African drum

The African drum is a member of the plucked idiophones (Hornbostel–Sachs 1.22.1.3.5). Listen to 1 recording and learn how it makes its sound.

Listen to the African drum

Djembe accompaniment

0:13CC0 1.0by Michi HenningWikimedia Commons

0:13

Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.

How the African drum makes its sound

In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the African drum belongs to the plucked idiophones (lamellophones): flexible tongues or lamellae are plucked – the mbira, kalimba, music box and jaw harp.

More broadly it is one of the idiophones, where the solid body of the instrument itself vibrates, without strings or a stretched membrane.

Players shape its sound through technique and materials; the resonating body filters the raw vibration, boosting some harmonics and damping others.

From Wikipedia

Sub-Saharan African music is characterised by a "strong rhythmic interest" that exhibits common characteristics in all regions of this vast territory, so that Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980) has described the many local approaches as constituting one main system. C. K. Ladzekpo also affirms the profound homogeneity of approach. West African rhythmic techniques carried over the Atlantic were fundamental ingredients in various musical styles of the Americas: samba, forró, maracatu and coco in Brazil, Afro-Cuban music and Afro-American musical genres such as blues, jazz, rhythm & blues, funk, soul, reggae, hip hop, and rock and roll were thereby of immense importance in 20th century popular music. The drum is renowned throughout Africa.