Lesson video

Hello, welcome to today's lesson, which is entitled "Introduction to West African Percussive Music.

" My name's Mr. Norris, and I'm gonna be taking you through today as we look at a few specific styles from this region of the world and explore some of the key features that have made them really influential and important styles in music around the world more broadly.

So let's get straight to it.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can describe some of the key features of West African percussive music and can play a cross rhythm.

So we're looking at some key features and then we're gonna delve into one specific one, which is cross rhythms.

Our keywords for today.

The first is djembe, and a djembe is a common type of hand drum used in many West African traditions.

Our second keyword is agogo bell, and an agogo bell is a metal instrument consisting of two pitched bells.

It is played with a stick.

Our third is dunun, and a dunun is a large two-headed drum played with a stick.

Often a bell is also attached.

Polyrhythm.

When multiple rhythms are played at the same time, we call this a polyrhythm.

And then finally, cross rhythm.

And a cross rhythm is a polyrhythm in which two or more of the rhythms conflict and feel like they have a different pulse.

So we'll be getting more in depth into each of these terms as we go through the lesson.

The first part of our lesson today is entitled "Key Instruments in West African Percussive Music.

" Africa has many different musical traditions, including the percussive music of West Africa.

So it's a really diverse continent musically, but we're just honing in on this particular region and some specific musical styles from this region.

There's a map there of Africa, and you can see West Africa is generally defined as those countries in green there.

West Africa encompasses 16 countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, and Ivory Coast.

It's a very diverse region with hundreds of different languages, many different religions and ethnicities.

Much of the traditional music is designed to dance to.

I'd like to pause my video in a sec and you're gonna have a listen to this clip.

Question is what features make this music suitable for dancing?

And pause my video and have a listen.

So various things that make that really suitable for dancing, and we'll go through a few of them now.

West African percussive music has a strong pulse.

That's so important for dancing.

If you can't feel the pulse then you can't dance in time with it.

A moderate to upbeat tempo.

Repeating rhythms.

So you might have noticed that there are lots of rhythms that kept repeating, and that's really useful for dancing, not only in these styles of music, but in dance styles around the world.

And polyrhythms.

Polyrhythm, we'll get more into this later, but it's fundamentally where we have different layers of different rhythms playing at the same time.

And West African percussive music is highly rhythmic, and this is emphasized by the use of percussion.

So percussive instruments, percussion instruments, really help to highlight rhythms and make it feel even more rhythmic.

Two of the key drums used in this type of music are the djembe and the dunun.

We'll have a look at those now.

A djembe is a hand drum that can produce several different sounds, including bass, which is in the center of the drum.

That's the lowest pitch tone you'll produce on the djembe.

Tone, which is nearer the edge.

And that's higher pitch than bass.

And slap, which is the highest pitch sound that you produce right on the edge of the drum.

So it can produce these different sounds.

We're gonna have a listen to some of those now.

See if you can pick out three different sounds.

The lowest pitch one is called bass.

Then we've got tone, which is sort of medium pitch.

And then we've got the very high pitch, the slap sound.

Here we go.

(rhythmic music) So hopefully you could pick out some of those different sounds, those different timbres, that are being produced on the drum.

And this is such a key instrument in the percussive music of West Africa.

A dunun is a two-headed drum that's played with sticks, and it can be played in two ways.

Open, which is when it's just struck with a stick, or muted, which is when one hand rests on the skin while the skin is also struck by the stick.

And that produces a very different dampened sort of tone.

We'll have a listen to a few of those here.

See if you can pick out again the different tones and different sounds that are being produced.

(rhythmic dunun music) So hopefully you could hear there were more than one tone produced on the same drum.

Often drummers strike the wooden rim to create a bright sound as well.

We didn't hear any of that in that clip, but that's quite a common technique.

And sometimes as well there'll be a bell attached to the side of the dunun.

So it's a sort of multifaceted instrument with different tones produced on the skin, and the wooden brim, and the bell as well.

In West African percussive styles, it's also common to hear many other percussion instruments.

And I'm just gonna highlight a couple of important ones here.

Although there's a huge array of different instruments you might come across.

One of the most common is the agogo bell.

(rhythmic agogo bell music) And again we can hear there there's two different pitched bells there and it's played with a stick.

It's quite a distinctive instrument that.

And then the shekere as well.

