AFRICAN

MUSIC
Music has always been an
important part in the daily life
of the African, whether for
work, religion, ceremonies, or
even communication.
Singing, dancing, handclapping
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 expression
and political events.
 Types of
African Music
Afrobeat
is a term used to
describe the fusion of
West African with
black American music.
Apala/Akpala
Yoruba Akpala Musicians
is a musical genre from Nigeria
in the Yoruba tribal style to
wake up the worshippers after
fasting during the Muslim holy
feast of Ramadan.
is a popular musical genre
from Salvador, Bahia, and
Brazil. It fuses the Afro-
Caribbean styles of the
marcha, reggae, and calypso
is a popular form of
South African music
featuring a lively and
uninhibited variation of
the jitter.
is a hard and fast percussive
Zimbabwean dance music
played on drums with guitar
accompaniment, influenced
by mbira-based guitar styles.
Juju
is a popular music style from
Nigeria that relies on the
traditional Yoruba rhythms,
where the instruments in Juju
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).
Kwassa Kwassa
is a dance style begun in Zairein
the late 1980’s, popularized by
Kanda Bongo Man. In this dance
style, the hips move back and
forth while the arms move
following the hips.
Marabi
Marabi is a South African three-chord
township music of the 1930s-1960s
which evolved into African Jazz.
Possessing a keyboard style combining
American jazz, ragtime and blues with
African roots, it is characterized by
simple chords.
VOCAL FORMS OF
AFRICAN MUSIC
1.Maracatu
First surfaced in the African
state of Pernambuco,
combining the strong rhythms
of African percussion
instruments with Portuguese
melodies.
Maracatu dance
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.
 Musical
Instruments used in
Maracatu
•The alfaia is a large wooden drum that is
rope-tuned, complemented by the tarol
which is a shallow snare drum and the
caixa-de-Guerra which is a war-like snare.
•Providing the clanging sound is the
gongue,a metal cowbell.
• The shakers are represented by the agbe, a gourd
shaker covered by beads, and the minieroor ganza,a
metal cylindrical shaker filled with metal shot or small
dried seeds called “Lagrima fre Nossa Senhora
2. BLUES
•The blues is a musical form of the late
19th century that has had deep roots in
African American 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.
The notes of the blues create an
expressive and soulful sound.
The feelings that are evoked are
normally associated with slight
degrees of misfortune, lost love,
frustration, or loneliness.
From ecstatic joy to deep
sadness, the blues can
communicate various
emotions more effectively
than other musical forms.
•Noted performers of the Rhythm and Blues
genre are Ray Charles, James Brown, Cab
Calloway, Aretha Franklin, and John Lee
Hooker; as well as B.B. King, Bo Diddley,
Erykah Badu, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood,
Charlie Musselwhite, Blues Traveler, Jimmie
Vaughan, and Jeff Baxter. Examples of blues
music are the following: Early Mornin’, A
House is Not a Home and Billie’s Blues.
3. 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.
•Some important innovators
whose recordings in the 1950s
contributed to the emergence of
soul music included Clyde
McPhatter, Hank Ballard, and
Etta James.
Etta James
•Ray Charles and Little Richard
and James Brown were equally
influential.
•Brown was known as the
“Godfather of Soul,” while Sam
Cooke and Jackie Wilson are also
often acknowledged as “soul
forefathers.” Examples of soul
music are the following: Ain’t No
Mountain High Enough, Ben, All I
Could Do is Cry, Soul to Soul,and
Becha by Golly, Wow.
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. Examples of spiritual
music are the following: We are
Climbing Jacob’s Ladder, Rock My Soul,
When the Saints Go Marching In, and
Peace Be Still.
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
•Examples of call and response
songs are the following: Mannish
Boy, one of the signature songs by
Muddy Waters; and School Day -
Ring, Ring Goes the Bellby Chuck
Berry.
 LATIN AMERICAN
MUSIC INFLUENCED
BY AFRICAN MUSIC
Reggae
•Reggae is a Jamaican sound dominated by
bass guitar and drums. It refers to a
particular music style that was strongly
influenced by traditional mentoand
calypso music, as well as American jazz,
and rhythm and blues. The most
recognizable musical elements of reggae
are its offbeat rhythm and staccato
chords
Salsa
•Salsa music is Cuban, Puerto Rican,
and Colombian dance music. It
comprises various musical genres
including the Cuban son montuno,
guaracha, chachacha, mambo and
bolero.
