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What is this music?
• What instruments does it have?
• What part of the world do you think
it is from?
African Music
Learning Outcomes
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Where African Music comes from
History of African Music
Types of instruments
Features of African Music
Where is Africa?
AFRICA!!
Why do you think drums are
used a lot in African music?
• Very traditional, used a very long
time ago, no communication through
telephones or email
• Think about the materials they have
in Africa – not a very wealthy
continent, like America or Europe
African Drums!
• The most commonly used instrument in
Africa, apart from the voice
• Traditionally used as an
accompaniment to singing, dancing,
working and communicating between
villages
• Children are taught to play the drums
by ear at a very early age
• Repetition is used a lot in African
music
• Used as a basis for improvisation
• Polyrhythms (lots of rhythms at the
same time) were very important
• Drum ensembles have 3-5 players,
who each have their own striking
method and their own rhythms that
weave in together.
Other Percussion Instruments
• Other percussion instruments also join
in, creating a thick musical texture
• Call-and-response is used a lot – one
person might sing/drum a part, which
is then responded to with a different
pattern or part of the song
• This is different to echo – where one
person sings/drums a rhythm which is
repeated by the rest of the group.
Instruments
• Djembe drum – skin-covered hand drum
• Made out of a single tree trunk and is said
to contain the soul of the tree, which is
shaped and hollowed out
• Drumhead usually made out of goatskin and
rope is used to tighten the skin to tune
the drum to the right pitch
• Djembe can make 3 different tones –
bass, slap, and open tone.
Talking Drums
• Usually played with sticks
• Changes in pitch by tightening or
loosening the strings which run along
the length of the drum
• Used for communication
A Form of Communication
• Drum rhythms can imitate well-known
phrases
• Drums were used to send messages
and communicate through villages,
using a combination of rhythms and
pitches to imitate speech
Master Drummer
• Usually a senior member of the
drumming ensemble
• Directs the group, issues drumming
cues to indicate new sections of the
music, and improvising complicated
rhythms over a repeated pattern
• A master djembe player is called the
djembefola
Most important features of
African Music:
• Use of dynamics – louds and softs
• Polyphony – lots of melodies (tunes) all
happening at the same time and
interweaving together.
• Polyrhythms – each drummer has their
own rhythm they must remember
• Each rhythm fits in together so that
when all the drummers play together, it
becomes a polyrhythm
• Pitch- high and low according to tuning
of drums
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How can you explain what you
hear?
Rhythm or beats?
Texture – thick/thin?
Pitch – high/low?
Instruments
Tempo – speed
Timbre – what does it ‘sound’ like? Think
of one word to explain what it sounds
like.
• Dynamics – loud/soft?
Polyrhythm task
• Split class into 3 groups
• Each group will have their own rhythm
• Then clap all rhythms at the same
time
• This makes a polyrhythm!
Polyrhythms:
Rhythm 1:
Rhythm 2:
Rhythm 3:
Rhythm 4:
Learning Outcomes for today:
• Learn how to work as part of a group to
perform an African song
• Make up your own polyrhythms
• Decide who you want to sing, and who
is drumming
• Perform as a group, and assess others