ROUTES & RHYTHM 

African Drums 

They are usually made from wood, metal, earthenware or large gourds, which are hard-rinded fruit.They come in different shapes - tubular drums, bowl-shaped drums and friction drums. Some have one head, others have two.They come in different sizes. The bigger the drum - the lower the note. The more tension in the drum head - the higher the note produced.They are played using hands or sticks or both.They sometimes have rattling metal and jingles attached to the outside or seeds and beads placed inside the drum.They are sometimes held under the armpit or with a sling.

One of the best-known African drums is the West African djembe (pronounced zhem-bay). It is shaped like a large goblet and played with bare hands. The body is carved from a hollowed trunk and is covered in goat skin.Talking drums imitate the rhythms and intonations of speech.They are double-headed and belong to the family of hourglass-shaped pressure drums. They are played with a beater. The drums can be used to imitate speech patterns or as signals to make announcements or warnings. The pitch of the note is changed by squeezing or releasing the drum's strings with the arm.

Traditional African instruments

Drum ensembles

The music played by drum ensembles is very complex in rhythm and texture. The master drummer has the most elaborate part, leading the drum ensemble and playing solos. He leads the drummers by giving them musical cues in the form of rhythm patterns. He also gives cues to dancers to signal changes of tempo or steps.In drum ensembles:several different rhythms are played at the same timethe rhythm patterns interlock and overlap to form polyrhythmic patterns and exciting cross-rhythms

Listen to the pattern formed by the interlocking rhythms of the large talking drum, small talking drum and djembe in the piece "Yiri" as recorded by Koko.

A cross-rhythm is the effect produced when two conflicting rhythms are heard together.

Polyrhythm is when two or more rhythms with different pulses are heard together, eg where one drum is playing in triple time and another is playing in quadruple time, three against four.

Timelines

West African drumming often uses a timeline.A timeline is a short repeated rhythm which is often played by a single or double bell, eg the gonkogui, a double bell with a high note and a low note. The function of the timeline is to hold the piece together.