What is An African Drum?

Drum Factory Bali
4 min readMar 9, 2018

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Every African community has its own music. Hand Drum made by many Africans has always been an important part of everyday life on the continent.

African drums

In the modern era, African; popular music blends traditional style and elements taken from American music. African drum is used for social and ceremonial purposes. Religious songs in various rituals. Working songs accompany community activities such as hoeing and harvesting. Traditional music is rooted in mythology, legend, and folklore. This music is sometimes also full of gods, ancestors, or certain heroes. African people also make music to cultivate it-happy or to relax. Some types of music can be made specifically for dancing. One example is boeremusiek (“Boer music”) from South Africa. This type of folk music was invented by the Voortrekker people, who were descended from Dutch settlers there. Their music uses concertina, which is similar to an accordion. Dance various types of music that have become a form of entertainment in big cities and small towns in Africa.

Musical instruments and sides of African musical instruments are very close to the daily life of the people and can be seen through materials used to make musical instruments such as percussion in parts such as labs, wood, and clay. As for the drum membrane made of goat skin, cow skin, reptile skin and other animal skin. In hunting animals African society has a strong tradition in hunting animals that are not only for food consumption but also art, so as to create traditional African drum. There are special features although African music is different and has the same quality as repetition or repetition patterns that are commonly used as a basis in music. An example is the music mbira which is the music of Shona orangutan from Zimbabwe. With various repetition patterns generated from various interacting instruments in this music mbira. While the musicians to build an improvisation that is the main repetition pattern. Continuous combination of different instruments or called polypon (polyphonic) which is the character as well as the nature of African music.

Dancing and be happy

Here are some African instruments: Drums (Cajon box, bells, and drums). Drum friction sound produced by swipe membrane, a bell drum is played by one player and the drum talk is shaped like an hourglass. Why is it called drum friction? because it is used to mimic the human voice in speech. Certain communication qualities are also owned by African music such as musical instruments, different sounds and body parts of musicians can be mobilized and played and become a means of exchanging live information such as the hands and feet of African musicians. popular appeared in Africa in the 1960s. African musicians began using instruments such as electric guitars, saxophones, and drum kits. The most popular musical styles are the highlife and juju of West Africa, the dance music of the Congo, and the Taraba of East Africa. South African music styles include chimurenga and jit.

Djembe drum

This music is a source of inspiration for the development of 20th-century music, composers who adopted/inspired in the composition of the French composers, rock stars UK Band The Beatles (George Harrison), American Jazz Artist John Coltrane.

Characteristics and Instruments of African Music

- African art is always in the form of percussion music, the dance is also a polyphonic singing (singing) or by singing without words with hum or shouting and always in group form.

- The uniqueness is the presentation of the music, in each dance and percussion instruments displayed in one unit

- African Music and Some African hand drums ~ Music Players — Music played by Africans is commonly referred to as African music living in the southern Sahara desert region of 50 tribes. Complete with various cultures and languages and is a mixture of each tribe of people who have their own history.

Bali Treasures is the largest drum factory that has been producing different Percussion Instruments like African Instrument such as African Djembe drum, Cajon, Talking Drum and another. All are done by professional workers and of course, have high quality.

Please be updated with our latest articles:

  1. Hand percussion
  2. Cajon drum

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Drum Factory Bali

Bali Treasures Drum Factory creates high-quality musical instruments including hand drum, djembe, African drum, hand percussion, and Cajon drum.