Music
What is African music?
- It has a rich and diverse cultural heritage that
exist in hundreds of different languages.
- music in Africa always has the technique of
“Call and Response” in which a person leads by
singing a phrase and followed and answered by
a group of singers.
- They usually perform by singing and using
percussion instruments
Example:
 hands or with sticks
 drums and others
- This type of music is also used for
communication to convey news, for teaching,
for telling a story, and for religious purposes
including the Maracatu.
- a collective result of the cultural and musical
diversity of the more than 50 ethnic divisions of
the continent.
- The organization of this vast continent is a
colonial legacy from European rule of the
different nations up to the end of the 19th
century, enabling it to incorporate its music with
language, environment, political developments,
immigration and cultural diversity.
- Music has always been an important part of the
daily life of the African people, whether for
work, religion, ceremonies, or even
communication. Singing, dancing, hand
clapping and the beating of drums are essential
to many African ceremonies, including those for
birth, death, initiation, marriage, and funerals.
Music and dance are also important to religious
expressions and political events.
African music has a basically interlocking structural.
Format due mainly to its overlapping and dense texture
as well as its rhythmic complexity. Its many sources of
influence have produced such varied styles and genres as
the following:
1. Afrobeat - a term used to describe the fusion of
West African with black American music.
2. Apala ( Akpala )- a musical genre from Nigeria
in the Yoruba tribal style, used to wake up the
worshippers after fasting during the Muslim
holy feast of Ramadan. Percussion
instrumentation includes the rattle (sekere),
thumb piano (agidigbo), bell (agogo), and two or
three talking d Axe
3. Axe - a popular musical genre from Salvador,
Bahia, and Brazil. It fuses the Afro-Caribbean
styles of the marcha, reggae, and calypso, and is
played by carnival bands
4. Jit - a hard and fast percussive Zimbabwean
dance music played on drums with guitar
accompaniment, influenced by mbira-based
guitar styles.
5. Jive - Jive is a popular form of South African
music featuring a lively and uninhibited
variation of the jitterbug, a form of swing dance.
6. Juju - Juju is a popular music style from Nigeria
that relies on the traditional Yoruba rhythms,
where the instruments are more Western in
origin. A drum kit, keyboard, pedal steel guitar,
and accordion are used along with the traditional
dun-dun (talking drum or squeeze drum).
7. Kwassa Kwassa - a dance style begun in Zaire.
In the late 1980s, it was popularized by Kanda
Bongo Man. In this dance style, the hips move
back and forth while the arms follow the hip
movements.
8. Marabi - a South African three-chord township
music of the 1930s-1960s which evolved into
African jazz. It makes use of a keyboard style
that combines American jazz, ragtime, and blues
with African roots. It is characterized by simple
chords in varying vamping patterns and
repetitive harmony over an extended period of
time to allow the dancers more time on the
dance floor.
What is Latin-American music?
- refers to music originating from Latin
America, namely the Romance-speaking
countries and territories of the Americas and
the Caribbean South of the United States.
- incorporates African music from slaves who
were transported to the Americas by
European settlers as well as music from the
indigenous peoples of the America.
- Latin American music is also influenced by
American music, although the latter is the
product of three (3) major influences:
 Indigenous
 Spanish-Portuguese
 African music.
 Reggae
 salsa
 samba
1. Latin American music adopted for dance and
vocal arts include:
 Cumbia
 Tango
 Cha cha cha
 Rumba, Reggae
 Foxtrot
 Bossa Nova
 Paso Doble.
Reggae - a Jamaican musical styles that was strongly
influenced by the island’s traditional mento music, as
well as by calypso, African music, American jazz, and
rhythm and blues. One of reggae’s most distinctive
qualities is its offbeat rhythm and staccato chords.
Salsa - Cuban, Puerto Rican,and Colombian dance
music. It comprises various musical genres including the
Cuban son montuno, guaracha, chachacha, mambo, and
bolero.
Samba – a Brazilian musical genre and dance style. Its
roots can be traced to Africa via the West African slave
trade and African religious traditions particularly in
Angola and the Congo. Samba is the basic underlying
rhythm that typifies most Brazilian music. It has a lively
and rhythmical beat with three steps to every bar,
making the samba feel like a timed dance. There is a set
of dances – rather than a single dance – that define the
samba dancing scene in Brazil. Thus, no dance can be
claimed with certainty as the“original” samba style.
