1. Kalimba
The thumb piano or kalimba is an African
musical instrument, a type of plucked idiophone (lamellophone) common
throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Also known as a " sansa" and
"mbira", it is popular throughout central, western and eastern
Africa. It was formerly known as the Negro piano. The kalimba is played by
holding the instrument in the hands and plucking the tines with the thumbs.
2. Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family.
It consists of a set of wooden bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to
produce musical tones. The bars are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised
vertically and overlapping the natural bars (similar to a piano) to aid the
performer both visually and physically. This instrument is a type ofxylophone,
but with broader and lower tonal range and resonators.
The chromatic marimba was developed in quetzaltenango Guatemala (departament of Guatemala) from the diatonic
marimba, an instrument whose ancestor was a type of balafon that African slaves
built inCentral America.
3. Djembe
A djembe is a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet drum played
with bare hands, originally from West Africa. According to the Bamana people
in Mali, the name of the djembe comes from the saying "Ankedjé,
ankebé" which translates to "everyone gather together in peace"
and defines the drum's purpose. In theBambara language, "djé" is the
verb for "gather" and "bé" translates as "peace".
The djembe has a body (or shell) carved of hardwood and
a drumhead made of untreated (not limed) rawhide, most
commonly made from goatskin. Excluding rings, djembes have an exterior
diameter of 30–38 cm (12–15 in) and a height of 58–63 cm
(23–25 in). The majority have a diameter in the 13 to 14 inch range.
The weight of a djembe ranges from 5 kg to 13 kg (11–29 lb) and
depends on size and shell material. A medium-size djembe carved from one of the
traditional woods (including skin, rings, and rope) weighs around 9 kg
(20 lb).
4. Nyanga Pan Pipes
The pan flute or pan pipe is an ancient musical
instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting
usually of five or more pipes of gradually increasing length (and, at times,
girth). The pan flute has long been popular as a folk instrument, and is
considered the first mouth organ, ancestor of both the pipe organ and
the harmonica. The pan flute is named for its association with the Greek
god Pan. The pipes of the pan flute are typically made from bamboo or giant
cane; other materials used include wood, plastic, metal and ivory.
Another term for the pan flute is syrinx, from Greek
mythology, the story of Pan. The plural of syrinx is syringes,
from which the modern word syringe is derived. (Pan pipes is
both singular and plural.) Other names for the instrument are mouth organ, Pandean pipe, and the Latin fistula panis.
5. Xhosa Uhadi Bows
Xhosa music has long been a major part of the music
of South Africa, especially in the field of jazz. There are many Xhosa
clans, each with their own styles of drumming and dialects.
No Finish Dywili assisted from 1979 in Africanising local Christian
liturgical music and the Ngqoko Women's Cultural Group helped preserve the
Xhosa music of the village of Ngqoko, including the married woman's umngqungqo style,
danced at the intonjane ceremony of girls' rites of passage.
Professor Andrew Tracey, director of the International Library of African
Music, commented on "the polyphonic singing, the three types of bow they
play (including the uhadi gourd bow) the umngqokolo overtone
singing". According to Tracey, the Khoisan had a big influence on this
music.
6. Kudu Horn Pipes
A kudu horn is a musical instrument made from the horn of the kudu antelope. A form of it
is sometimes used as a shofar in Jewish ceremonies. It is mostly seen in the Western world in its use as a
part of the Scouting movement's Wood Badge training program
which, when blown, signals the start of a Wood Badge training course or
activity.
A horn of this shape, when used by soccer fans, is called kuduzela (a
portmanteau of "kudu" and "vuvuzela"). The kudu,
"tholo" in the language Setswana, is a tribal totem of the Barolong and Batlhaping people
of Botswana and South Africa.
7. Akadinda
The akadinda and the amadinda are
xylophone-like instruments originating in Buganda, in modern-day Uganda. The
amadinda is made of twelve logs which are tuned in a pentatonic scale. It is
played by three players. Two players sit opposite of each other and play the
same logs in an interlocking technique in a fast tempo. It has no gourd
resonators or buzzing tone, two characteristics of many other African
xylophones.
The amadinda was an important instrument at the royal court in Buganda,
the kingdom which gave Uganda its name. A special type of notation is now used for this xylophone, consisting of numbers
for and periods, as is also the case with the embaire,
a type of xylophone originating in southern Uganda.
8. Gankogui
The gankogui, also known as a gakpevi, is a bell, or
gong instrument played with a wooden stick. It is made out of forged iron and
consists of a low-pitched bell (often referred as the parent bell) and a
high-pitched bell (or the child bell, which is said to rest on the bosom of the
protective parent), which are permanently bound together. The gankogui is the
skeleton, backbone, and foundation of all traditional Ewe music. The gankogui
player must play steadily and without error throughout the piece. The gankogui
player must be a trustworthy person, and is considered blind if they do not
have a concrete understanding of the instrument and its role in the drumming
ensemble. In a drumming ensemble, a gankogui player uses no variation.
9. Shekere
The shekere is an instrument from West Africa consisting
of a dried gourd with beads woven into a net covering the gourd. Throughout the
continent there are similar gourd/bead or gourd/seed percussion instruments.
Some are the lilolo, axatse (Ghana), djabara (Guinea), ushàkà,
and chequere. It is predominantly called shekere in Nigeria.
The Agbe is a gourd drum with cowrie shells and is usually strung
with white cotton thread. The Axatse is a small gourd, held by the neck and
percussed between hand and leg. In Liberia, the net has a long "tail"
through which the beads are manipulated.
10. Ngoma
Ngoma (also called engoma or ng'oma or ingoma)
are musical instruments used by certain Bantu-speaking peoples of
East Africa; 'ngoma' is, simply, the Swahili word for 'drum'. Different regions
of Africa have their own traditions of percussion, with different names for
their instruments. In kiSwahili-speaking Kenya and Tanzania, 'ngoma' is used by
extension to signify specific dances, social occasions and rhythms.
