Africa Talking Drums Demystified
Ever heard of a talking drum? If you are from West African then you know what I am talking about.
Talking drums are made in such a way that the drum’s pitch can be regulated to the extent that it is said the drum “talks”. The drummer puts the instrument under one of his shoulders and beats it with a stick. The drummer then regulates the pitch produced by squeezing or releasing the drum’s strings with the upper arm.
This has the effect of producing highly informative sounds that seem to convey complicated messages. The ability to change the drum’s pitch is analogous to the language tonality of some African languages.
The talking drum is said to be one of the oldest instrument used in West African & its history can be traced back to ancient Ghanian Empire. The Hausa people (and by influence, the Yoruba people of southern Nigeria and Benin and the Dagomba of northern Ghana) have developed a highly sophisticated genre of griot music centering on the talking drum.
In the twentieth century the talking drum became a part of popular music in West Africa. You will find it being used in playing Mbalax music of Senegal and in Fuji and Jùjú music of Nigeria (where it known as a dundun, not to be confused with the dundun bass drum of the Mandé peoples.) Among the Wolof people of Senegal, the talking drum (known as a tama) is an hour-glass shaped drum with two heads (goat, lizard (iguana), or fish skin) tuned by straps that connect the heads with each other.
Talking drum video
Here is another interesting article on the African talking drum
[tags]talking drum, africa[/tags]
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