(rhythmic shekere music) We can hear there different ways of producing the sound through shaking, through tapping and rattling.

And that produces quite distinctive tone as well.

So those are two common instruments that you might well come across from West African percussive styles.

Ensembles in West African percussive music typically use a mixture of these different instruments.

I'd like to pause my video now.

And you're gonna have a listen to this clip.

Which instruments can you pick out here?

Pause my video and see what you can come up with.

Let's see then if you've got any of these.

You might have heard dunun, djembe, agogo, and shekere.

So all four of those instruments that we've just explored playing in that clip.

Well done if you picked up on any of them.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of these is not a drum?

Djembe, shekere, or dunun.

I'll give you a few seconds.

And the correct answer here then would be shekere.

Both djembe and dunun are types of drum.

Well done if you pick that one up.

Which of these is played with sticks?

Djembe, shekere, or dunun?

I'll give you a few seconds.

And the correct answer here is dunun.

Djembe, as we know, is a hand drum.

So that means dunun is the one that's played with sticks.

For Task A, you'll listen to this example and answer the questions.

Name three instruments you can hear.

How many beats are in each bar?

Why would this be suitable for dance?

And how would you describe texture?

So you can pause my video now and give that your best shot.

Let's review these answers then.

For the first one you might have mentioned the agogo bell, a shaker, dunun, or djembe.

If you did say shekere there, that's a reasonable mistake to make 'cause a shaker to the untrained ear can sound very similar.

How many beats are in each bar?

Well, there were four beats in each bar.

It would be suitable for dance because, you might mention any of these things, there's a strong pulse, it's a moderate to fast tempo, there are repeating rhythms, and it's highly rhythmic.

And then the texture we would describe as a thick texture.

And you might have said there were many layers of rhythms, so you might have said polyrhythmic.

And we'll get more into that term a little bit later on.

Well done if you answered those questions correctly.

And now we're gonna move on to look in a bit more depth in the second part of our lesson at polyrhythm and cross rhythms.

Poly is a Greek word that means many.

And as some of you might know, many of the words that we use in English are derived from Greek roots.

So polyrhythm means many rhythms.

Polyrhythm is one of the key features of many styles of West African percussion music.

Most of these styles have layers of rhythms built up to create a thick texture of overlapping rhythms.

So we've got lots of different rhythms playing together.

And together they create this thick texture that we call polyrhythm.

How many different rhythms can you pick out here?

And it might help to try and identify the separate instruments first and then to work out how many rhythms you can hear.

So pause my video and have a listen.

So well done then if you identified that there were six different rhythms playing in that clip.

But the key point here is that there is more than one different rhythm playing simultaneously, and that's what forms a polyrhythm.

Now a cross rhythm is a specific type of polyrhythm where two or more different rhythms conflict with each other and create the feeling of having a different beat or pulse.

So polyrhythm, the rhythms might feel like they have the same beat, feel like they have the same pulse.

With a cross rhythm, they go against each other, and it feels like they're playing maybe in different times, like they have a different pulse.

To understand this, we can listen to the rhythms separately first.

I'm gonna play you the first rhythm.

And I'd like you to try and identify how many beats are in each bar with this one.

So how would you count this?

What would you count it in groups of?

Here we go.

(rhythmic percussion music) And then have a listen to the second one.

So hang onto your answer for the first one.

Now have a listen to this second one.

How would you count this?

What would you count this in groups of?

(rhythmic percussion music) So you might have said that the first rhythm, we'll count in groups of three and the second one in groups of four.

The first feels like it has three beats in a bar, and the second like it has four beats in a bar.

And when we play them together, the rhythms feel like they could be either in three or four depending on how you hear it.

So it has this effect having two different pulses.

I'm gonna play you both of those rhythms together.

I'm gonna play you it twice.

And the first time I'd like to try and count it in threes.

So listen for the higher pitched instrument and try and count threes along with that.

Here we go.

(rhythmic percussion music) I'm gonna do it again this time.

Now try and count it in fours.

So listen for the lower pitch drum and see if you can count it in groups with four.

And it'd be slightly faster, you're count, this time.

Here we go.

(rhythmic percussion music) Quite a tricky task to do that.

And particularly once you get your ear in from one of those pulses, it can be very difficult to hear the other one.

So sometimes people will only be able to hear it in three or only be able to hear it in four.

And to hear it both ways can be quite difficult.

And this is what makes it a cross rhythm because the two rhythms create a different feeling of the beat.

It feels like we could be in three or we could be in four.

And in this case we would call it a 4-3 three cross rhythm.

One rhythm feels like it's in four and the other in three.

And although they sound the same, they could look different.

So we could write it in 3/4 like we have done on the left hand side there, or we could write it in 4/4 like we have done in the right hand side.

And both of those would sound the exact same 'cause we've got four against three.

Four-three cross rhythm.

I'd like to have a listen to this example of some music.

Which two time signatures could we count this in?

So how could you group this?

And the hint here is there is a cross rhythm.

So there are two different ways of feeling this.

And pause my video and have a listen.

Let's delve into this one then.

Now firstly, some rhythms play a rhythm that can be counted in fours, so let's have a listen to that.

(gentle rhythmic music) So we have those that feel like you would count them in fours if you heard them on their own.

And then we've also got some that can be counted in threes.

(rhythmic percussion music) So this creates 4-3 cross rhythm.

Let's have a listen to them all together.

(rhythmic percussion music) And it's really important to note here that the players are not actually playing in different time signatures.

In a cross rhythm, it just feels like that.

So the important thing about a cross rhythm is it creates the effect of different pulses, the effect of different time signatures.

Let's check your understanding.

Which statement is true?

A polyrhythm is a type of cross rhythm, a cross rhythm is a type of polyrhythm, or polyrhythm and cross rhythm means the same thing.

I'll give you a few seconds.

And the correct answer here then is a cross rhythm is a type of polyrhythm.

Remember a polyrhythm is when we have different layers, different rhythms, playing at the same time.

And a cross rhythm is just an example of one of those.

What is a cross rhythm?

Is it more than one rhythm played at the same time, is it when two people play in different time signatures, or is it when two rhythms create different senses of beat?

I'll give you a few seconds to come up with the right answer.

And here, then, the correct answer is when two rhythms create different senses of beat.

So a cross rhythm is remember when we have these two different feels of beat, two different feelings of pulse.

Well done if you've got that one correct.

For Task B, we're gonna listen to a few examples.

For each one I'd like to identify if it is a cross rhythm or not.

If it's a cross rhythm, identify two ways we could count it.

And I've given an example there with this first one.

So I'll play you this first one now.

(rhythmic percussion music) That was the example we used earlier where we have four against three, so a 4-3 cross rhythm.

So I've said, yes, it is a cross rhythm and if so, we could count it in four or three.

So now we're gonna go through the other questions and I'd like to do the same for question two to question six.

And I'll play you each one a couple of times.

Here's question two.

(rhythmic percussion music) I am gonna play it one more time.

Try to complete your answer now.

(rhythmic percussion music) Ready now for question three.

Here we go for the first time question three.

(rhythmic percussion music) And I am gonna play you question three one more time.

Here we go.

(rhythmic percussion music) Getting ready for question four for the first time.

Here we go.

(bright rhythmic percussion music) And then question four for the second time.

(bright rhythmic percussion music) And finishing your answer of question four.

And now we're gonna move on to question five.

Here we go for the first time.

(rhythmic percussion music) I'm gonna give you that one more time.

(rhythmic percussion music) And then finally, we're moving on to the last question, question six.

Here we go.

(rhythmic percussion music) It is a tricky one that one.

One bit of advice I would give before we try it for the last time is try and listen to each of the rhythms individually at the start before they play together and see if you can identify how many beats they're playing.

Here we go again then.

Question six for the last time.

(rhythmic percussion music) I will give a few seconds to finish off your answers, then we'll go through these.

Okay, let's review these answers then.

So we've already done question one, so we start question two.

Yes, it was a cross rhythm, and it was a three against two cross rhythm.

Let's see if you can pick that out when we listen to it now.

(rhythmic percussion music) So we've got threes playing on the castanets, the sort of clickey wooden sound, and then we've got twos playing on the snare drum.

Question three was not a cross rhythm 'cause if you listen to that, (rhythmic percussion music) we could count it in two or four.

And neither of those go against each other.

They fit in nicely with each other.

Question four was a cross rhythm.

So well done if you identified that.

And that was a 4-3 cross rhythm.

(rhythmic percussion music) So we've got threes on the triangle and fours playing on the cowbell.

Question five was not a cross rhythm.

(rhythmic percussion music) Although they're playing different rhythms, we would just count them in three, and they both fit nicely counted in three.

