Experience the History of Percussion Instruments Yourself

Is not it cool to not only read it but experience the history of percussion instruments? Do you want to see and hear how ancient music came back? Okay, I can do it!

Percussion instruments have been used all over the world since the beginning of human culture. I do not know who is the first. However:

Many of the modern instruments come from Africa. During slave trade, the Africans brought their drums and rhythms to the west. Most contemporary music style has evolved from this style.

However, returning to the African continent itself, the ancient instruments and their traditional uses have not changed so much.

The tradition of music in Africa is still very ingenious, so you can see and hear the history of percussion with your own eyes.

Please look at a craftworker who makes drums, rattles or xylophones. He uses the natural material of his village, the trunk, animal skin, dried seeds, gourd, seashells.

As in the past, he easily made instruments using tools. This still brings ancient feel, appearance and sound to African instruments.

In the West, modern technology completely replaced instruments as a means of communication. But listen to African drums. They still communicate the encoded information among the villages or call on people to gather

Many musical instruments not only provide signals, but they "speak" people's languages ​​in fact! These are called talking drums, and even in some tribes they even speak xylophone.

Today, we mainly make music for entertainment. However, percussion instruments have been used for sacred and religious purposes. (Do you remember the bells of our church?) In Africa this is still the case. Example:

At the ceremony, Africans asked their fathers for advice. The deep sound of the udu drum is considered to be their reaction sound

The myth of Ssobara is the story of the first African Barafen. The great king uses it to communicate with the soul and to tell the future.

In African weddings and funerals you will see percussion instruments moving. They are part of every life passage and religious ceremony

Visiting Africa to learn traditional music is like returning to the past. You will rediscover the use of percussion instruments that have been lost for a long time in our culture.

Are you unlikely to travel to Africa? Then find some authentic African instruments and play them yourself! This is the best way to connect roots to understand the percussion history.

Percussion instruments are the simplest and primitive instruments. The easiest definition of percussion is to sound by tapping. Percussion instruments are usually rhythmic and heavy instruments, but instruments such as bells, xylophones and carillons can play melodies. From symbols and maracas to ordinary drums and vibrato - Due to their simplicity, the types of percussion are very diverse. Symphony orchestra usually have many different percussion instruments for each work.

Anthropologists and historians often explain that percussion instruments are the first ever music equipment in history. The first instruments used by humans are sounds, percussion instruments such as hands and feet, percussion instruments, rocks and logs are the next steps in the evolution of music. Percussion instruments can be classified according to various criteria based on their composition, ethnic origins, music theory and function in orchestral music, or their relative generality in commonsense. Representing percussion instruments as "tilted" or "without pitch" is not enough. This is usually a trend. It may be more useful to describe percussion instruments with one or more of the following four examples: