This document provides an overview of traditional African music and instruments. It discusses how music is an important part of daily life and ceremonies in Africa. Traditional African music is largely functional in nature and used for rituals like birth, death, and worship. It then describes various musical genres from different African countries and regions, as well as genres from Latin America influenced by African music, such as samba, salsa, and reggae. Finally, it outlines several vocal music forms that originated in Africa, like blues, soul music, and spirituals, as well as the widespread tradition of call-and-response singing. The document concludes by describing various traditional African musical instruments.

1. MUSIC OF
AFRICA

2. Music of Africa
• Music has always been an important part in the
daily life of African.
• Music and dance are also important to religious
expression and political Events.

3. Traditional Music of Africa
• African music is largely functional in nature. Used
primarily in ceremonial rites such as birth, death,
marriage, succession, worship, and spirit
invocations.

4. TYPES OF
AFRICAN MUSIC

5. Afrobeat
•Term used to describe the fusion of West
African and Black American Music

6. APALA or AKPALA
•Musical genre from Nigeria in the Yoruba
tribal style to wake up the worshippers after
fasting during the Muslim holy feast of
Ramadan.

7. AXE
• Popular musical genre from Salvador, Bahia, and
Brazil.
• It fuses the Afro-Carribean style of Marcha,
Reggae, and Calypso.

8. JIT
• A hard fast percussive Zimbabwean dance Music
played on drums with guitar accompaniment,
influenced by mbira – based guitar styles.

9. JIVE
•A popular form of South African Music
featuring a lively and uninhibited variation of
the jitterbug, a form of swing dance.

10. JUJU
•A popular Music style from Nigeria that relies
on the traditional Yoruba rhythms.

11. KWASSA KWASSA
•A dance style that begun in Zaire in late 1980s
popularized by Kanda Bongo Man.

12. MARABI
•A south African three- chord township music
of the 1930s – 1960s which evolved into
African Jazz.

13. LATIN AMERICAN
INFLUENCED BY
AFRICAN MUSIC

14. REGGAE
•A Jamaican sound dominated by Bass
guitar and Drums

15. SALSA
•Music is Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Colombian
Dance Music.
•It comprises various musical genres including
the Cuban son montuno, guaracha, chachacha,
mambo and Bolero.

16. SAMBA
•Is the basic underlying rhythm that
typifies most Brazilian Music.

17. SOCA
•A modern Trinidadian and Tobago
pop music combining “Soul” and
“Calypso” music.

18. WERE
•A Muslim music performed often as a
wake up call for early breakfast and
prayers during Ramadan Celebrations.

19. ZOUK
•A fast carnival – like rhythmic
music, from Creole slang word for
Party.

20. VOCAL FORMS
OF AFRICAN
MUSIC

21. MARACATU
•First surfaced in the African State of
Pernambuco, combining the strong rhythms
of African percussion instruments with
Portuguese melodies.

22. BLUES
• A musical form of the late 19th century that has deep
roots in African – American communities.
• The notes of blues create expressive and soulful sound.
The feelings that are evoked are normally associated with
slight degrees of misfortune, lost in love, frustration, or
loneliness.

23. Known Performers of the Blues Genre
• Ray Charles
• James brown
• Calloway
• Aretha Franklin
• John Lee Hooker

24. SOUL MUSIC
• Was a popular music genre of the 1950s and 1960s.
• It originated in the United States. It combines elements
of African – American Gospel music, rhythm and blues
and often Jazz.
• The catchy Rhythms are accompanied by handclaps and
extemporaneous body moves which are among its
important features.

25. • Brown was known as the “ Godfather of Soul”
• Sam Cookie and Jackie Wilson are acknowledged as “Soul
Forefathers”
• Soul Music Examples:
• Ain’t no Mountain High Enough
• All I Could do is cry
• Soul to soul
• Ben

26. SPIRITUAL
• The term Spiritual, normally associated with a deeply
religious person, refer here to a Negro Spiritual, a song
form by African Migrants to America who became
enslaved by its white community.
• The texts are mainly religious, sometimes taken for
Psalms of biblical passages.

27. Examples of Spiritual Music
• We are climbing Jacobs Ladder
• Rock my soul
• When the saints go marching in
• Peace be still

28. CALL AND RESPONSE
• The call and Response method is a succession of two
distinct musical Phrases usually rendered by different
musicians where the second phrase acts as a direct
commentary on or response to the first.
• It also forms a strong resemblance to the verse – chorus
form in many vocal compositions.

29. CALL AND RESPONSE SONGS
• Mannish Boy- a signature song by Muddy Waters
• School Day- Ring, Ring goes the bell by Chuck Berry.

30. MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS
OF AFRICAN
MUSIC

32. BALAFON
The balafon is a West African
Xylophone. It is a pitched percussion
Instrument with bars made from logs
or bamboo.

33. RATTLES
Rattles are made of seashells, tin,
basketry, animal hoofs, horn,
wood, metal bells, and cocoons.

34. AGOGO
It is a single bell or multiple bells
that had its origins in traditional
Yoruba music and also the samba
baterias ensembles.

35. ATINGTING
KON
These are slits gongs used to
communicate between villages. They
were carved out of wood to resemble
ancestors and had a “slit opening” at
the bottom.

36. SLIT DRUMS
The slit drum is hollow
percussion instrument. Although
known as a drum. It is not a true
drum but is an idiophone.

37. DJEMBE
It is one of the best – known African
Drums is. It is shaped like a large
goblet and played with bare hands.
The body is carved from a hollowed
trunk and is covered in goat skin.

38. SHEKERE
The shekere is a type of gourd and
shell megaphone from west Africa,
consisting of a dried gourd with
beads woven into a net covering the
cowrie shells usually strung with white

39. RASP
A rasp or Scraper is a hand percussion
instrument whose sound is produced
by scraping the notches on a piece of
wood with a stick creating a series of
rattling effects.

40. TALKING
DRUM (LUNA)
Used to send messages to announce births,
deaths, marriages, sporting events, dances,
initiations, or war.
It is believed that the drums can carry
direct messages to the spirits after the death
of a loved one.

41. MBIRA
The thumb piano or Finger Xylophone is
of African origin and is used throughout
the continent.
It is played by holding he instrument in the
hands and plucking the tines with the
thumbs, producing a soft plucked sound.

42. MUSICAL
BOW
The Musical bow is the ancestor of all
string instruments. It is the oldest and one
of the most widely used string instruments
of Africa.
The string is either plucked or struck with
another stick producing a percussive yet
delicate sound.

43. LUTE
(NKONI)
The lute originating from the
Arabic states, shaped like the
modern guitar and played in
similar fashion.

44. KORA
Africa’s most sophisticated
harp while having similar
features to a lute.

45. ZITHER
Stringed instrument with varying sizes
and shapes whose strings are
stretched along its body.
(Raft Zither)

46. ZEZE
African Fiddle played with
bow a small wooden stick
or plucked with the fingers.

47. ANTEBEN
(Ghana)

48. FULANI
FLUTES

49. PANPIPES

50. KUDU
HORN
Made from the horn of Kudu
Antelope.
Releases a mellow and warm
sounds that adds a unique African
accent to the Music.

51. REED PIPES
The most well known Reed pipe is the Rhaita or ghaita.

52. WHISTLE

53. TRUMPETS