DRUMS ARE USED FOR CEREMONIES

AND RITUALS
There are many rhythms that simply express the joy of
life and in many traditional cultures, they celebrate the
joys of life with ceremonies and rituals. Villages come
together and dance from dusk until dawn with many
people joining in. There is a lot of call and response and
singing to go along with the drum beat they are
dancing to, as well as story-telling and other rituals.
DRUMS ARE USED FOR COMMUNICATING
OVER LONG DISTANCES
Drums were used to send detailed messages from village
to village much faster then a person could walk or ride a
horse. The sound of talking drums could reach up to 4 to
5 miles. These drums have hollow chambers and long,
narrow openings that resonate when they are struck.
They are made out of hollow logs. The larger the log, the
louder the sound would be. The drummer would
communicate through phrases and pauses, and low tones
referred to males while high tones referred to females.
DRUMS ARE USED FOR SLAVE COMMUNICATION AND
ENTERTAINMENT

As we all know, music can make any work much

more fun to do as it energizes the workers. It the
past, as hunters and gatherers were transitioning
into seeders and harvesters, the drums made the
boring and repetitive work fun instead of boring. It
would help them to past he time playfully.
DRUMS MIMIC THE TONE OF HUMAN
SPEECH
The “talking drum” is an hourglass shaped drum from
West Africa .The pitches that come from this drum can
mimic the tone of human speech. It has two drumheads
that are connected by leather tension cords. When the
chords are squeezed, it changes the pitch of the drum.
The leather cords are held under the arm of the player
and squeezed while they play. The drum can capture
pitch, volume, and rhythm of human speech.
DRUMS CONNECT HUMANS TO THE
SPIRIT WORLD
Many cultures have healers, psychics, and
specialists called Shamans who are considered
to be professional trance travelers. They handle
communication between humans and the spirit
world. They ask the spirits for help with a good
hunt, diagnosing/curing the sick, and
transitioning a dying human into the spirit world.
The talking drum is
traditionally made of
wood and animal skin,
with leather cords for
tension. Goatskin was
common for the drum
skin. The talking drum is
KALANGU
GANGAN