idiophones Flashcards
is a West African xylophone. It is a pitched percussion instrument with bars made from logs or bamboo.
The xylophone is originally an Asian instrument that follows the structure of a piano. From Asia, it went to Africa, then to the Americas and Europe.
Balafon
vessels made of seashells, tin, basketry, animal hoofs, horn, wood, metal, cocoons, palm kerels, or tortoise shells. These may range from single to several objects that are either joined or suspended to create sound as they hit each other.
Rattles
a single bell or multiple bells that had its origins in traditional Yoruba music as well as in the samba bateria (percussion) ensembles. The may be called “the oldest samba instrument based on West African Yoruba single or double bells.” It has the highest pitch among the bateria instruments.
Agogo
slit gongs used as communication between villages. Traditionally, they were carved out of wood to resemble ancestors and had a slit opening at the bottom. In certain cases, their. sound could carry for miles through the forest and across water to neighboring islands. Gong “languages,” composed of a series of beats and pauses, made it possible to send highly specific messages.
Atingting kon
a hollow percussion instrument. Although referred to as a drum, it is more of an idiophone.
It is usually carved or constructed from bamboo or wood into a box with one or more slits in the top. Most slit drums have one slit, though two and three slits (cut into the shape of an “H”) occur. If the resultant tongues are different in width or thickness, the drum can produce two different pitches.
Slit drum
is one of the best-known African drums. It is shaped like a large goblet and played with bare hands. The body is carved from a hollowed trunk and is covered with goat skin.
Djembe
a type of gourd and shell megaphone from West
Africa, consisting of a dried gourd with beads woven into a net covering the gourd. The agbe is another dried gourd with cowrie shells or beads usually strung with white cotton thread. The axatse is a small gourd, held by the neck and placed between hand and leg.
Shekere
a hand percussion instrument whose sound is produced by scraping the notches on a piece of wood (sometimes elaborately carved) with a stick, creating a series of rattling effects.
Rasp