 1. Soca- Soca is also known as the “soul of
calypso.” It originated as a fusion of calypso
with Indian rhythms, thus combining the
musical traditions of the two major ethnic
groups of Trinidad and Tobago. It is a modern
Trinidadian and Tobagonian pop music
combining soul and calypso music.
2. Were - Were is a Muslim music often
performed as a wake-up call for early breakfast
and players during Ramadan celebrations.
Relying on pre-arranged music, it fuses the
African and European music styles.
3. Zouk - Zouk is fast, carnival –like rhythmic
music, from the Creole slang word for “party”. It
originated in the Carribbean Islands of
Guadaloupe and Martinique and was
popularized in the 1980s. It has a pulsating beat
supplied by the gwo ka and tambour bele drums,
a tibwa rhythmic pattern played on the rim of
the snare drums, a rhythm guitar,a horn sections,
and keyboard synthesize.
THE VOCAL FORMS OF AFRO-LATIN MUSIC
1. Maracatu - First surfaced in the African state of
Pernambuco, combining the strong rhythms of
African percussion instruments with Portuguese
melodies. The maracatu groups were called
“nacoes” (nations) who paraded with a
drumming ensemble numbering up to 100,
accompanied by a singer, chorus, and a coterie
of dancers.
2. Blues - The blues is a musical form of the late
19th century that has had deep roots in
AfricanAmerican communities. These
communities are located in the so-called “Deep
South” of the United States. The slaves and their
descendants used to sing as they worked in the
cotton and vegetable fields.
3. Soul - Soul music was a popular music genre of
the 1950’s and 1960’s. It originated in the
United States. It combines elements of African-
American gospel music, rhythm and blues, and
often jazz. The catchy rhythms are accompanied
by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves
which are among its important features. Other
characteristics include “call and response”
between the soloist and the chorus, and an
especially tense and powerful vocal sound.
4. Spiritual - The term spiritual, normally
associated with a deeply religious person, refers
here to a Negro spiritual, a song form by African
migrants to America who became enslaved by
its white communities. This musical form
became their outlet to vent their loneliness and
anger, and is a result of the interaction of music
and religion from Africa with that of America.
The texts are mainly religious, sometimes taken
from psalms of Biblical passages, while the
music utilizes deep bass voices. The vocal
inflections, Negro accents, and dramatic
dynamic changes add to the musical interest and
effectiveness of the performance.
5. Call and Response - The call and response
method is a succession of two distinct musical
phrases usually rendered by different musicians,
where the second phrase acts as a direct
commentary on or response to the first. Much
like the question and answer sequence in human
communication, it also forms a strong
resemblance to the verse-chorus form in many
vocal compositions.
Music WEEK 2
the Musical elements and the terms related to it
1. RHYTHM - is defined as the organized music in
time. It is closely relative to meter. Example,
when we listen to the music, we sometimes bang
heads or stump our feet keeping to the BEAT of
the music following the structural rhythmic
pattern of the music in the Afro-Latin American
music. Reggae music’s off-beat rhythm and
staccato notes gives you an idea and a hint of
African origin.
2. DYNAMICS- is the relative loudness or softness
of the sound, and the manner by which these
qualities change. Some of these when you read
or view a music sheet. Such as piano(p) soft,
pianissimo(pp) very Soft, pianississimo (ppp)
very very Soft, Forte(f) loud, Fortissimo (ff)
very loud, Fortississimo (fff) very very loud,
mezzo-piano (mp) moderately soft, mezzo-forte
(mf) moderately loud, crescendo sing from soft
to loud, decrescendo sing form loud to soft.
3. MELODY- is the linear/horizontal presentation
of pitch (the word used to describe the highness
or lowness of a musical sound). Many famous
musical compositions have a memorable melody
or theme.
4. HARMONY. Harmony is the verticalization of
pitch. Often, harmony is thought of as the art of
combining pitches into chords.
