MUSICAL

INSTRUMEN
TS OF
Africa
GROUP 4
African Music
African Music incorperates
all the major instrumental genre
of Western music, including
strings, winds, and percussion,
along with a tremendous variety
of specific African musical
instruments for solo or ensemble
playing.
Classification of Traditional African
Instruments
A. Idiophones - these are percusion
instruments that are either stuck with
a mallet or against one another.
• Balafon
• Rattles
• Agogo
• Atingting kon
• Slit Drum
• Djembe
• Shekere
Balafon
• The Balafon is West african
xylophone.
• It is a pitched percussion
instruments with bars made
from logs or bamboo.
• The xylophone is originally an
Asian instrument that follows
structure of piano.
Rattles
• Rattles are vessels made of
seashells, tin, basketry, animal
hoofs, horn, wood, metal, cocoons,
palm kernels, or tortoise shell.
• These may range from single to
several objects that are either joined
or suspended to create sound as they
hit each other.
Agogo
• The Agogo is a single bell or multiple
that had its origins in traditional
Yoruba music as well as in the samba
bateria (percussion) ensembles.
• The Agogo may be called “the oldest
samba instruments based on West
African Yoruba single or double bells”
Atingting kon
• These are slit gongs used as
communication between villages.
Traditionally, they were carved out
of wood to resemble ancestors and
had a slit opening at the bottom.
• Gong "languages" composed of a
series of the beats and pauses,
made it possible to send highly
specific messages.
Slit drum
• The slit drum is hollow percussion
instrument.
• It is usually carved or constructed from
bamboo or wood into a box with one or
more slits in the top.
• It have one slit, though two and three
slit.
• If the resultant tongues ae different in
width or thickness.
• It can produce two different pitches.
Djembe
• Is one of the best-known african
drums.
• It is shaped like a large goblet and
played with bare hands.
• The body carved from a hollowed
trunk and is covered with goat
skin
Log drums
• Come in different shapes and
sizes, some have one head
while others are two.
• The bigger the drum, the
lower the tone or pitch.
• The more tension in the drum
head, the higher the tone is
produced.
 Shekere
• Is a West African musical
instrument made from a dried
gourd covered with bead netting.
• Variations like "agbe" use cowrie
shells and cotton thread, and
"axatse" is a small gourd placed
between the hand and leg.
Gourd shekere
 Rasp
• Is also known as a scraper, is a
hand percussion instrument
that creates rattling sounds by
scraping notches on a piece of
wood with a stick.
• Antique wooden rasps are
Antique wooden rasp historical versions of this
instrument.
 B. Membranophones
• Membranophones are instruments,
usually drums, which have vibrating
animal membranes.
• Their shapes may be conical,
cylindrical, barrel, hour-glass,
globular, or kettle, and are played
with sticks, hands, or a combination
of both.
 B. Membranophones
• African drums are usually carved from a single
wooden log, and may also be made from
ceramics, gourds, tin cans, and oil drums; while
some are constructed with wooden staves and
hoops.

• Examples from different localities are:

• Entenga (Ganda),dundun (Yoruba), patumpan
(Akan), and ngoma (Shona).
 • Body Percussion
• African people frequently use their bodies as musical
instruments. Aside from using their voices?? – since
many of them are superb singers – they also clap
their hands, slap their thighs, pound their upper arms
or chests, or shuffle and stomp their feet.
• - This body percussion creates action or movement
that combines dance and music. Moreover, the
wearing of rattles or bells on their wrists, ankles,
arms, and waists enhances the total effect.
 2. Talking Drum
• The talking drum is used to send messages to
announce births, deaths, marriages, sporting events,
dances, initiation, or war. Sometimes, the messages
may even contain gossip or jokes.
• It is also believed that these drums can carry direct
messages to the spirits after the death of a loved one.
However, learning to play messages on drums is
extremely difficult, resulting in its waning popularity.
Example of Talking Drum
Thank you for
Listening!