Samba
•Samba is the basic underlying rhythm that
typifies most Brazilian music. It is a lively and
rhythmical dance and music 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 one
dance can be claimed with certainty as the
“original” Samba style.
Soca
• Soca is a modern
Trinidadian and Tobago pop
music combining “soul” and
“calypso” music.
Were
•This is Muslim music performed often
as a wake-up call for early breakfast
and prayers during Ramadan
celebrations. Relying on pre-arranged
music, it fuses the African and
European music styles with particular
usage of the natural harmonic series.
Zouk
•Zouk is fast, carnival-like
rhythmic music, from the
Creole slang word for ‘party,’
originating in the Carribean
Islands of Guadaloupe and
Martinique and popularized in
the 1980’s.
•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 drum and its hi-
hat, rhythm guitar, a horn section,
and keyboard synthesizers.
 MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS
OF AFRICA
•African music includes all the
major instrumental genres 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 percussion
instruments that are
either struck with a
mallet or against one
another.
1. Balafon
•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
•2. 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
•3. 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 agogomay be called
“the oldest samba instrument based
on West African Yoruba single or
double bells.”
4. Atingting Kon
•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
•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
•6. Djembe- The West African
djembe(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 drum
head, 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
inside the drum. They are sometimes
held under the armpit or with a sling.
Shekere
•7. The shekere is a type of gourd and
shell megaphone from West Africa,
consisting of a dried gourd with beads
woven into a net covering the gourd.
The agbe 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
•Membranophones are instruments which have
vibrating animal membranes used in drums.
Their shapes may be conical, cylindrical, barrel,
hour-glass, 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.
Body percussion
•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.
•This body percussion creates
exciting rhythms which also stir
them to action. Moreover, the
wearing of rattles or bells on their
wrists, ankles, arms, and waists
enhances their emotional
response.
Talking drum
•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. However, learning to play
messages on drums is extremely
difficult, resulting in its waning
popularity. An example of the
talking drum is the luna.
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.
•Mbira(hand piano or
thumb piano) - The thumb
piano or finger xylophone
is of African origin and is
used throughout the
continent.
D. Chordophones
•Chordophones are instruments
which produce sounds from the
vibration of strings. These
include bows, harps, lutes,
zithers, and lyres of various
sizes.
• 1. 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
Musical bow
•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.
• 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.
Zither
•4. The zither is a stringed
instrument with varying
sizes and shapes whose
strings are stretched along
its body.
Zeze
•5. 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
E. Aerophones
•Aerophones are instruments
which are produced initially
by trapped vibrating air
columns or which enclose a
body of vibrating air.
•1. 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.
Horns
• 2. 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.
•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 favourite 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.
•4. 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, similar to the
Aztec whistles of Central America and Mexico
Trumpets
•5. 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,
cure diseases, and protect warriors and hunters
from harm.
 African Musical
Instruments from the
Environment
• Many instruments of Africa are made from natural elements like wood,
metal, animal, skin and horns, as well as improvised ones like tin cans and
bottles. These are mainly used to provide rhythmic sounds, which are the
most defining element of African music.
• Africans make musical instruments from the materials in the environment,
like forest areas from where they make large wooden drums.
• Drums may also be made of clay, metal, tortoise shells, or gourds.
• Xylophones are made of lumber or bamboo, while flutes can be constructed
wherever reeds or bamboo grow. Animal horns are used as trumpets while
animal hides, lizard skins, and snake skins can function as decorations as well
as provide the membranes for drum heads.
• Laces made of hides and skins are used for the strings of harps, fiddles, and
lutes.
• On the other hand, bamboo was used to form the tongues of thumb
pianos, the frames of stringed instruments, and stamping tubes. Strips of
bamboo are even clashed together rhythmically.
• Gourds, seeds, stones, shells, palm leaves, and the hard-shelled fruit of
the calabash tree are made into rattles.
• Ancient Africans even made musical instruments from human skulls
decorated with human hair while singers use their body movements to
accompany their singing.
• Modern Africans make use of recycled waste materials such as strips
of roofing metal, empty oil drums, and tin cans. These people,
bursting with rhythm, make music with everything and anything.
• At present, new materials that are more easily accessible, such as
soda cans and bottles, are becoming increasingly important for the
construction of percussion instruments.
• Some rhythmic instruments like scrapers, bells, and rattles also
provide the pitch and timbre when played in an ensemble to provide
contrasts in tone quality and character.