What role does rhythm play in West African music?
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- In this lesson, we will introduce West African music with reference to the context and history of the song "Kuku" and the djembe. We will listen to traditional and contemporary music before learning how to play rhythms from "Kuku" using body percussion.
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6 Questions
Q1.
What is a rhythm?
A pattern of sounds of the same length
A regular, steady beat
Q2.
Which statement is not true?
The djembe is one of the most popular instruments from the West African music tradition
West African music varies from country to country
Q3.
Tone, bass and slap are all different strokes you play on a djembe. What is a flam?
Two strokes played almost simultaneously with an 'accent' on the first note
Two strokes played at the same time
Q4.
What is the oral tradition ?
The name of a traditional djembe song
The sheet music used to learn songs from West Africa
Q5.
What is the role of the master drummer?
The player who gets the biggest drum
The player who organises the group performances and arranges the music
Q6.
The start signal in 'Kuku' is
'Let's play djembe, let's play djembe'
'Play the djembe and shout Africa!'