The Heritage of COLOMBIAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Picture of a tiple (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Everybody deeply appreciates the great treasure that is Colombian musical instruments, such as Colombian tiple, made in coral wood, with clear lines and awesome authentic color, with twelve metal strings arranged in four courses. Any professional or student guitarist will find it easy to use in Colombian folk music, and in many Latin American songs. Musicians can use it in Latin American folk jazz music, but also in original songs as well. Tiple's ethereal and clear sound is also used in classical guitar music creations.

Colombian Cuatro is concert grade guitar; it is made of slices and blocks from curly maple. It has a violin shape and has a great pitch accuracy and finish. The 'seis' is a hybrid of the cuatro and a supplementary sixth course tunes a fourth below the usual fifth bottom course. It is also a very popular Colombian musical instrument. This feature allows an expanded bass range. It can be used also for guitar intervals as well, and it makes a awesome music, It sounds like a guitar, but sweeter, faster and louder.

Original Colombian music instruments

Spanish and African traditions are strongly represented in Colombian music. Traditional quena, a kind of flute, and Spanish guitar are very popular. Colombian bandolina has fifteen strings and its sound is beautiful, sweet and clear. It is usually made by hand, of unexcelled quality. The marimba is another Colombian musical instrument; it looks like a xylophone and its keys are made in wood. The arpa is a local version of the harp, the guassa is a rattle. The songs from the Pacific coast are using drums and are tinged with Spanish influence. Due to the Spanish influence, piano music is also very popular in Colombia. The newest music style in Colombia is "valenato", based on the European accordion.

Many Colombian musical instruments are beautifully crafted, from the ancient times until our century. The charango, a kind of guitar made in wood, the vessel whistle, the erkencho, a kind of clarinet, the chirimia, an oboe, are carefully made and original Colombian folk music sounds great with them. There are six ethnic zones in Colombia; the music is a hybrid between Indian roots and Spanish traditions. In some regions, there is also a strong Negro influence. Guitars, flutes and drums are always necessary; in the Caribbean zone, the most important Colombian musical instrument is gaita, a kind of oboe. In Colombia, music is a tradition. There is a habit to pass folk songs from one generation to the other.

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AFRICAN MUSIC

A local boy with an improptu cora instrument. Photographed near Banjul in The Gambia.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The music of Africa is arguably the most influential music in the history of the world. But it did not originate in a vacuum. The truth is that different regions of Africa were influenced by a number of foreign musical traditions. For example, many nations in North Africa can trace their musical lineage back to the Greeks and Romans who once ruled the area. Later there was also a substantial Middle Eastern influence on their music.

Other parts of the African continent were similarly affected by foreign music. Parts of East Africa and the offshore islands were influenced by Arabic music and Indian music. While Southern, Central and West Africa had been influenced by the music of North America and Western Europe. Other African music can be attributed to specific dance forms such as the rumba and salsa, which were founded by African slaves who settled in Latin America and the Caribbean. In this article, we will be exploring the different kinds of African music and where it originated.

North Africa

The music of North Africa was strongly influenced by the music of ancient Egypt and the early Arabs. Although it is one of the least popular forms of contemporary African music, it is historically significant and merits examination by all those interested in traditional music.

Sub-Saharan Music

No music is more purely African than music that originated in Sub-Saharan Africa. Though many regions were influenced by other nations, Sub-Saharan music remains quintessentially African. Because writing and reading came late to parts of Africa, this music was developed as a form of communication. In time, it became an exciting, communal way to celebrate and mark the major milestones in a person's life. For example, there are literally hundreds of African songs that celebrate marriage, childbirth or even hunting parties.

Music is also played to ward off noxious spirits and to pay homage to deceased ancestors. African music of this type is almost always accompanied by a specific dance or ceremony. It is often performed by professional musicians who have experience with ceremonial music.

Because music from Sub-Saharan Africa focused on communal singing, it was one of the earliest to emphasize the use of harmony and structured singing. These singing methods ranged from simple rhythmic structures to incredibly complex and elaborate structures based on improvisation and variation.

Instruments

Though stringed instruments, bells, flutes and even xylophones were all used in traditional African music, there is nothing more important than the basic African hand drum. In fact, there are literally dozens of drums that are played on different occasions. A few of the most popular drums that are used in a traditional African musical include bougarabou, Tama talking drums, djembe, water drums and many different kinds of Ngoma drum that are played in parts of Central and Southern Africa.

These drums are almost always accompanied by singers or choruses who often keep time with rattles, shakers, wood sticks, bells or by simply clapping their hands' or stumping their feet.

By Frank Mar - Article Source: EzineArticles

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Know the Kinds of AFRICAN INSTRUMENTS

Photo  by electricnerve 

Music is closely integrated into everyday activities in Africa. Whether daily or festive, almost all African music plays a strong socializing role. It is a country with a history full of different cultures and traditions. Indeed music has played a vital role in their lives from their history up to the present that made them innovatively and artistically produce their own musical instruments.

Africans uses dance and songs along with their instruments during particular occasions, rituals, and ceremonies. It also serves as their musical communication towards each other. Africans are rich in values and customs. Most of the African instruments that they have are fundamentally used as a symbol of admiration and a medium of worshipping their divine being. These kinds of instruments show imagination, creativeness, and power that Africans put into functional objects.

In general, the sound of African music is characterized as polyphonic. Vocal-instrumental combinations are as common as instrumental music. Nearly all African instruments have a device that provides a percussive rhythmic accompaniment. All these instruments may differ in sizes and forms but all are created to create music.

Africa probably has the largest variety of drums to be found on any continent, but practically every other type of musical instrument is also represented throughout Africa. Of all the drums, the most characteristically African are the talking drum, hourglass drum, and the slit drum. Of the myriad types of rattles, the Western African net rattle, made of a handle gourd encased in a beaded net is unique. Xylophones, widespread in Africa, are two basic types; the frame xylophone and the loose key xylophone.

As widespread as the xylophone is the mbira which is consists of flat iron strips mounted on a board or box with one end of each strip free to be plucked with the fingers. The simplest of any kind of stringed instruments found throughout Africa is the musical bow. Zithers and harps are also common and the lyre, which has a hemispherical and rectangular body with two arms extending to a crossbar. The three-stringed instruments unique to Africa are the harp lute, harp zither, and the bowed lute.

You can get hold of these African instruments and learn it yourself. It cam undeniably produces beats, rhythms, and melody that are pleasurable to the ears. Feel the beat of African music and let its music fill the air to make you express your emotions and personality.

These instruments can be purchased in many musical stores which you can check the instruments yourself and try it. But if it is not available in your place or you are just too busy with your time you can conveniently search it on the internet and you can encounter various kinds of these instruments which you can possibly own.

By Matthew Stanton - Article Source: EzineArticles

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Music Of BRAZIL

Samba (album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Brazil, the fifth largest country in South America, is a land rich in history, mystique, and exceptions to the rule. Founded as a Portuguese colony in 1500 that was later known as the Empire of Brazil, it became a republic in 1889 and is now known as the Federative Republic of Brazil. Its official language is Portuguese, which is spoken by nearly the entire population - and the only Portuguese-speaking nation in Latin America - making its natural and cultural identity very distinct from its Spanish-speaking neighbors. Brazilian Portuguese is also different from that spoken in Portugal. It is fitting that the Museum of the Portuguese Language in Brazil 's capital São Paulo is the first language museum in the world.

One of the founding members of the United Nations, Brazil is the world's tenth largest economy and boasts a natural environment of unparalleled diversity and breathtaking geographic beauty, making it a great draw for international tourists seeking sun and beach and adventure forays into the Amazon Rainforest. But where Brazil really stands out in terms of its natural resources and cultural contribution to the world is music, specifically jazz. Although it can claim many fine classical composers, Brazil is where the great rhythm-and-beat styles of the samba, bossa nova, pagoda, frevo and many others found life.

"Watercolor of Brazil" (known in most English-speaking countries as simply "Brazil"), written in 1939 by politically militant composer Ary Barroso, became one of the most popular songs of all times and was the birth of the samba. Since then it has enjoyed innumerable recordings from Brazilian native musical artists like Antonio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto, but internationally as well by such legends as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney to still more recent versions by Placido Domingo, Dionne Warwick, and the Ritchie Family. With the ballroom dancing craze fuelled by popular TV shows like "Dancing With the Stars," the song "Brazil" and the samba have found a fresh generation of eager fans.

Arguably one of the most beloved and respected musicians of the 20/21st century is Brazil's João Gilberto who rose to fame in the late 1950s when he slowed down the samba to work with his syncopated acoustic guitar. His cool, hip way of whispering lyrics made him an idol of U.S. beatniks and jazz artists alike, and he continues to inspire a new generation of pop artists like Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and his own daughter Bebel Gilberto, now a star in her own right. But Gilberto's place on the world jazz map was firmly stamped when a collaboration with songwriter Jobim, a fellow Brazilian, led them to record "Chega de Saudade" and create the bossa nova.

The bossa nova quickly became a craze in the United States and spread through the world after American jazz saxophone legend Stan Getz discovered the sound and recorded, amongst others, "The Girl From Ipanema" with Gilberto and his wife Astrud. Bossa nova-style jazz remained Getz's icon sound until he died. Gilberto remains a superstar in Brazil and one of its greatest natural resources.

By John Parks - Article Source: EzineArticles

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