Delving deeper into West African percussive music
Copyrighted materials: to view and download resources from this lesson, you’ll need to be in the UK and
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can understand and perform some more complex examples of West African percussive music.
Key learning points
- West African percussive music is often rhythmically complex.
- West African musicians traditionally don't use notation, but instead learn rhythms by ear and through movement.
- A compound time signature has each beat divided into three quavers. 6/8 is a common example of this.
- In a simple time signature each beat is divided into two quavers.
- Some West African music has a feel of compound time, including akom and dununba.
Keywords
Simple time - Simple time is where each beat is divided into two quavers. 4/4 and 3/4 are examples of this.
Compound time - Compound time is where each beat is divided into three quavers. 6/8 and 12/8 are examples of this.
Polyrhythm - When multiple rhythms are played at the same time we call this a polyrhythm.
Dununba - Dununba is a type of dance and music in compound time from Guinea.
Common misconception
Dance music is usually in 4/4.
While the majority of modern Western dance music is in 4/4, dance music around the world (and throughout history) often uses different time signatures, including 3/.4, 6/8 and 12/8, as well as others.
Teacher tip
The performance task can be simplified or extended as necessary for resources / pupils etc. To simplify it, double or triple students up on rhythms, and prioritise the agogo, dunun and djembe 1 rhythms. To add challenge, invite students to improvise over the top or adjust the dynamics of the group.
Equipment
DAW and/or set of hand drums and percussion instruments
Licence
Sign in to continue
Our content remains 100% free, but to access certain copyrighted materials, you'll need to sign in. This ensures we’re both staying within the rules.
P.S. Signing in also gives you more ways to make the most of Oak like unit downloads!
