Introduction. African musical instruments are classified into four groups namely; idiophones, chordophones, aerophones and membranophones.

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What are the characteristics of a music?

The five characteristics of music are sound (overtone, duration, amplitude, pitch, timbre), melody, rhythm, structure or form, expression, texture, and melody.

What are the features of African music that make it unique *?

African singers use a wide variety of sounds. The melodies are short, repeated over and over, also include whistles and yodels which is peculiar to African style of music. Soloist often improvises new melodies while the chorus continuous with the original melody creating a polyphonic structure.

How do you define African music?

African music, the musical sounds and practices of all indigenous peoples of Africa, including the Berber in the Sahara and the San (Bushmen) and Khoikhoin (Hottentot) in Southern Africa. The music of European settler communities and that of Arab North Africa are not included in the present discussion.

What are the 5 classifications of African musical instruments?

Instruments are classified using 5 different categories depending on the manner in which the instrument creates the sound: Idiophones, Membranophones, Chordophones, Aerophones, & Electrophones.

What are some of the characteristics of West African music?

The music of West Africa is characterized by two main aspects: rhythm and melody. The rhythm is generally the most important, and West African songs are polyrhythmic featuring two or more conflicting rhythms.

What are the four characteristics of music?

Since sound is a wave, it has all of the properties attributed to any wave, and these attributes are the four elements that define any and all sounds. They are the frequency, amplitude, wave form and duration, or in musical terms, pitch, dynamic, timbre (tone color), and duration.

What is the primarily used of African traditional music?

Traditional African music supplies appropriate music and dance for work and for religious ceremonies of birth, naming, rites of passage, marriage and funerals. The beats and sounds of the drum are used in communication as well as in cultural expression.

What are the 6 characteristics of a song?

How does African music differ from Western music?

– Western Music is, broadly speaking, expressed with emphasis on the downbeat, whereas African music seems to emphasise the rhythm on the upbeat. Sometimes, to the untrained ear, African music appears deceptively easy to reproduce, but once you try it, there seem to be layers beneath layers of rhythm.

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What are the characteristics of Membranophones?

membranophone, any of a class of musical instruments in which a stretched membrane vibrates to produce sound. Besides drums, the basic types include the mirliton, or kazoo, and the friction drum (sounded by friction produced by drawing a stick back and forth through a hole in the membrane).

What is the most distinctive feature of all African music instruments?

Falling between rhythmic and melodic instruments, the largest and most distinctive member of the African struck-idiophone family is the slit drum, made from a hollowed log. By careful thinning of the flanks at certain places, the instrument may be tuned so as to yield as many as four distinct pitches.

What is traditional African music called?

What is the importance and function of music in African cultures?

In Africa, music is a social activity in which almost everyone participates. Music highlights African values, with various traditions accompanied by a melody. Many events of importance are celebrated with music, whether it is a marriage, a birth, or a ceremonial rite of passage.

What materials do African musical instruments made from?

Materials for the instruments are usually from nature, like wood, gourds, turtle shells, animal horns or skin. Other materials might be recycled from man-made objects, like scrap metal from old cars or oil drums. Blacksmiths or artists trained in instrument making create them for important people and groups.

What are the 8 characteristics of sound?

What characteristics are featured in the rhythmic elements of African music?

What music is listened to in Africa?

Africa is a highly musical continent, with genres spanning from Afrobeat, Ndombolo, Rhumba, Bongo, Benga, and Kwaito, to Reggae, Hip-hop, and R&B. From traditional and cultural events to modern concerts and bus rides, music is often a key feature of life in Africa.

What is the main characteristic of Afro Latin American music *?

Characteristics of Afro-Latin American music? – gloomy folk music of African American origin, which is naturally in a twelve-bar order. languages. person leads by singing a phrase and followed and answered by a group of singers.

What are the characteristics of a song composer?

Composers tend to be predominantly artistic individuals, meaning that they are creative and original and work well in a setting that allows for self-expression. They also tend to be enterprising, which means that they are usually quite natural leaders who thrive at influencing and persuading others.

What are the 6 main characteristics of life?

What are the characteristics of life and examples?

Properties of Life. All living organisms share several key characteristics or functions: order, sensitivity or response to the environment, reproduction, growth and development, regulation, homeostasis, and energy processing. When viewed together, these characteristics serve to define life.

Which describe membranophones in the music of sub-Saharan Africa?

Which describe membranophones in the music of sub-Saharan Africa? –a drummer excises skill in striking the drumhead, using fingers, thumbs, and the heel of the hand. … -popular music that blends African traditional music with western popular music is much favored by young Africans.

What is a characteristic of drums in sub-Saharan Africa?

Among the characteristics of the Sub-Saharan African approach to rhythm are syncopation and cross-beats which may be understood as sustained and systematic polyrhythms, an ostinato of two or more distinct rhythmic figures, patterns or phrases at once.

How do African instruments make sound?

Sounds are generated by plucking flexible, tuned tongues of metal, wood, cane or other material attached at one end to a small board or mounted on a resonator such as a box, gourd or tin and plucked with the thumbs or fingers.

How do the African and European musical traditions differ?

African music was very rhythmic, with poly rhythms and based around more drums and call-and-response. European music was based more around classical and instrumentation, with music theory in the basis of what was being played.

What could be the possible reason why African music is the most influential music in the world?

1. Most African music has scales very similar to those of European music and thus we are arguably considering a unified and indeed accessible style. 2. Many African musics emphasize rhythms and rhythm is arguably the most universal element of music and thus it is relatively easy to export.

How does African music relate to dance?

Dance is a very important aspect of African music as can be seen in the close relationship between body movement and music. In the dance arena it is natural for performers and listeners to move rhythmically. … It is the patterning of the human body in time and space in order to give expression to ideas and emotions.

What African instruments are membranophones?

All African drums except the slit drum fall within this class, sharing the basic feature of having a stretched animal skin as their sounding medium. The mirliton, or small “singing membrane,” is often added to the bodies of drums and xylophone resonators as a supplementary buzzing device.

What are the characteristics of idiophones?

Idiophones are instruments that create sound through vibrating themselves. They differ from chordophones and membranophones because the vibrating is not the result of strings or membranes. Under the Hornbostel-Sachs classifcation system, idiophones are further divided into struck idiophones and plucked idiophones.

Which music instrument has its roots in West African traditional music instruments?

Djembe. A goblet-shaped drum, covered with skin and tuned by ropes, the djembe originates from West Africa, and has been traced to the Mandinka caste of blacksmiths known as the Numu.