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Characteristics of African Music

There are many different types of instruments used in African music including drums, percussion, and singing. Drums come in various shapes and sizes and are often made from materials found in Africa like animal skins, wood, and fruits. Some specific drums mentioned are the djembe, which is a healing drum from West Africa with a wide tonal range, and the talking drum which can mimic human speech. Other instruments include the gonkogui double bells and the axatse or shekere which has seeds or beads in a hollow ball. Singing is a main part of African music and call-and-response and repetition are common musical styles along with polyphony, polyrhythm, and pitch determined by drum tuning

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Michael Garcia
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140 views6 pages

Characteristics of African Music

There are many different types of instruments used in African music including drums, percussion, and singing. Drums come in various shapes and sizes and are often made from materials found in Africa like animal skins, wood, and fruits. Some specific drums mentioned are the djembe, which is a healing drum from West Africa with a wide tonal range, and the talking drum which can mimic human speech. Other instruments include the gonkogui double bells and the axatse or shekere which has seeds or beads in a hollow ball. Singing is a main part of African music and call-and-response and repetition are common musical styles along with polyphony, polyrhythm, and pitch determined by drum tuning

Uploaded by

Michael Garcia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

African Music

Presentation
There are lots of different instruments used in

African music.

They vary from drums, to percussion.


Also singing is used often.

Singing is the main driving force behind African


music because it’s expressive and often about
religion.
African drums come in different shapes and sizes
and are often made out of things, that are easy
to find in Africa.
E.G Animals skins, wood, stones, dried fruits.

The bodies are normally made out of wood, clay


and gourds. The drum heads are made out of animal
skin.
Djembe Talking
Is called the healing drum, drum video
it dates back to 12th century
West African. It has a wide
tonal range making it
different from other African
drums.

Talking drum
The talking drum has an
hourglass shape. They have a
head at both edges, and you
squeeze it’s body to create
different sounds. Some people
are so advanced at playing
this drum, they can mimic
someone speaking when
playing. Hence the name.
They often have a hocked
beater to play the drum with.
Percussion

Gonokgui
Gonkogui is a double bell
which is held whilst being
struck with a stick. One bell
has a high and one low tone.

Axatse/Shekere
The Axatse or Shekere has
seeds or beeds loosely
covering a hollowed ball via
a net. It is played by
striking it on hands, or
their legs, in various
patterns.
Singing

Musical styles: African


In African music repetition is often used to organize the music.
Repeating pattern Is used also improvisation is used.
Polyphony and Polyrhythm are also important. Polyphony has
many musical parts or rhythms interweaving with each other.
Call-and-response is very popular. Pitch in African music is
largely determined by the tuning of the drums.

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