5. TONE COLOR (Timbre). Tone Color is the
quality of sound. If you play a "C" on the piano
and then sing that "C", you and the piano have
obviously produced the same
6. pitch; however, your voice has a different sound
quality than that of the piano.
7. TEXTURE. Texture refers to the number of
individual musical lines (melodies) and the
relationship these lines have to one another. As
you may recall in the earlier discussions, texture
has either monophonic, biphonic, or polyphonic.
Another example of music with complex texture
is the Maracatu of Africa, which combines
instruments, singers, and performers (dancers) in
its entire production.
8. FORM. Musical form is used to describe how
certain parts of the musical piece is repeated.
 This is the pattern that is generally observed in
the entire music.
9. STYLE. Knowing the unique style traits of
particular historical eras can greatly enhance
your musical experiences by offering clues
about what the composer was trying to express,
and what you should listen for when hearing a
piece. Musical style is usually described based
on its appearance in the world’s music history.
Since You have been reminded on the Musical
Elements, let us now have the Latin American Music,
Jazz and Popular music:
1. THE LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC
Cumbia - Originated in Panama and Colombia,
the cumbia became a popular African courtship
dance with European and African
instrumentation and characteristics. It contained
varying rhythmic meters among the major
locations – meter in Colombia, Panama, and
Mexico.
2. Tango - The word tango may have been of
African origin meaning “African dance” or from
the Spanish word taner meaning “to play” (an
instrument). It is a foremost Argentinian and
Uruguayan urban popular song and dance that is
related to the Cuban contradanza, habanera, and
Cuban tango, and remains a 20th century
nationalistic Argentinian piece of music that is
most expressive.
3. Cha Cha - The cha cha is a ballroom dance that
originated in Cuba in 1953, derived from the
mambo. Its characteristic rhythm of 2 crochets –
3 quavers – quaver rest, with a
4. syncopation on the fourth beat. The Chachacha
also contains polyrhythmic patterns, has a
normal count of ‘two-three-chachacha’ and ‘four
and one, two, three’.
5. Rumba - The rumba is a popular recreational
dance of Afro-Cuban origin, performed in a
complex duple meter pattern and tresillo, which
is a dotted quaver – dotted quaver – dotted
semiquaver rhythm. There is a repetitive melody
with an ostinato pattern played by the maracas,
claves, and other Cuban percussion instruments.
6. Bossa nova - Bossa nova emerged in the 1950’s
when a slower, gentler version of the samba
became popular with the upper- and middle-
class sectors of society. The music is for easy
and relaxed listening, conducive to romantic
dates and quiet moments at the lounges.
7. Reggae - Reggae is an urban popular music and
dance style that originated in Jamaica in the mid
1960’s. It contained English text coupled with
Creole expressions that were not so familiar to
the non-Jamaican.
8. Foxtrot - The foxtrot is a 20th century social
dance that originated after 1910 in the USA. It
was executed as a one step, two step and
syncopated rhythmic pattern. The tempo varied
from 30 to 40 bars per minute and had a simple
duple meter with regular 4-bar phrases. There
was no fixed step pattern, instead borrowing
from other dance forms and having a simple
forward/backward sequence.
9. Paso Doble - The dance is arrogant and dignified
with a duple meter, march-like character, where
the dancer takes strong steps forward with the
heels accompanied by artistic hand movements,
foot stomping, sharp and quick movements, with
the head and chest held high.
The characteristics of Afro-Latin American music:
1. Conversation: “Call and response” – a
performance of voice interaction as an answer to
the first chant.
2. Improvisation: Non-scripted ways of singing
that allow for sincere conversations. It is a
framework where the artist has freedom in
creating the musical mood.
3. The voice as an instrument: It is the
manipulation of a freely controlled piece where
they can change the tone of voice, its tempo, the
creation of moods, and even changing the range
and voice power.
4. The instrument as a voice: The instrument
serves as a “singer” along with the range and
voice power
THE JAZZ MUSIC:
1. Ragtime - is an American popular musical style
mainly for piano, originating in the Afro-
American communities in St. Louis and New
Orleans. Its style was said to be a modification
of the “marching mode” made popular by John
Philip Sousa, where the effect is generated by an
internally syncopated melodic line pitted against
a rhythmically straightforward bass line.
