african music

the role of african music within it’s society is that of a diverse manner.
african cultures use their music for communication, celebration, the marking
of events and many much more. the styles for this are varied as you travel
across the many regions of the great continent. africa is thought to be the
birth place of human kind which is possibly the reasons for its primitive
responsibility in certain aspects.

where western music is typically based on a standard of tonality and

melodic context, african music possesses a similar trait with an often found
use of a repeated riff (ostinato). this repeating and normally slowly varying
melody is mostly played on a metallic, non-percussive instrument such as an
karimba (thumb piano).

however, cultural music in africa tends to centre around the rhythm

and also the dynamics. rhythm is generally the main part, this is shown by
the variety of drums known to be of use in africa. these drums include the
djembe and the talking drum. the talking drum illustrates the way african
cultures use music, this drum can be used to create significant sounds, very
similar to that of vocal syllables. within the rhythmic beauty of african
music there is a display for a varied use of timing, creating different feels to
that expected in western culture. especially as a six over four time signature
is considered more standard than our usual four over four.

africa is renowned in the music world for it’s cultural involvment on

many levels. often, you will see that african music as an expression to mark
an event, for instance death or marriage, will involve specific clothing,
dancing and also vocal lines. this is very influential to the rest of the world
and can be found everywhere along with their sense of rhythm and
communicational methods, after all music is a world wide language.

wayne sheppard