Africa, drum ensembles have 3-5 players, each with a distinctive method of striking their drum and playing interlocking patterns. Sometimes other percussion instruments join in, creating a thick musical texture.

Call-and-response is very popular. The chorus repeats a fixed refrain in alternation with a lead singer, who then has more freedom to improvise. This makes the music conversational.

Pitch in African music is largely determined by the tuning of the drums.

Drum rhythms can imitate well-known phrases. It's said that when Napoleon was defeated at the battle of Waterloo, the native people in West Africa knew about it before their English or French governors, because the news was drummed down the coast from North Africa.

Talking drums are used to send messages, using a combination of pitch and rhythm to imitate speech.

Musical styles: Caribbean

Most Caribbean music is a mixture of African and Western music.

African musical influences include: syncopated [Syncopated: To alter a rhythm by accenting a weak beat. ] rhythms, call-and-response [Call and Response: A style of music in which a phrase or melody sung by a vocalist or group of vocalists is responded to or echoed by another individual or group. ] and extensive repetition of melodic or rhythmic phrases.

Western influences include the tonal system of harmony (major and minor scales).

Genres of Caribbean music

Reggae

• started during the 1970s in Jamaica
• lyrics [Lyrics: The words to a song. ] sung in a Jamaican dialect, often about local people and events
• slow 4/4 time with accents on beats 2 and 4
• harmonies are often limited to a few chords, which are repeated many times in the same sequence [Sequence: A pattern of notes which goes up or down in pitch every time it is repeated. ]
• loud bass riff [Riff: A short phrase that is repeated, normally with improvisation and often referred to in jazz music. ] played on the bass guitar

Calypso

• lyrics about local people and issues
• carnival music
• Uses lots of syncopated rhythms.
• use of Steel bands
• in Trinidad, they are accompanied by steel guitar and maraca
• today popular Calypso's are arranged for trumpets, saxophones, electric guitar, keyboards and percussion
• in duple time, 2 beats to every bar

Mento

• lyrics about local people and issues
• accompanied by banjo or guitar
• also played by bands to bring the music to urban centres
• banjo/guitar play fast, syncopated chords, while other instruments play their own syncopated rhythms
• popular mento melodies are also played on a fife (bamboo flute) and accompanied by the banjo, guitar, percussion and string bass

Ska

• emerged in the 1960's
• words again about local issues
• fast with syncopated rhythms
• uses amplified and electric instruments like the 1960's African-American Rhythm'n'Blues

Rock Steady

• developed from Ska but slower
• made more use of bass riffs in the bass guitar
• off beat chord

Integration into popular music

Afro-Caribbean music is a blending of musical elements from Africa, America, the West Indies, Europe and the Middle East. Bob Marley, Eddie Grant, UB40, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo are all successful artists in the western music scene.

The British Two Tone scene from 1979-1981 , which included bands like The Specials, The Selecter and Madness, developed from the Ska popular in Jamaica and South London in the 1960s.

In the 1980's pop stars like Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel and David Byrne mixed Afro-Caribbean elements into their music.

Listen to the extract from Present Arms by the English band UB40, who were heavily influenced by Reggae. Notice the strong bass riff [Riff: A short phrase that is repeated, normally with improvisation and often referred to in jazz music. ] on electric guitar. There are 4 beats to the bar, with beats 2 and 4 are strongly accented.

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