2. BIG BAND – The term BAND The term ‘Big
Band” refers to a large ensemble form
originating in the United States in the mid
1920’s closely associated with the Swing Era
with jazz elements. Relying heavily on
percussion (drums), wind, rhythm section
(guitar, piano, double bass, vibes), brass
instruments (saxophones), with a lyrical string
section (violins and other string instruments) to
accompany a lyrical melody. A standard big
band 17-piece instrumentation consists of the
following musical instruments percussion, brass,
and woodwind instruments.
3. Bebop or bop - is a musical style of modern jazz
which is characterized by a fast tempo,
instrumental virtuosity, and improvisation that
emerged during World War II. The speed of the
harmony, melody, and rhythm resulted in a
heavy performance where the instrumental
sound became more tense and free.
4. JAZZ ROCK - Jazz rock is the music of 1960’s
and 1970’s bands that inserted jazz elements
into rock music. A synonym for “jazz fusion,”
jazz rock is a mix of funk and R&B (“rhythm
and blues”) rhythms, where the music used
amplification and electronic effects, complex
 time signatures, and extended instrumental
compositions with lengthy improvisations in the
jazz style.
THE POP/ POPULAR MUSIC:
1. BALLADS The ballad is originated as an
expressive folksong in a narrative verse with
text dealing typically about love. The word is
derived both from the medieval French “chanson
ballade” and “ballade” which refers to a dancing
song. Used by poets and composers since the
18th century, it became a slow popular love
song in the 19th century.
2. Blues Ballads This is a fusion of Anglo-
American and Afro-American styles from the
19th century that deals with the anti-heroes
resisting authority. The form emphasizes the
character of the performer more than the
narrative content and is accompanied by the
banjo or guitar. 2. Pop.
3. Standard and Jazz Ballads This is a blues style
built from a single verse of 16 bars ending on
the dominant or half-cadence, followed by a
refrain/chorus part of 16 or 32 bars in AABA
form.
4. Pop and Rock Ballads A pop and rock ballad is
an emotional love song with suggestions of folk
music, as in the Beatles’ composition “The
Ballad of John and Yoko” and Billy Joel’s “The
Ballad of Billy.” This style is sometimes applied
to strophic story-songs, such as Don McLean’s
“American Pie.”
5. Rock and roll was a hugely popular song form in
the United States during the
late 1940’s to the 1950’s. It combined Afro-
American forms such as the blues, jumpblues,
jazz, and gospel music with the Western swing
and country music. The lead instruments were
the piano and saxophone, but these were
eventually replaced by modern instruments.
6. DISCO - The 1970s saw the rise of another form
of pop music known as “disco.” Disco music
pertained to rock music that was more
danceable, thus leading to the establishment of
venues for public dancing also called discos.
The term is originated from the French word
“discotheque” which means a library for
phonograph records.
7. POP MUSIC - Parallel with the disco era, other
pop music superstars continued to emerge.
8. among them were Neil Sedaka (Laughter in the
Rain), Diana Ross and the Supremes (Stop in the
Name of Love), Olivia Newton John
(Hopelessly Devoted to You), Stevie
9. Wonder (You Are the Sunshine of My Life),
Elton John (Skyline Pigeon), The Carpenters
(We’ve Only Just Begun), and Barry Manilow
(Mandy).
10. HIP HOP AND RAP - Hip hop music is a
stylized, highly rhythmic type of music that
usually (but not always) includes portions of
rhythmically chanted words called “rap.” In
rapping, the artist speaks along with an
instrumental or synthesized beat.
11. ALTERNATIVE MUSIC - Alternative music
was an underground independent form of music
that arose in the 1980’s. It became widely
popular in the 1990’s as a way to defy
“mainstream” rock music. Thus, it was known
for its unconventional practices such as distorted
guitar sounds, oppressive lyrics, and defiant
attitudes.
WEEK 4-6
Music of Africa
- African music has been an avenue for
expressing experiences in work, religion,
ceremonies, communication, and
interactions of the African ethnic tribes.
- Some traditional African music, as you have
learned include the Afrobeat (fusion of West
American and Black American music), Axe
(from Salvador, Bahia and Brazil), Jit
(Zimbabwe), Kwassa kwassa (Zaire), the
Apala by the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria, and
the Jive of South Africa.
