GCSE Music - African drumming

djembe techniques (BTS)

bass, tone, slap - single-headed, goblet-shaped

how are songs learnt

orally, strong vocal and instrumental traditions

dunun (dundun)

double-headed, played with a stick, worn on the shoulder using a strap, played with a bell-like instrument mounted on it

agogo bells

two different pitched (cow)bells, keeps other people in time

talking drum

played with hooked stick, strings on the outside that can be tightened/loosened to changed pitch using arm, played by master drummer, replicates speech, language was understood within and between tribes

features

polyrhythms, call and response, repetition, cyclic rhythms, improvisation, cross-rhythms

M - Melody

limited number of pitches, 4-7 note scales, short, simple melodies, uses improv

A - Articulation

accents

D - Dynamics

indicated by master drummer but generally f-ff

T - Time/Tempo

fast, master drummer establishes tempo and changes it (accelerando/decelerando),

S - Structure

No fixed structure, all down to master drummer

H - Harmony/tonality

use of thirds, fourths or fifths, unison and parallel octave harmonies

I - Instruments

talking drum, dundun, balafon, mbria, flute, gourd, maracas, kora, bows, lyres, zithers, harp, kora, whistles, reed pipes, trumpets, horns, djembe, agogo bells

R - Rhythm

repition, cyclic rhythms, ostinatos, polyrhythms, cross-rhythms

T - Texture

polyrhythms, 3-5 players playing interlocking rhythms, thick, polyphonic texture

balafon

an African xylophone

mbria

an African thumb piano

a gourd shaker covered by beads

kora

a twenty-one-stringed harp-lute

stringed instruments (chordophones)

bows, lyres, zithers, harps