African Music

Instruments:

•          Balafons – Wooden xylophones from Africa
  
•         Gourds – Emptied out vegetables that are played with sticks
  
•          Talking drums – drums that have various pitches, and can be used to convey information
•      Many different kinds of drums

Common features of African Music:

•          Repetitive rhythmic pattern
  
•          Syncopation
  
•          Singing, especially in the southern part of Africa
  
•          In Northern Africa, especially in areas around the Saharan desert, most of the instruments are made out of emptied vegetables and fruits.
  
•         No sense of harmony, and is linear. Some music from Southern Africa that do have harmonic ideas have been influenced by colonialists.
  
•          Call and response, and the response is often heterophonic as they do not perfectly sing in sync.
  
•          Various types of percussion
  
•          Polyrhythms/cross-rhythms are common
  
•          The master drummer
  

Music from the Saharan desert is similar to those from eastern Europe and the middle east as most of those countries have an Islamic population. In these cultures, a Maqan is the mode used in these cultures.