How They Do It
- So far, we have been amazed with how rich
and resourceful African music is. Because of
the huge influence of African music to
global music, there has already been a
growing interest in its cultural heritage and
abundant musical sources. Many scholars
would agree on all or most of the following
characteristics of African music:
1. Emphasis on Rhythm. African music has great
deal of emphasis on rhythm or beat. Multiple
beats played at the same time are also evident.
2. Evident use of percussion instruments. African
music is very rich of percussion instruments
(tapped, clapped, struck, etc.).
3. Drumming. Researchers claim that African
music is ultimately founded or based on
drumming.
4. Call and Response. This method involves
performers or groups of performers that strike
alternately in a call-and-response manner.
Simply said, this involves exact repetition of
phrases or lines in a song.
Latin American Music
- Even before the arrival of Spanish,
Portuguese and other European colonizers,
American natives already had their own
local musical sources like the maracas
(gourd-shaped rhythm instrument), zampoňa
(pan pipe), and quena (notched –end flute).
Materials for indigenous music instruments
ranged from hollow tree trunks, animal skin,
animal shells, to human bones.
- Popular Latin American music include the
samba, son, and the salsa. Latin American
 music also covers the vocal-dance forms.
This includes the cumbia (Panama and
Columbia), tango, cha cha (Cuban
ballroom), rumba (Afro-Cuban), bossa nova
(Brazil), reggae (Jamaica), foxtrot (USA),
and paso doble (Spain).
- The Mariachi is another example of a Latin
American musical band popular in Mexico.
Its original ensemble consisted of violins,
guitars, harp, guitarron (acoustic bass
guitar).
Due to a rich history of colonization and interracial
mixing, Latin American music emerges to be both
complex and beautiful. No wonder then, that it has so far
gained popularity throughout the world. Latin music
may be briefly described using the following
characterization:
1. Spanish-Portuguese lines
2. African rhythm. This is due to African influence
to Latin American music.
3. Syncopation. Still an African influence,
syncopation is a style where weak rhythmic
beats are accented instead of the strong ones.
4. Call-and-Response
Popular Music Genres
1. Folk Music – songs of common people handed
down through generations.
2. Country/Western Music – songs of cultural
roots and natural settings.
3. Ballads – narrative folk songs dealing with love.
4. Standards – most popular song from a particular
genre or style.
5. Rock-And-Roll – pop song combining Afro-
American forms like blues and jazz.
6. Disco – rock music that was more danceable.
7. Crossover Music – classical music made
popular in performances.
Popular Music: Characteristics
1. Verse-Chorus Scheme
2. Repetitive Patterns of Notes
3. Average Tempo
4. Emphasis on Voice. The singer’s voice is
given prominence in a pop song, as well as
the clear message he/she conveys.
5. Freer in Style. Pop songs widely vary in
style depending on the demand of the
recording team, company or public.
AFRICAN MUSIC AND ITS INSTRUMENTS
- The music created by country or culture
is only made complete when there is
instrumentation or accompaniment.
African music, for instance, as you
remember, is mainly founded on
percussion instruments. That is why, you
will always associate this music with rich
instrumentations.
- Accompaniment gives life to vocal
music, while instrumentation makes
accompaniment possible. As a young
artist, it is a challenge on your part to be
able to discriminate music – that is, to
identify the quality, cultural background,
type of genre, as well as the instruments
used to produce the music you have
heard or listened to.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF AFRICA
A. Idiophones - These are percussion instruments
that are either struck with a
mallet or against one another.
1. Balafon - The balafon is a West African
xylophone. It is a pitched percussion
instrument with bars made from logs or
bamboo. The xylophone is originally an
Asian instrument that follows the structure
of a piano. It came from Madagascar to
Africa, then to the Americas and Europe.
2. Rattles - Rattles are made of seashells, tin,
basketry, animal hoofs, horn, wood, metal
bells, cocoons, palm kernels, or tortoise
shells. These rattling vessels may range
from single to several objects that are
either joined or suspended in such a way
as they hit each other.
