African Drum

With Freeman Kwazdo Donkor and Abraham Adzenyah. Based on four Ghanaian rhythmic groups (Sikyi, Adowa, Gahu and Akom), this book and CD will provide drumset players with a "new" vocabulary based on some of the oldest and most influential rhythms in the world. A groundbreaking presentation!

The rhythms and dances of Guinea, West Africa spring to life in this ground-breaking multimedia collection from award-winning author Kalani and noted world percussionist Ryan M. Camara! More than just a drumming book, this easy-to-use method immerses teachers and students in traditional West African music, dance and culture through a step-by-step curriculum that maintains cultural authenticity. The World Rhythms! Arts Program (WRAP) is a multiple-discipline curriculum that incorporates drumming, singing, dance, and culture. Rooted in traditional West African music and dance, WRAP helps develop essential arts and life skills through a holistic approach to music and movement education. A must for your classroom!

The rhythms and dances of Guinea, West Africa spring to life in this ground-breaking multimedia collection from award-winning author Kalani and noted world percussionist Ryan M. Camara! More than just a drumming book, this easy-to-use method immerses teachers and students in traditional West African music, dance and culture through a step-by-step curriculum that maintains cultural authenticity. The World Rhythms! Arts Program (WRAP) is a multiple-discipline curriculum that incorporates drumming, singing, dance, and culture. Rooted in traditional West African music and dance, WRAP helps develop essential arts and life skills through a holistic approach to music and movement education. A must for your classroom!

Musicians’ Migratory Patterns: The African Drum as Symbol in Early America questions the ban that was placed on the African drum in early America. It shows the functional use of the drum for celebrations, weddings, funerals, religious ceremonies, and nonviolent communication. The assumption that "drums and horns" were used to communicate in slave revolts is undone in this study. Rather, this volume seeks to consider the "social place" of the drum for both blacks and whites of the time, using the writings of Europeans and colonial-era Americans, the accounts of African American free persons and slaves, the period instruments, and numerous illustrations of paintings and sculpture. The image of the drum was effectively appropriated by Europeans and Americans who wrote about African American culture, particularly in the nineteenth century, and re-appropriated by African American poets and painters in the early twentieth century who recreated a positive nationalist view of their African past. Throughout human history, cultural objects have been banned by one group to be used another, objects that include books, religious artifacts, and ways of dress. This study unlocks a metaphor that is at the root of racial bias—the idea of what is primitive—while offering a fresh approach by promoting the construct of multiple-points-of-view for this social-historical presentation.

This collection combines previously unpublished letters between African-American poet Langston Hughes and South-African writers of the 1950s and 1960s with scholarly commentary and criticism. The letters tell a fascinating story of the civil rights movement and apartheid and the struggle to overthrow it.

This book is a complete, step-by-step course for beginners on how to play djembe. Right from the start you'll be learning interlocking parts for some of the most popular West African rhythms: Kuku, Djole, Kassa, Madan, Suku, Sunguru Bani, and Tiriba. While you learn the patterns, you'll also learn how to make each of the basic strokes--bass, tone, and slap--with proper playing technique. We use life-like illustrations to show how each stroke looks from the outside and give detailed descriptions to explain how each stroke feels from the inside. The book also has easy-to-read box charts and a friendly writing style that creates the feel of private lessons. Please note: audio files of the CD that comes with the print version of this book are not included in this ebook version (but are available separately).

The 1st three volumes present material in a modular approach. Each volume presents progressively more advanced concepts in the categories: musical structure and form, factors of music appreciation, music instruments, music and society, research project, musical arts theatre, school songs technique, and performance. The 4th volume is a collection of essays. The 5th volume contains printed music.

More than twenty universities and twenty other colleges in North America (USA and Canada) offer performance courses on West African ethnic dance drumming. Since its inception in 1964 at both UCLA and Columbia, West African drumming and dance has gradually developed into a vibrant campus subculture in North America. The dances most practiced in the American academy come from the ethnic groups Ewe, Akan, Ga, Dagbamba, Mande, and Wolof, thereby privileging dances mostly from Ghana, Togo, Benin, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso. This strong presence and practice of a world music ensemble in the diaspora has captured and engaged the interest of scholars, musicians, dancers, and audiences. In the first-ever ethnographic study of West African drumming and dance in North American universities, the author documents and acknowledges ethnomusicologists, ensemble directors, students, administrators, and academic institutions for their key roles in the histories of their respective ensembles. Dor collates and shares perspectives including debates on pedagogical approaches that may be instructive as models for both current and future ensemble directors and reveals the multiple impacts that participation in an ensemble or class offers students. He also examines the interplay among historically situated structures and systems, discourse, and practice, and explores the multiple meanings that individuals and various groups of people construct from this campus activity. The study will be of value to students, directors, and scholars as an ethnographic study and as a text for teaching relevant courses in African music, African studies, ethnomusicology/world music, African diaspora studies, and other related disciplines.