And then the last one, this was a tricky one.

If you got this one, really well done.

It's quite an unusual cross rhythm, five against four.

Let's have a listen.

(rhythmic percussion music) So we can hear there five's playing on the triangle and four is playing on the drum, and it creates a really interesting cross rhythm, I think that one.

Quite an unusual one to hear.

Brilliant effort if you managed to get that.

That's a tricky one to identify.

We're gonna move on now to the final part of our lesson.

And here we're looking at playing a cross rhythm.

Both the 2-3 and 4-3 cross rhythms are common in West African traditional music.

We perform these using live instruments or on a DAW.

This is a 2-3 cross rhythm.

Try and pick out the twos and the threes.

Here we go.

(rhythmic percussion music) One instrument is playing groups of two.

In that case it was the snare drum.

In the same time that it takes the other instrument to play a group of three, and in that case it was castanets, there was sort of wooden sounds there.

So we've got two against three.

We're gonna watch a video now that shows us how to play a 2-3 cross rhythm.

Here we go.

Let's look at playing a 2-3 or a 3-2 cross rhythm.

In this, we're gonna have one rhythm playing groups of two and another rhythm playing groups of three.

And those are gonna create a cross rhythm because they're gonna create these two different pulses.

One that feels like we're in two and one that feels like we're in three.

You can either do this using a DAW as I am here, or you can use live instruments, either playing both rhythms yourself, or you can have one person playing the twos and one person playing the threes.

And when you're doing this, try and use West African percussion instruments where possible such as a djembe because that's the style of music that we're studying at the moment.

To start us off, we're gonna just practice playing the threes, the groups of three.

And we're gonna keep a really nice consistent pulse.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

And you'll notice I'm emphasizing beat one.

That's important.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

This is now where it's gonna get complicated, where we're gonna try and fit the twos with that as well.

To begin with, I'm just gonna play the first note of my two, just the first note.

And I'm gonna play that on beat one.

So both rhythms are gonna play beat one together.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

(rhythmic percussion music) And now I need to work out where the second note of my two is gonna come.

And it's gonna come on that and between beat two and three of my three.

I'll show you what I mean by that.

It's a bit easier to demonstrate than to explain.

So it's gonna go one, two, and three.

One, two and three.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

So I've got my three playing.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

And I've got one, and one, and one, and one, and one, two, and three.

One, two and three.

One, two and three.

One, two and three.

One, two and three.

One, two and three.

One, two and three.

One, two and three.

(rhythmic percussion music) That's our 2-3 cross rhythm there.

And the things that will help us do this really effectively are first of all making sure that beat one always plays together.

So both rhythms play beat one together.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

And that's the only time they play together.

So really emphasize that beat one, and make sure that every time you both play beat one together.

And the other thing that will help us with this is making sure that both players have a consistent pulse, so they're not speeding up or down.

Particularly if you're playing the three, we're keeping a really steady pulse that's nice and consistent and that doesn't change at all, and that will make it easier to do.

So I'm just gonna quickly show you that one more time and then you'll be able to go and have a shot yourself.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, and one, and one, and three.

One, two and three.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

And that's our 2-3 or a 3-2 cross rhythm.

Let's now have a look at a slightly more complex one, which is playing a 4-3 cross rhythm.

Here we go.

3 or 3-4 cross rhythm is even more difficult than the 2-3 cross rhythm.

In this one, we've got a group of four and a group of three playing simultaneously.

And those create a cross rhythm because one of them feels like it's in four and one of them feels like it's in three.

Let me show you how we play it.

First of all, this is what it will sound like in the end.

(rhythmic percussion music) Group of four, three, four.

One, two, three, four.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

And together.

(rhythmic percussion music) Now to play this one, let's imagine that the fours are played on a high pitch sound like this one.

And the three is played on a low pitch sound like this one.

So I've got four on high and three on low.

On my beat one, I'm gonna play both of those together.

So beat one is one, then I'm gonna do a high or low.

So it's gonna go both, high-low.

That's my first bit.

Both, high-low.

After that, I've just got high on its own.

So I've got both, high-low, high.

That's my first bit.

Both, high-low, high.

(rhythmic percussion music) And then to finish I've got a low-high.

So I've got both, high-low, high, low-high.

Both, high-low, high, low-high.

Both, high-low, high, low-high.

Both, high-low, high, low-high.

