Materials for the instruments are usually from nature, like wood, gourds, turtle shells, animal horns or skin. Other materials might be recycled from man-made objects, like scrap metal from old cars or oil drums. Blacksmiths or artists trained in instrument making create them for important people and groups.
Are African instruments handmade?
Instruments continue to be made and produced in many African countries for the commercial market… (like shakers, mbiras, penny whistles, rattles) but others are carved and strung with great care and precision for the many professional musicians and performers on the continent.
How are instruments produced?
Musical instruments create sounds by making something vibrate. For example, guitars make sound when their strings vibrate. Most instruments are “tuned” to make a range of sounds of particular frequencies, which we call notes. These notes are made in a particular sequence to play a piece of music.
How do you make an African Shekere?
Cut a number of strings (enough to fit around the gourd) approximately 30 inches long. Fold each string in half and make a slip knot with it around the collar. To make a slip knot, put the folded string under the collar with the fold on top and then bring the ends through the loop of the fold and collar and tighten.
What are the 4 main categories of African musical instruments?
African musical instruments are classified into four groups namely; idiophones, chordophones, aerophones and membranophones.
What can an African violin be made from?
Meincken has initiated the process of making African violins by using indigenous African wood species. The first violin was made over three months from yellowwood and sapele by one of the best luthiers in South Africa, Hannes Jacobs from Pretoria.
What instrument originated in Africa?
African musical instruments include a wide range of drums, slit gongs, rattles and double bells, different types of harps, and harp-like instruments such as the Kora and the ngoni, as well as fiddles, many kinds of xylophone and lamellophone such as the mbira, and different types of wind instrument like flutes and …
What materials is the instrument made of?
Nowadays, the most common materials used are woods and metals. Historically, wood, bone, animal hides, and reeds have been popular choices for musical instruments.
How is sound created by an instrument?
All musical instruments create sound by causing matter to vibrate. The vibrations start sound waves moving through the air. Most musical instruments use resonance to amplify the sound waves and make the sounds louder. Resonance occurs when an object vibrates in response to sound waves of a certain frequency.
How do different instruments produce sound?
How do instruments make sound? Instruments produce a sound when a part of it vibrates, producing sounds that are loud enough to be heard by the human ear. These sounds, or musical notes, are produced differently in each of the four main families of instruments: Woodwind, Brass, String, and Percussion.
What is shekere made out of?
The shekere is made from vine gourds that grow on the ground. The shape of the gourd determines the sound of the instrument. A shekere is made by drying the gourd for several months then removing the pulp and seeds. After it is scrubbed, skillful bead work is added as well as colour.
When was African music created?
In ancient times the musical cultures of sub-Saharan Africa extended into North Africa. Between circa 8000 and 3000 bc, climatic changes in the Sahara, with a marked wet trend, extended the flora and fauna of the savanna into the southern Sahara and its central highlands.
Is the guitar an African instrument?
Maybe the guitar wasn’t originally an African instrument, but it certainly has become one. For this New Sounds, take a listen to music from the late Cameroonian guitarist Francis Bebey, along with music from Gabonese guitarist singer and musician Pierre Akendengué.
Where is the mbira instrument from?
The Mbira or African thumb piano (other identifying names include: kalimba – contemporary term; the most popular term is either sansa, or mbira) is a percussive instrument originating from Africa. The instrument, also used in Cuban music, is generally held with both hands and played with the thumbs.