Sensors and QueryEngines (Instruments)

vibration may be produced by a column of air split across a sharp edge as is the case with flutes, pipes, and whistles. Or the vibration may be produced by one or two reeds, as with instruments such as the clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, and the Korean oboe called a piri.

3.5.6 String Instruments

The string or chordophone family has several branches. In one branch, which includes the zither, dulcimer, and Japanese koto, strings are stretched across a flat body. In a second branch, each instrument has a neck, for example the lute, violin and guitar, Indian sitar, Arabic ‘ud, orto mention a few. A third branch includes plucked instruments with multiple strings, such as the lyre or the harp, where each string produces only one pitch. In Nigeria, the Goge of the Hausa people is a good example of a stringed instrument.

3.5.6 Electronic Instruments

Electronic instrument (or electrophone) refers broadly to any means of modifying, generating or amplifying musical sounds electronically. The term most often refers to instruments that generate sound electronically. Thus any instrument played through an amplifier is described as an electronic instrument.

Self Assesment Exericise 5

Briefly discuss with examples the various types of musical instruments.

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parts. Another characteristic trait is the use of repetition as an organizing principle. For example, in the mbira music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe, a repeated pattern is established by the interaction of various parts. Out of this core pattern, the musician develops an improvisation.

Yet another common feature of African music is its conversational quality. This is manifest in the way different voices, instrumental parts, or even the parts of a solo player are brought into animated exchange. One of the most common types of music making is call-and-response singing. In this type of singing, a chorus repeats a preset refrain in alternation with a lead singer while the lead singer has more liberty to improvise.

There are many different modes of expression in African music. In West Africa, for example, it is common to find drum ensembles consisting of a number of musicians who play interlocking patterns. In the ensemble, each drummer uses a special method of striking the drumhead to generate varying pitches and timbres to differentiate the sound made by his drum from all the others. Distinctive sounds (also known as tone colours) are referred to as pitches and timbres). The drummers who play the “talking drums” (Ilu) amongst the Yoruba (Nigeria) are experts at using this technique of drumming.

Some musical groups use beaded gourds, rattles and gongs to produce a repeated pattern called a timeline in music). This pattern permeates the dense texture of the ensemble and helps the drummers to play their patterns at the right time without missing a beat.

3.6.2 African Musical Instruments

A wide variety of instruments are used in African music. Drums are among the most popular instruments. They are made in a variety of shapes, materials and

sizes. A variety of materials such as wood, gourds and clay are used to construct drum bodies. Drum membranes are made from the skins of reptiles, cows, goats, and other animals (Fig. 41).

Fig. 41: Traditional Drum

Sources: Decorative Arts of Africa

Important types of drums include: drum-chimes, in which a set of drums tuned to a scale is mounted in a frame and played by a team of drummers. There are also the friction drums, in which sound is produced by rubbing the membrane. Another example is the West African hourglass-shaped tension drum, which is sometimes called a “talking drum” because it can be used to imitate the tonal contours of spoken language.

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Other important percussion instruments in African music include clap-sticks, bells, rattles, slit gongs, struck gourds and clay pots, stamping tubes, and xylophones.

The lamellaphone, an instrument unique to Africa, consists of a series of metal or bamboo strips mounted on a board or box. The instrument is hand-held or on the player’s lap and the free ends of the strips are plucked with thumbs or forefingers.

Lamellaphones are used throughout Africa and are also referred to as Mbira, kalimba, or likembe.

The list of Africa stringed instruments is vast. And they include the musical bow, lute, lyre, harp, and zither. Professional musicians among the Mandinka (also known as Mandingo or Malinke) people of Gambia play the kora, a 21-string harp-lute. The xalam, a plucked lute used in Senegal by Wolof praise singers, is a close relative of the African -American banjo. The musical bow, which consists of a string stretched between two ends of a flexible stave, plays a particularly important role in the traditional music of southern African peoples, such as the San, Xhosa, and Zulu. The Hausa and Fulani people of Nigeria use the Goge, a stringed instrument also.

The flute, whistle, oboe, and trumpet are some examples of African wind instruments. Transverse and end-blown flutes made from bamboo, reeds, wood, clay, bones, and other materials are used throughout the sub-Saharan region. The Ibo people of Nigeria are well known for their flutes referred to as ogene.

Trumpets, often associated with royalty, made from animal horns, elephant tusk, brass or wood are also widely used by the people of Benin (Nigeria).

Clarinets from the savanna region of West Africa are made from guinea corn or sorghum stems, with a reed cut from the surface of the stem at one end. Double- reed instruments, such as the Hausa algaita, originated from the North Africa.

Self Assessment Exercise 6

List some local instruments from your area.