African Drum: A Unique Musical Instruments
The African drummer is only allowed for the nobility. As time passes, everyone can already play the instrument. The diversity of rhythm and sound that it has can make people who have been successful and have many kinds of instruments such as, Djembe, Kpanlogo Drums, African Talking Drums, African Bongos, Darbuka, Ngoma Drums and others.
The most famous instrument is the Djembe, spelled “jembe” derived from the letter “dj” which became a symbol to remember the French language once colonized Africa. According to the Mali tribe, the word African Djembe comes from the word “Anke dje” which means everyone is gathering.
This instrument is shaped like a glass whose material comes from wood covered by the skin, tied with a rope and which serves to tighten it. The formerly djem tree used as the basic material of this instrument. Before cutting down trees must perform rituals. The skin used is usually goat skin, cow skin, and antelope skin. Africans have beliefs, in which there are 3 first spirits of wood spirit explaining about first strength, firmness, support and protection, second spirits of the animal depicting prosperity and peace, the third making of Djembe explain the spirit of the maker.
The manufacturing process is complicated and should be done painstakingly. First, measure the length of wood and cut to size, after the cut to size the bark should be removed by peeling. The second process, after which the wood is dried under the sun and sanded. The third process of making motifs, select the skin of goats and dried in the sun to dry. The last process, lock and connect the rope to the skin using a circular iron that matches the diameter of Djembe. For good sound, there is a technique of tightening and adding straps.
The rhythm pattern of the game is very unique, the sound of a rowdy treble that can awaken the spiritual energy of the African primitive rituals in the past. Described as a pure form of music that has contour, spacing, variations in intensity, wide sound modulation and shaped by the components of human emotions. It is not only defined in anger, in music it is very important to express and serve as a real form of a spirit in playing musical instruments. It awareness when playing this African drum is chained by right-brain hemispheres that regulate bass, tone, and slap. That collaborate following mood, sensitivity, and subtlety that creates excellent musical harmonies. The resulting rhythm will be very beautiful and has distinctive features.
This musical instrument has 3 spirit powers: the spirit of wood which is the symbol of a strength, firmness, and protector, the spirit of animal skin which is a symbol of the prosperity and well-being of the African nation, the spirit of the Djembe maker which is the symbol of the spirit to make hand drum. The way to play this instrument is simple, using only hands and many people who can play it.
Here’s a simple way to start playing hand percussion instruments.
A. Sound “tung” or “slap”. Hit the section with a distance of 5 cm from the edge of this musical instrument.
b. The sound of “dung”. Hit in the middle with one hand and a tight finger.
c. The Sound”tak”. Hit by connecting one hand in the middle of the Djembe drum in a vertical position, and the other doing a “slap” sound technique.
If you want to buy quality African drums, you can buy them on Bali Treasures Drum Factory. Ou great African drum manufacturer exports more than 250,000 instruments every year to over 50 countries. Bali Treasures is a specialist African Hand Drums which is the world’s largest producer of Djembe drums. The materials used have high quality. Using mahogany wood derived from Indonesian legal timber plantations, the leather used when making it is a high-quality goatskin.
We have professional wood carvers who work on wood carving, of course, have high artistic value. You can order with the design you want with a certain amount of order. We also provide wholesale African drum with special discounts. All our products are made by handmade, to keep the product quality — Djembe & Cajon drum. We have 3 big awards, Legal V Certificate because we use legal wood for product raw material, Audit and Certification by Accreditation Committee of Indonesia (KAN) every year in timber log legality check and Primayarta Award stating that we are the most successful Indonesian exporter granted by the government of the Republic of Indonesia.
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