MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF AFRICA

Musical instruments in Africa are not only used for making music, they
are also used to communicate to both man and spirit, translating and emitting
daily experiences and events. Musical instruments in Africa has diverse roles
it may be confined to religious or ceremonial occasions; others are utilized for
entertainment purposes.

Most widely spread and played instruments in Africa are the drum, the
xylophone, the mbira, rattles and shakers. The one-string musical bow,
played all over the continent but now nearly abandoned, was once responsible
for all the vocal scales that are used today in African music.

Classification of Traditional African Instruments

These are percussion instruments that are either struck with a mallet or
against one another.

Rattles- it is made of tin, basketry, animal hoofs,

metal, wood, cocoons, seashells, palm kernels, or
tortoise shells. Either joined or suspended to
create sound as they hit each other.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi
le:Shekere_(African_gourd_rattle).jpg

Balafon- The balafon is a gourd-resonated

xylophone that is originally an Asian instrument
that follows the structure of a piano, a type of
struck idiophone.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M
amadou_Diabate_balafon_player.jpg

Agogo- The agogo is a single bell or multiple

bells that had its origins in traditional
Yoruba music as well as in the samba
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AgogoBells.jpg
bateria (percussion) ensembles. The agogo
was the oldest samba instrument and has the highest pitch of any of the
bateria instruments.
 Atingting kon- these were used in communicating
people in the villages. The sound produce can carry a
mile through the forest and across the water to
neighboring islands. Languages of the gong composed of
series of beats and pauses that made it possible to
communicate or send highly specific messages.

https://commons.wikimedia.org
/wiki/File:Atingting_Kon_002.JP
G

Slit drum- it composed of a hollow percussion

instrument. Though referred to as a drum but it is
more of an idiophone. If the resultant tongues are By Brooklyn Museum, CC BY 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/
different in width or thickness, the drum can w/index.php?curid=22511515
produce two different pitches.

Djembe- is one of the best-known African drums. It is

shaped like a large goblet and played with bare hands.
The body is carved from a hollowed trunk and is covered
with goat skin. These drums are played using hands or
sticks or both, while being held under the armpit or with
a sling.

https://commons.wikimedia.or
g/wiki/File:Lenke_djembe_from
_Mali.jpeg

Shekere- it is a West African percussion

instrument consisting of a dried gourd with beads
or cowries woven into a net covering the gourd. It
is shaken and or hit against the hands. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Shekere.jpg

These are instruments, usually drums, which have vibrating animal

membranes. Sound is primarily produced by the use of bare hand (palming),
without striking devices.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki
/File:TalkingDrum.jpg
Talking drum- The talking drum is an hourglass-
shaped drum from West Africa, whose pitch can be
regulated to mimic the tone and prosody of human
speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather
tension cords, which allow the player to change the
pitch of the drum by squeezing the cords between
their arm and body. It is used to send messages to
announce different events happening.

Body percussion- You can make music even

without instruments because your body is an
instrument! Your body acts like a drum-kit which
means you can create amazing rhythms through
clap, snap, stomp and slap and more.
https://pixabay.com/es/photos/danza-
bailando-bailarina-5173943/

lamellaphone. The instrument has a series of thin plates, or "tongues", each

of which is fixed at one end and has the other end free. It is known by different
names according to its regions such as mbira, karimba, kisaanj and likembe

Mbira- also called mbila sansa, kilembe, likembe,

timbrh, or thumb piano, plucked idiophone (instrument
whose sounding parts are resonant solids belonging to
the body of the instrument itself)—or more specifically, a
lamellaphone—that is unique to Africa and widely
distributed throughout the continent.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Mbira_dzavadzimu_1.jpg

A chordophone is a musical instrument that makes sound by the vibration

of a string or strings that are stretched between fixed points (plucking,
bowing, strumming).

Musical Bow- it is the ancestor of all string

instruments. It is the oldest and one of the most
widely-used string instruments of Africa. It can be
played with the hands or a wooden stick or
branch. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mus
icalBow.gif
Kora- it is a string instrument widely used in West
Africa. Typically has 21-strings which are played by
plucking with the fingers, and combines features of the
lute and a harp. https://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Kora_DSC_0355.JPG

Zither- this instrument has different sizes and shapes

whose strings are stretched along its body. A zither is
an instrument similar to the harp and guitar that can
be played using fingers or a plectrum.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil
e:COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Vlotciter
_van_bamboe_TMnr_3911-61.jpg

This are musical instruments that produce sound primarily by vibrating

air (blowing).

Flutes- Flutes are widely used throughout Africa. One of those flutes is the
panpipes.

Panpipes- it consists of a cane pipes of different length

row or in a bundle held together by a cord and generally closed
at the bottom. They are blown across the top, and has different
note produced. Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php
?curid=653039

Horns- Horns and trumpets are commonly found in Africa and usually made
from elephant tusks and animal horns. One of these is the Kudu Horn.

