Question & Answer time!

Hey!
A friend asked me this the other day...

"Did drumming originate from Africa?"

I didn't know the answer so i decided to research it and this is what i found...




The drum may have originated in Africa or India by the earliest humans of almost one million years ago.

I found that drumming was used from communication way before it was used to make music. Old hollow logs could be used as drums so there is no way we can date when drumming first started but we can only use knowledge of communication to tell where it first came from.

Slavery was massive in India and Africa and they used drumming/ the sound of banging on anything hollow to communicate with one another. There lives were awful and they were not allowed to speak to another slave in the presence of their master so they'd use the drums.

Drumming made the Africans and Indians happy and they soon realised they could dance to the beat and before we knew it music was created!

This is how and where drumming originated. I hope this helped if you were asking the same question too.

Why is music so important in Africa, and why do they use drums so much?

In Africa you’ll find drums at every kind of ceremony, births, deaths, marriages. They’re normally accompanied but a ritual dance. The pounding of many drums together is also used to start up, battles or wars but can also portray excitement or passion.

With the music and the beating of the different drums, there must be a special connection the African population have with this music, whether it’s spiritual or just pure love for the music, as it is part of their everyday life.  

In the western part of Africa music is recorded so that it can be copied by just listening to it, there is no sheet music involved, and that piece of music will then become traditional.

African drums suggest a lot about the Africans way of life and how they use this music to influence everything they accomplish.

African tradition has persuaded styles to change, and even create their own genres. They have shown us that living is about the community we’re involved in, and music shouldn’t only be played by highly qualified musicians and only listened to by a higher class, music should make us equal and bring us together.

If we compare our life to an Africans lifestyle, our music should always involve an audience and performers as done in their culture, as it brings the community closer together and all have a bond through music.

There interesting choice of rhythms provokes the audience to join in, and instantly the mood is lifted.

So as you see in this piece of text there are many reasons for why drums are so important to the African population, and why music is so important too. It can be used for to uplift a mood, spiritual reasons, for any kind of ceremony, to provoke war/battle, excitement/passion, to dance, and to bring a community together.

I think we should take a note from their book because Africans have a tight population because they all have the same love; we need to find something to bring our communities together. They show all this by playing some of the oldest instruments in the world.

The History of African Drumming

The history of African drums centers on communication, community and dance. From the beginning, believed to be as early as 500 AD, drums throughout the African continent were used to communicate from one village to another, create a sense of community among members of a tribe and give everyone something to dance to. Indeed, the drum has come to symbolize Africa itself.

Known as the oldest instrument in the world, the drum is sacred and revered in African culture. For centuries, throughout the African continent, the drum was a primary source of communication. And, despite attempts to silence it, the rhythms of African drumming overcame slavery to emerge as the most influential drumming music in the Americas, by way of Cuba and Puerto Rico.In Africa, the drum was used at ceremonies to pay homage to the Creator and the ancestors, to herald the home-going of a loved one, to spark courtships, to announce marriages and births, to accompany religious rites and initiation rituals, to herald political and social events, the onset of war, the triumph of battle, to announce emergency gatherings and more.

There are countless types of drums within the African continent, ranging from tall drums that make high pitched sounds to wider drums that add the bass tones. The most widely-used drum throughout Africa is a hollow body drum with one or two parchment heads at either end. All the African drums spread throughout the Americas and the Caribbean, but one drum, shaped a little like a woman, has emerged as the queen of the African drums.
Perhaps the most popular African drum is the djembe, seen in drum circles all over the world and on street corners as well. Pronounced "jem bay," the djembe is the drum of choice for so many street drummers and drum circle facilitators because of its superior bass tone, which rivals a much bigger, heavier drum because of the special hourglass shape of the body. In fact, the scientific principle that makes the bass sounds of a djembe so deep is the same one that causes that deep tone when you blow over the open mouth of a beer bottle. It's called "Helmholtz resonance."

Sadly, it was slavery that brought African drums to the Caribbean and, ultimately, to America. The forced importation of African peoples to Puerto Rico and Cuba brought with it a fusion of culture, customs and traditions, among them the music and storytelling tradition accompanied by the playing of the drum. Slaveholders recognized the power of the drum to unite the slaves, so many slave traders and plantation owners banned drumming, fearing that slaves might use drums to organize and rebel.

But you can't keep a good drummer down. The slaves kept their African rhythms alive by drumming on their chests, the thighs, knees, and arms and clapping their hands. They created make-shift drums from oil drums, containers, boxes and cans and the African drumming tradition ultimately emerged victorious, adding some blended rhythms picked up along the way. Perhaps because African drums survived the transatlantic slave trade and attempts by slave owners to ban them, African drums are more popular today than ever, worldwide.

The Talking Drum

Talking Drums can also be known as: Gangan, Dundun, Atumpan, Donno, Kalungu, Doodo, Tama, Tamma, Dondo, Odondo, Lunna, and Lunar.
The nickname given to this drum is 'Waited Drum' as the talking drum is shaped like an hourglass.

Why is it called 'The Talking Drum'?

The drum got it's name from it being able to change pitch by squeezing it. The harder you squeeze it the higher the pitch of the drum, where as, if you don't squeeze it much it sounds a lot lower. This gives the drum a type of language that can be used to send various messages and meanings to other villages. Certain drum patterns are linked to spiritual beings that tribes use, the drum sounds are prayers and blessings to the tribes. These are all used over West African villages. The drums are also used for greetings, messages and wishes, they are also one of the oldest drums still used in Africa today. It's played with the bent stick shown in the picture above and held underneath the arm so it it easy squeezable. The size of drums varies from the smallest called a "gan gan" to the largest drum called a "dun dun". 

The Djembe Drum

Djembe can also be known as jembe, sanbanyi jymbe or yembe. The Djembe is the most popular drums in Africa. Djembe  is the drum of the Maninka people. This drum goes all the way back to the 13^th century.
Played with bare hands the Djembe is made from one piece of wood and is carved in to it’s preferred goblet shape. It’s a skinned drum that’s intestinally meant to be played with bare hands.  The body depth determines the range within the sound of the drum. The body of the drum is made from either carved wood, wood cut by a chainsaw, molded wood or turned in to one piece. The wood used is maple, oak, alder or cedar. Molded Djembe drums are of very little similarity to other West African drums where as carved drums are thicker which gives of a more authentic and stronger sound.
The skin of the drum is made of goatskin, which is normally used from goats in Mali, which is wet shaved and dried with coca butter to help the skin remain supple on the drums.  The goatskins from Mali tend to last longer and not split as easily. The single goatskin piece is stretched between 6 and 18 inches depending on the body of the drum.  Cotton cloth is used to prevent rusting.  The rings attaching the skin are strung together with a colored piece of string. All drums are completely hand made!

This Drum has spread and is now most popular in the Western side of Africa. 

Intro...

Hey!
I'm Chloe Hildreth, I'm 17 years old and I am currently studying a BTEC Level 3 course in music.

For one of my projects I've decided to start a blog on The History of African Drumming!
As a drummer myself I'm researching the history of this subject to broaden my drumming ability, changing up pieces, etc. I'd love for you all to comment on my blog so I can take your views into consideration. Also, if you want to see something put up about this topic I'll research it for you and post it for you. I'll be blogging from now until the start of February, so keep up to date! I would love to pass this unit this way, and I'm excited for what I find next.

Many Thanks!