3. Agogo - The agogo is a single bell or
multiple bells that had its origins in
traditional Yoruba music and also in the
samba baterias (percussion) ensembles.
The agogo may be called “the oldest
samba instrument based on West African
Yoruba single or double bells.” It has the
highest pitch of any of the bateria
instruments.
4. Atingting Kon - These are slit gongs used
to communicate between villages. They
were carved out of wood to resemble
ancestors and had a “slit opening” at the
bottom. In certain cases, their sound could
carry for miles through the forest and even
across water to neighboring islands. A
series of gong “languages” were composed
of beats and pauses, making it possible to
send highly specific messages.
5. Slit drum - The slit drum is a hollow
percussion instrument. Although known as
a drum, it is not a true drum but is an
idiophone. It is usually carved or
constructed from bamboo or wood into a
box with one or more slits in the top. Most
slit drums have one slit, though two and
three slits (cut into the shape of an “H”)
occur. If the resultant tongues are different
in width or thicknesses, the drum will
produce two different pitches.
6. Djembe - The West Africandjembe
 (pronounced zhem-bay) is one of the best-
known African drums is. 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. Log drums
come in different shapes and sizes as well:
tubular drums, bowl-shaped drums, and
friction drums. Some have one head;
others have two heads. The bigger the
drum, the lower the tone or pitch. The
more tension in the drumhead, the higher
the tone produced. These drums are played
using hands or sticks or both; and
sometimes have rattling metal and jingles
attached to the outside or seeds and beads
placed i 3nside the drum. They are
sometimes held under the armpit or with a
sling.
7. Shekere - The shekere is a type of gourd
and shell megaphonefrom West Africa,
consisting of a dried gourd with beads
woven into a net covering the gourd.
Theagbe is another gourd drum with
cowrie shells usually strung with white
cotton thread. The axatse is a small gourd,
held by the neck and placed between hand
and leg.
8. Rasp - A rasp, or scraper, is a hand
percussion instrument whose sound is
produced by scraping the notches on a
piece of wood (sometimes elaborately
carved) with a stick, creating a series of
rattling effects.
B. Membranophones - are instruments which
have vibrating animal membranes used in drums.
Their shapes may be conical, cylindrical, barrel,
hourglass, globular, or kettle, and are played with
sticks, hands, or a combination of both. African
drums are usually carved from a single wooden
log, and may also be made from ceramics, gourds,
tin cans, and oil drums. Examples of these are
found in the different localities – entenga (Ganda),
dundun (Yoruba), atumpan (Akan), and ngoma
(Shona), while some are constructed with wooden
staves and hoops.
1. Body percussion - Africans frequently use
their bodies as musical instruments. Aside
from their voices, where many of them are
superb singers, the body also serves as a
drum as people clap their hands, slap their
thighs, pound their upper arms or chests, or
shuffle their feet.
2. Talking drum - The talking drum is used
to send messages to announce births,
deaths, marriages, sporting events, dances,
initiation, or war. Sometimes it may also
contain gossip or jokes. It is believed that
the drums can carry direct messages to the
spirits after the death of a loved one.
C. Lamellaphone - One of the most popular
African percussion instruments is the
lamellaphone, which is a set of plucked tongues or
keys mounted on a sound board. It is known by
different names according to the regions such as
mbira, karimba, kisaanj, and likembe.
1. Mbira (hand piano or thumb piano)
- The thumb piano or finger xylophone
is of African origin and is used
throughout the continent. It consists of
a wooden board with attached
staggered metal tines (a series of
wooden, metal, or rattan tongues), plus
an additional resonator to increase its
volume. It is played by holding the
instrument in the hands and plucking
the tines with the thumbs, producing a
soft plucked sound.
D. Chordophones - are instruments which
produce sounds from the vibration of strings.
These include bows, harps, lutes, zithers, and lyres
of various sizes.
1. Musical bow - The musical bow is the
ancestor of all string instruments. It is the
oldest and one of the most widely used string
instruments of Africa. It consists of a single
string attached to each end of a curved stick,
similar to a bow and arrow. The string is
either plucked or struck with another stick,
producing a percussive yet delicate sound.
The earth bow, the mouth bow, and the
resonator-bow are the principal types of
musical bows.