Kudu horn- it is a musical instrument made

from the horn of the kudu. A form of it is
sometimes used as a shofar in Jewish
ceremonies. Today, kudu horn is also used in
football matches, where fans blow on to cheer.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil
e:Jemenittisk_sjofar_av_kuduhorn.jpg
 Reed Pipes- these are single- reed pipes made from
hollow guinea corn or sorghum stems, where the reed is
a flap partially from the stem near one end. It is the
vibration of this reed that causes the air within the
hollow instrument to create the sound.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/
wiki/File:Sopile.JPG

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF LATIN AMERICA

The natives were found to be using a local drum and percussion

instruments before the arrival of the Spanish, Portuguese and other European
colonizers. It was found that they are using percussion instruments such as
the guiro, maracas and turtle shells. Wind instruments like the zamponas
and quena that traditionally made out of aquatic canes.

The use of instruments served to beseech the gods for a good harvest
or victory in battle, to guard against sickness and natural disasters, and of
course to provide recreation.

Guiro- It is a Latin American percussion instrument

consisting of an open- ended, hollow gourd with parallel
notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or
tines along the notches to produce a sound.
https://commons.wikimedia.o
rg/wiki/File:Guiro9.png

Maracas- it is sometimes called rumba shaker or chac-

chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Latin
Music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as
part of a pair. https://commons.wikimedia.or
g/wiki/File:Maracas.jpg

The varied cultures that developed in Latin America gave rise to

different types of wind and percussion instruments. The Latin America has
its rich history as with the African continent, dating back thousands of years
to the Aztec, Maya and other ancient cultural groups, they generated diverse
creative approaches in making music.
 Aztec and Mayan Instruments
Aztec and Maya peoples used different instruments mostly for religious
functions and played by the professional musicians. Some instruments were
considered holy and it was further believed that music was supposed to glorify
gods, mistakes in using these instruments were
considered offensive and insulting to them.

Teponaztli- it is a type of percussion instrument

mostly slit drum, it was used in central Mexico by
the Aztecs and related cultures. https://commons.wikimedia.or
g/wiki/File:Drum_(Teponaztli)_
MET_1979.206.361_a.jpg

Concha- a wind instrument usually made from the

shell of a large sea snail. It is prepared by cutting
a hole in the shell’s spine near the apex, then
blown into as if it were a trumpet.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Conque_Magdalenienne_de_Marsoulas.jp

Huehueti - is a percussion instrument from Mexico, used by the Aztecs and

other cultures. It is an upright tubular drum made from a wooden body
opened at the bottom that stands on three legs cut from its base, with skin
stretched over the top. It can be beaten by hand or wood mallet.

Incan Musical Instruments

The Ocarina and Zampoñas were the most common instrumental varieties
in Incas of South America.

Ocarina- The ocarina is an ancient wind musical

instrument a type of vessel flute. Variations exist,
but a typical ocarina is an enclosed space with four
to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocarina
projects from the body.

Zampoñas- are a series of hollow “pipes” made

from hollow reeds found near lakes in the high
mountains. pictured here, they become part of the
large family of panpipes that can be played solo or

https://pixabay.com/es/photos/ecuador-otavalo-
zampo%C3%B1as-%C3%A9tnicos-1257115/
in a group. They are played by blowing over the top of the tubes in the same
way.

Andean Musical Instruments

The Andean highlands also had their own varieties of flutes and string
instruments that include the following:

Siku- a kind of pan flute from the Andes. It is the main

instrument used in a musical genre known as sikuri. The
pipes are made of bamboo tubes, but have also been
made from condor feathers, bone and etc.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Sikukuna.png

Wooden Tarka- The tarka is a unique flute of the

Andes made by artisans. The tarka sound and scale are
different from any other Andean flute. It sounds very
primitive, soft and mellow with a rasp in the low range. https://commons.wikimedia.or
g/wiki/File:Tarka_vertical.jpg

Quena- The quena is the traditional flute of the

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki
/File:Quena01.jpg
Andes. Traditionally made of cane or wood, it
has 6 finger holes and one thumb hole, and is
open on both ends or the bottom is half-closed
(choked). To produce sound, the player closes
the top end of the pipe.

Charango- is a small Andean stringed

instrument of the lute family. it is a ten-
stringed Andean guitar from Bolivia. It
produces bright sounds and is often used in
serenades in Southern Peru. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bolivia
n_charango_001.jpg

Mariachi – is an extremely popular band in

Mexico consists of as many as eight violins, two
trumpets and at least one guitar, including a
high-pitched vihuela and an acoustic bass guitar
called a guitarron and all players taking turns
singing lead and doing backup vocals.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Wikipedia_10_Guadalajara_-_Mariachi.jpg