MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OF AFRICAN MUSIC - MUSIC 10 SECOND QUARTER WEEK 2

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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.

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. 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.

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.

D. Chordophones
Chordophones are instruments which produce sounds from the vibration of strings. These include bows, harps, lutes, zithers, and lyres of various sizes.

E. Aerophones

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.