African Drums Nobody Knows Of
Get Ready For Something New
Bored by the djembe-hype? Get ready for something different:
There are many African drums that hardly anyone knows of outside Africa!
I wonder why we've ignored these traditional tribal drums for so long.
They are just as wicked and as African as the
djembe drum.
Will you be the one to start a new trend? Here's all the info you need to find your new
favorite African percussion instrument!
Let me begin with my personal new fave:

Ghanaian Kpanlogo Drum
The Kpanlogo Drum
In my opinion the most beautiful of all African drums!
Its gorgeous design and mystic, mellow sound are just
captivating.
When
hearing kpanlogo drumming in the distance you think you're in the
jungle.
Want to play yourself? It's doable - and challenging
enough to keep you working for quite some time!
Hand And Stick Drums
We often make the mistake to assume that African drums are
pure
hand drums. In fact, most of them are also played with
sticks. The result is a powerful sound!
A great example is the:

Ewe Drum Set
The long master drum called
atsimevu is
the father of the Ewe drum family. Together, they send a
thunder through the forests that you can
hear even miles away.
Ewe drumming is
definitely one of the coolest drumming styles I've heard so
far! Just take a look at
Agbadza,
probably the most famous of all Ewe rhythms and dances.
The Fontomfrom
is impressive in size and sound. As a court drum, it is only to be
played for kings and chiefs. The majestic drum serves that
royal
purpose very well!
A bit smaller, but just as interesting are the
bougarabou,
ashiko,
ngoma, sabar, tabla, kutiro,
atumpan
and the
brekete.
The
doundounba,
sangban
and
kenkeni form
the set of bass drums that often accompanies the djembe (also called
djun djun, duns, doum doum etc.)
Another type of stick drums are the:
Talking Drums
In fact, many African drums are "talking" drums. But when a Westerner
uses the
term he usually refers to the hourglass-shaped instruments. They are
spread
all over West Africa, with different features, playing styles
and names:
Dundun,
lunna,
donno,
dondo,
tama,
gangan
etc.
I can't wait to find out what they are talking about!

Gome Foot Drum
Frame Drums
Frame drums like the
tamalin from Ghana
or the
sikko from Guinea are pretty
common.
But the
gome box drum of the Ga tribe
is certainly
the coolest of all:
It is played with hands and
feet!
That makes it quite a show to watch and quite a physical effort to
perform...
Idiophones
All above drums belong to the membranophone family. That
means a stretched skin is responsible for their sound. But
idiophones can do without:

Pot Drums
The sound of these clay pots are just as mystical as their traditions.
The Igbo women in Nigeria are the inventors of the
udu drums.
Men are strongly
advised to stay away!...
Water Drums
The Malinke and Sosso people got creative with calabashes: They filled
the
yedoundoun and
fedoundoun with
water. Refreshingly different!
Slit Drums
Slit drums might be the first drums that human beings ever
produced. They can be found all over the world. Guineans call
them
krin or
kolokolos,
while the Congolese know them as
mukoku.

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