Musical Instruments of Africa

African music includes all western instrumental genres, including string,

winds, and percussion, as well as a huge range of African instruments for
solo or ensemble play. Usually constructed from pants or animal items like
hide or horn.

Idiophones:
-Instruments that make sound by vibrating; either hit with a mallet or
against one another.

Balafon
 A West African xylophone.
 A bamboo or log-barred tuned percussion instrument
 Piano-like Asian instrument; From Madagascar to Africa, America, and
Europe.

Rattles
 It is made of seashells, tin, basketry, animal hooves, horn woods, metal
bells, cocoons, palm kernels, or tortoise shells.
 Can be a single object or a group of objects that are connected or
suspended so that they hit each other.

Agogo
 A single bell or a group of bells that come from traditional Yoruba music
and samba percussion groups.
 The oldest samba instruments based on west African Yoruba.
 It is the percussion instrument with the highest pitch.

Atingting Kon
 Villagers used slit gongs to talk to each other.
 There is a "slit opening” at the bottom.
 The sound can travel miles through the jungle and across water to
neighboring islands.
 Languages for the gong were made up of beats and pauses, which
made it possible to send very specific messages.
Slit Drum
 A percussion instrument with a hole.
 An idiophone instrument.
 Made of bamboo or wood and shaped like a box with one or more
openings at the top.
 If the width or thickness of the tongues is different, the drum will make
two different sounds.

Djembe
 One of the most well-known African drums.
 Hand-held and shaped like a large goblet.
 The body is comprised of a hollowed-out wood trunk and goat skin.
 Available in several sizes and forms, Contains either one or two head.
 The lower the pitch, the larger the drum. Tension on the drumhead
increases tone.
 Occasionally ornamented with jingles, rattles, or beads and played by
hand or with a stick.

Shekere
 Made of a dried gourd and a net of beads or cowries wrapped around it.
 The agbe is another gourd drum strung with white cotton thread and
decorated with cowrie shells.
 It is held by the neck and put between the hand and the leg.

Rasp
 A hand percussion instrument.
 Sound is produced by scraping the notches with a stick creating a
rattling effect.

Membranophones:
-A membranophone is any of a group of instruments that make sound by
making a stretched membrane vibrate.

African Drums
 Carved from a single wooden log.
 Played with sticks, hands or a combination.
 Sometimes made from ceramics, gourds, tin cans, or oil drums.
 Examples:
 Entenga (Ganda)
 Dundun (Yoruba)
 Atumpan (Akan)
 Ngoma (Shona)

Body Percussion
 A body musical instrument.
 Body serves as a drum by clapping, slapping, pounding, or shuffling.
 This body actions create rhythms.

Talking Drum
 Used to send messages to announce births, deaths, marriages, sporting
event, dances, initiation or war.
 May also contain jokes or gossip.
 Carry messages to the spirits after death.
 Example:
 Luna

Lamellaphone:
- Any musical instrument with a set of tuned metal or bamboo tongues
(lamellae) of different lengths attached at one end to a soundboard that
often has a box or calabash resonator.

Mbira
 A Hand or thumb piano.
 A African origin used throughout the continent.
 Played by holding the instrument by hand and plucking the tines with
the thumbs, producing a soft plucked sound.

Chordophones:
- Produce sound from the vibration of string.
Musical Bow
 The ancestor of all string instruments.
 Oldest and widely-used string instrument in Africa.
 A string attached to each end of a curve stick; like a bow and arrow.
 Plucked or struck with another stick to create sound.

Lute
 Originated from Arabic states.
 Shape and played similar to a modern guitar.
 Tunes the string by tightening or loosening the pegs at the top of the
lutes neck.
 Konting
 Khalam
 Nkoni

Kora
 African’s most sophisticated harp.
 Made of gourd or calabash.
 The instrument's three-octave range is achieved by tightening the
strings with leather rings around the neck.
 It's played with your fingers.

Zither
 A stringed instrument with different sizes and shape stretched along
the body.
 Inanga ( Burudi )
 Tubular/Valiha ( Malagasy )
 Harp/ Mvet ( Cameroon )

Zeze
 An African fiddle played with a bow, stick or fingers.
 Made of steel or bicycle brake, it consist one to two strings.
 From Sub-Saharan Africa and known as Tzetze and dzendze, Izeze and
Endingidi or Lokanga vaotavo.
Aerophones:
- a group of musical instruments where the sound is made by a vibrating
mass of air.

Flutes
Widely-used in Africa; either side or vertical blown.
A single tube closed at one end and blown like a bottle.
 Atenteben (Ghana)
 Fulani Flutes

Pan Pipes
Cane pipes of various lengths linked together with wax or cord, in most
cases, closed at the bottom.
Blown across the top, each providing different notes.

Horns
Made from elephant tusks and animal horns.
End-blown or side-blown.
Range from southern livestock herders' little signal whistles to interior
tribal chiefs' large ivory horns.
Sometimes carved that resembles a crocodile head.

Kudu
Made from the horn of the kudu antelope.
Releases a mellow and warm sound.
Comes in a set of six horns and reflect the cross musical tradition.

Reed Pipes
A single-reed pipes made from hollow guinea corn or sorghum stems.
Air in the reed vibrates the hollow instrument, creating sound.
 Oboe
 Shawm
 Rhaita/ Ghaita
Whistles
Made of wood or other materials.
Short pieces horns serve as whistles.
Whistles can be made from clay and baked.

Trumpets
Can be formed of wood, metal, animal horns, elephant tusks, or grounds
with animal skins as an instrument decoration.
Use to announce the arrival or departure of a guest.