African music has considerable diversity due to changes over time and cultural exchange. It serves many purposes in African communities from celebrating life events to providing work songs. There are diverse instruments categorized as membranophones (drums), idiophones (rattles, xylophones), aerophones (flutes, horns), and chordophones (lutes, harps). Different African cultures view music differently based on their traditions and beliefs.

1. Gun Control Debate Paper
Get a drum, map, or something. African music clip! Draw on white board the instruments I will
describe. (do this before I start my speech)
Thesis: African music has many complexities that make it distinct among other cultures.
 Considerable change in African music, throughout time, has resulted in musical diversity.
 African music also has a great many uses among its peoples.
 There are different cultural ideologies and instrumentations for African Music.
Considerable change in African music, throughout time, has resulted in musical diversity.
The vastness and geographical obstacles of Africa have caused the peoples there to
develop separately from one another. Even so, early in African history nearby tribes braved their
distances to establish trade and some diplomatic agreements. One of the many things passed
around was music. You can find instances of same musical instruments under the same names in
tribes quite far apart. An example of this would be the use of xylophones across the Niger-Congo
region of Africa. Along Middle Eastern borders, the integration of lutes and the harp-lute family
are apparent. When Christianity became influential in African religion, the singing took on a
more four-part western harmony. This is the division of bass, baritone, alto and soprano we are
used to. This suggests cultural music trade even among non-African peoples.
African music also has a great many uses.
There are special occasions, ceremonies, and community activities that include the playing of
music. Most are for leisure but some are to aid in the progress of work. Things like collecting
crops, building houses, or putting out fires may respectively have background music.
Community games or sports, such as wrestling or beer parties may bring the peoples of the
village together for a celebration. This particular example is a chance for anyone in the area to
contribute to the creative process. All people would be encouraged to add something to the
songs. There are special events, such as a child losing his first tooth, where they would be
expected prepare a solo performance to commemorate the event. It is much more common for
the community to perform together however.
There are different cultural ideologies and instrumentations for African Music.
Because of the varied nature of African culture, many of the African people don’t look at
music the same way. The Songye people, for example, have three rules they use to determine
what is or is not music. Alan P. Merriam, the leading scholar on the Songye people, recorded
these rules as follows: “-music is produced exclusively by human beings, it must be organized
and it must have continuity time.” An example he gave was, “…if someone scrapped mud off a
bottle with the lid of a…tin, he would produce noise as a byproduct. If he performed this act in
the performance…, the sound, though similar, would have a different meaning. It would be
purposeful in a musical sense.”
In high contrast with these ideas, the Mende peoples of Sierra Leone learn many of their
rudimentary songs and rhythms from the wildlife around them. There is a story passed though

2. oral tradition, of a young boy learning such a tune from a bird he passed one day. He fashioned
himself a primitive xylophone and practiced until he had the song exactly as he had heard it. It is
customary for all Mende musicians to learn this song.
Not all peoples in Africa have the same instruments either. Kwabena Nketia, a famous
African musician, provided some complicated terms from his book, The Music of Africa, to
explain the different categories of African instruments. There are Membranophones, Idiophones,
Aerophones, or Chordophones. One that most people are familiar with, would be the
Membranophone. It is called this simply because of the sonorous or non-sonorous membrane
covering the hollowed log or branch on either end. It is much more simply called a drum. They
come in various shapes and sizes, some as tall as people and others tiny like a coffee tin. Along
the same percussive lines, are the Idiophones. These are “self-sounding” instruments. Many
times these are used outside of music as ways of signaling one another or creating an atmosphere
for rites or ceremonies. This is something one might use to aid in the progress of labor. It would
create a rhythm for the workers to focus on and raise morale for the long day of work. Some
common ones include the gourd rattle or the finger bell. There are tuned Idiophones as well, this
would be the xylophone or marimba. It is a long keyboard with hollowed gourd resonance
chambers below it. These are used in solo or ensemble pieces for recreation, celebration or even
funeral rites. In Ghana, the melody of the tune played at a funeral determines if a man, woman,
elder, or child has died.
After this category, falls the Aerophone. It is made up of a few types of wind instruments,
the flutes, ocarinas, reed pipes, horns or trumpets. These instruments are used sparingly but in
almost any event.
Lastly, there are chordophones. They are the stringed instruments: the musical bow,
zither, lute, harp, or lyre. The musical bow is as simple in shape as it sounds. Most types include
a string and a stick, this is sometimes modified a resonance gourd or the application of tension to
the string via an extra stick. The zither is characterized by its horizontal strings. They can vary in
size or shape and number of strings. Harps and lyres are also very similar. The two are plucked
with the hands. Contrary to the western harp, however, it has resonance boxes and chambers
making it more like the lute. This instrument is commonly used in praise singing of ones
ancestors.
All of this information comes together to make African music a very complex topic.
African music has undergone considerable change throughout time to result in musical diversity.
African music also has a great many uses among its people and there are different cultural
ideologies and instrumentations for African Music. I’m glad to have shared with you something
that is very interesting to myself and I thank you for your time.