Both, high-low, high, low-high.

Both, high-low, high, low-high.

Both, high-low, high, low-high.

Both, high-low, high, low-high.

If I speed it up, it sounds like this.

(rhythmic percussion music) Both, high-low, high, low-high.

(rhythmic percussion music) So that's a really common 3-4 or 4-3 cross rhythm.

So if you're doing that, verbalize it before you try playing it.

Both, high-low, high, low-high.

And if you're playing the fours, you are gonna be playing your boths and highs.

And if you're playing the threes, you're gonna be playing your boths and lows.

That's a really good way of sort of making this one doable 'cause otherwise it's quite a tricky rhythm to make work.

So give it your best shot and see how it goes.

Let's summarize those steps.

To form a 2-3 cross rhythm, have two different pitches for each rhythm.

That applies to the 4-3 as well.

Practice playing the threes first and make sure in both rhythms you emphasize beat one.

That's a really key thing to hammer home here, is if you emphasize beat one, it'll make it much easier to play the cross rhythm.

Ensure that the second note of the two-note rhythm lands between two and three of the three-note rhythm.

So it's one, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

One, two, and three.

Break it down.

Start slow and gradually build up, seeing if you can do that.

If you get onto the 4-3 cross rhythm, learn the variable pattern to get you used to the rhythms work together.

So practice saying it first.

Both, high-low, high, low-high.

Both, high-low, high, low-high.

Both, high-low, high, low-high.

If you get used to that and then slowly introduce it onto the drum or the instrument, you'll be able to do it.

It's a tricky one that, but give it your best shot when you get onto it.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of these is helpful when playing any cross rhythm?

Emphasizing every beat, emphasizing the first beat, emphasizing the last beat, or emphasizing the second beat.

I'll give you a few seconds.

And the best answer here then is emphasizing the first beat.

If you emphasize the first beat, that's when the two rhythms come together.

So you play those together and then that will set you on the right path to playing your cross rhythm.

So for your task, you're gonna perform or record a 2-3 cross rhythm.

And if you get that done, perform or record a 4-3 cross rhythm, a slightly more complex one.

Your success criteria is both rhythms start together on beat one.

Each time the rhythm repeats both instruments play beat one together.

So beat one always comes together.

And that's your sort of anchor of the two rhythms.

Each performer is keeping their own consistent pulse, so the notes are even and not lumpy rhythms.

And if you're doing the 4-3 rhythm, it's verbalized both, high-low, high, low-high, both, high-low, high, low-high.

So without further ado, give it your best shot.

It's a tough task this, but if you can get your head around it, it'll really help you develop rhythmically as a musician.

So pause my video and give you best shot.

Let's move on to the final part of this task.

And here I'm gonna play you a cross rhythm.

I'd like to know first of all, what cross rhythm is being attempted here and how could it be played slightly better?

Think about the success criteria we were using in the task just before.

So let's have a listen.

Here we go.

(rhythmic percussion music) I'm gonna play it one more time.

Here we go.

(rhythmic percussion music) While just finishing your answer, you can pause my video.

Okay, let's review that one.

So that was a 4-3 cross rhythm there with a group of four and a group of three.

And it can be played tightly better by making sure that both parts play beat one at exactly the same time.

So if we listen again, you'll notice that beat one is not quite together.

(rhythmic percussion music) And that not only makes it less accurate, but it also means that it's harder to get those cross rhythms to work successfully.

So well done if you got that it was 4-3, and well done if you identified that way to improve there.

Let's summarize our lesson then.

So West Africa has a long history of music and dance.

Many western styles can trace their roots back to this region.

While the music is extremely varied, many traditional styles have similar features and instrumentation.

Most traditional styles in the region use percussion instruments, including djembe, agogo bell, dunun, and shekere.

Polyrhythm and cross rhythms are common features across various traditions.

And finally, most of these traditions combine music and dance together.

So although today we're really focusing on the music, it's important to remember that this is usually performed and conceived of with dance.

That's the end of our lesson today then.

Thank you very much for taking part.

I hope you've really got stuck into our rhythmic tasks today and feel like you've managed to get a bit of a grasp of some of these quite tricky concepts.

Cross rhythm in particular is a tough concept to get your head round, and it's a tough concept to be able to recreate musically as well.

So thanks for getting stuck in, and thank you for giving it your best shot.

I'll see you in the next lesson.