yr 8 music

• Percussive instruments


  • They are a part of life in some African societies
  • They have been traditionally used for ceremonies of all occasions, from celebrating birth to respecting the dead
  • They have been used for calling to arms in wars, religious rites, and rituals
  • They have been used for communicating across distances
• Music and dance


  • An integral part of the African culture
  • They used to and still provide a valuable way to communicate with workers in the fields or pass messages to other villages
• Purposes of music in African culture

  • Storytelling
  • Welcoming heroes
  • Religious ceremonies
• Music


  It is seen to illustrate the importance of human life, to connect people and to support the sense of community
• Music and dance in Africa


  • They are mainly performed by large groups in villages
• Music played by drum ensembles

  • It is very complex in rhythm and texture
  • The rhythms are not normally written down and are instead passed between people through aural tradition
• Master drummer


  • Has the most elaborate part, leading the drum ensemble and playing solos
  • Directs the drummers with musical cues in the form of rhythm patterns
  • Gives cues to dancers to signal changes of tempo or dance moves
• Types of sound in African music

  • Percussion-based music
  • Singing
  • Shouts
  • Yodelling
  • Other types of sound
• A stave is one line on which notes are written
• Treble clef is the higher part of music
• The bass clef is the lower part of music
• African drums


  • Usually made from wood, metal or clay
  • Come in different sizes
• If the drum has a large body

  It will produce a lower pitch
• If the drum head has a tight tension

  A high pitch will be produced
• Player


  Strikes the drum with their hands, sticks or both
• African drums


  • Highly decorated with carvings or beadwork
  • Treasured assets within African communities
• Added beads or rattles


  Can change the timbre of the drum
• Djembe


  • One of the best-known African drums
  • Shaped like a large goblet
  • Played with bare hands
  • Body is carved from a hollowed trunk
  • Covered in goat skin
• Talking drum


  • West African instrument
  • Has drum skins on both the top and bottom of its body
  • Played with a beater
  • Performer is able to squeeze the drum's tension chords, which changes the pitch of the drum, imitating a human voice
• Dundun


  • Often played in groups
  • Made of cow skin
  • Played on the floor and with a beater-stick
  • Often played as the bass drum in the ensemble
  • Double-headed and belongs to the family of hourglass-shaped pressure drums
  • Pitch of the note is changed by squeezing or releasing the drum's strings with the arm
• Melody in African drumming


  • Not always heard in traditional African music
  • Some ensembles include melodic devices and instruments like balafon or kalimba
  • Simple vocal melodies can also be included
• Rhythm and metre in African drumming

  • Strong sense of pulse supported by timeline or dundun
  • Played rhythms are repetitive
  • Polyrhythms are frequently played
  • Rhythms can be displaced creating cross-rhythms
• Structure of traditional African music

  • Not written down
  • No set structure, master drummer signals changes of sections
  • Frequent, short improvised solo sections indicated by ensemble leader
• Percussion instruments associated with traditional African music

  • Variety of drums including djembe, talking drum, dundun
  • Beads and rattles
• Texture and dynamics in African drumming

  • Polyrhythms created by layering different rhythms
  • Dynamics changed depending on force of drum hit
  • Dynamics not written down, leader signals changes
• Tonality and harmony in African drumming

  • Tuned instruments like balafons can add melodic or harmonic elements
  • Drums can create their own harmony by changing pitch
  • Simple diatonic or pentatonic harmonies can sometimes be heard with vocal melodies or balafons
• Notes above middle C are treble clef
• Samba


  African drumming music brought to Brazil by enslaved Africans
• Samba style development


  1. Developed in the 1950s in the favelas

  2. Includes layering syncopated rhythms on multiple percussion instruments
• Samba


  • Similarities to African drumming music such as polyrhythms and use of call and response
• Carnival in Rio de Janeiro

  Held every year since 1723, lasts up to six days with over two million people lining the streets to watch, local communities each have a float to decorate and are accompanied by their local samba school
• Samba music structure


  No set structure, follows a series of signals from the lead repinique player, signals often played on a whistle called the apito, parts learned aurally using words to memorise rhythms, layered polyrhythmic texture
• Samba music


  • Main section of ostinato layered on top of each other, known as the groove, may include solo sections, call and responds and sections played in unison
• Son Clave


  Important rhythm in samba music, cuts across the four beats in the first bar and is played on the second and third beat in the second bar, completed by syncopating the placing of notes in the first bar
• Elements of music to consider in samba

  • Melody
  • Rhythm, metre and tempo
  • Structure
  • Instrumentation and timbre
  • Texture and dynamics
• Melody in samba


  • Melodies can be created by using instruments that are capable of combining pitch and rhythm, vocals or brass instruments are added to provide a melody although samba music is usually played on percussion instruments, the agogo bell features a high and a low pitch, a range of drums are used in an ensemble, which create a range of sounds and pitches
• Rhythm, metre and tempo in samba

  • Metres are usually 2/4 or 4/4, samba music has a fast and energetic tempo, cross-rhythms are created when two parts with different rhythms combine
• Structure in samba


  • No set written structure, ensemble is often led by a band leader who signals when to change sections, phrases are performed with call and response, solo percussion sections can be included to break up and extend a song
• Instrumentation and timbre in samba

  • Percussion instruments include repinique, caxia, agogo, surdo, tamborim, ganza, sometimes vocals and brass instruments are added to the group, samba music uses untuned percussion instruments and therefore harmony is difficult to achieve
• Texture and dynamics in samba

  • Polyrhythmic texture is when all parts are playing different rhythms layered on top of each other, monophonic texture is when the repinque plays a solo or the call section of call and response, samba music is very loud as it needs to be heard outside by thousands of people, dynamic changes are signalled by the leader using the apito