2. Lute (konting, khalam, and the nkoni) -
The lute, originating from the Arabic states,
is shaped like the modern guitar and played
in similar fashion. It has a resonating body, a
neck, and one or more strings which stretch
across the length of its body and neck. The
player tunes the strings by tightening or
loosening the pegs at the top of the lute’s
neck. West African plucked lutes include the
konting, khalam, and the nkoni.
3. Kora - The kora is Africa's most
sophisticated harp, while also having features
similar to a lute. Its body is made from a
gourd or calabash. A support for the bridge is
set across the opening and covered with a
skin that is held in place with studs. The
leather rings around the neck are used to
tighten the 21 strings that give the instrument
a range of over three octaves. The kora is
held upright and played with the fingers.
4. Zither - The zither is a stringed instrument
with varying sizes and shapes whose strings
are stretched along its body. Among the
types of African zither are the raft or Inanga
zither from Burundi, the tubular or Valiha
 zither from Malagasy, and the harp or Mvet
zither from Cameroon.
5. Zeze - The zeze is an African fiddle played
with a bow, a small wooden stick, or plucked
with the fingers. It has one or two strings,
made of steel or bicycle brake wire. It is from
Sub-Saharan Africa. It is also known by the
namestzetze and dzendze, izeze and
endingidi; and in Madagascar is called
lokanga (or lokango) voatavo.
E. Aerophones - are instruments which are
produced initially by trapped vibrating air columns
or which enclose a body of vibrating air. Flutes in
various sizes and shapes, horns, panpipes, whistle
types, gourd and shell megaphones, oboe, clarinet,
animal horn and wooden trumpets fall under this
category.
1. Flutes - Flutes are widely used
throughout Africa and either vertical
or side-blown. They are usually
fashioned from a single tube closed at
one end and blown like a bottle.
Panpipes consist of cane pipes of
different lengths tied in a row or in a
bundle held together by wax or cord,
and generally closed at the bottom.
They are blown across the top, each
providing a different note. Atenteben
(Ghana) Fulani Flutes.
2. Horns - Horns and trumpets, found
almost everywhere in Africa, are
commonly made from elephant tusks
and animal horns. With their varied
attractive shapes, these instruments are
end-blown or side-blown and range in
size from the small signal whistle of
the southern cattle herders to the large
ivory horns of the tribal chiefs of the
interior. One trumpet variety, the
wooden trumpet, may be simple or
artistically carved, sometimes
resembling a crocodile’s head.
a. Kudu horn - This is one type
of horn made from the horn of
the kudu antelope. It releases a
mellow and warm sound that
adds a unique African accent
to the music. This instrument,
which comes in a set of six
horns, reflects the cross of
musical traditions in Africa.
Today, the kudu horn can also
be seen in football matches,
where fans blow it to cheer for
their favorite teams.
3. Reed pipes - There are single-reed
pipes made from hollow guinea corn
or sorghum stems, where the reed is a
flap partially cut from the stem near
one end. It is the vibration of this reed
that causes the air within the hollow
instrument to vibrate, thus creating the
sound. There are also cone-shaped
double-reed instruments similar to the
oboe or shawm. The most well-known
is the rhaita or ghaita, an oboe-like
double reed instrument from northwest
Africa. It is one of the primary
instruments used by traditional music
ensembles from Morocco. The rhaita
was even featured in the Lord of the
Rings soundtrack, specifically in the
Mordor theme.
4. Whistles - Whistles found throughout
the continent may be made of wood or
other materials. Short pieces of horn
serve as whistles, often with a short
tube inserted into the mouthpiece.
Clay can be molded into whistles of
many shapes and forms and then
baked. Pottery whistles are
sometimes shaped in the form of a
head, like the Aztec whistles of
Central America and Mexico.
5. Trumpets - African trumpets are
made of wood, metal, animal horns,
elephant tusks, and gourds with
skins from snakes, zebras, leopards,
crocodiles, and animal hide as
ornaments to the instrument. They
are mostly ceremonial in nature,
often used to announce the arrival
or departure of important guests. In
religion and witchcraft, some tribes
believe in the magical powers of
trumpets to frighten away evil
spirits,
6. cure diseases, and protect warriors
and hunters from harm.